Tisca Chopra on playing the shrewd homemaker and her weapons of choice — Chutney and Chhuri
Almost a year after winning accolades, and eliciting spine chills, for her maiden short film Chutney, Tisca Chopra has delivered yet another product in a similar space and on the same medium with Chhuri.
Tisca Chopra in a still from Chhuri. YouTube
At the premiere of the film in Mumbai on Tuesday, Firstpost cornered Tisca, only to step back a little as her vulnerable yet deceptive eyes meet ours. The very same eyes compelled the audience to see chutney and chhuri as beyond mere symbols of domestication. They became a housewife's weapon of choice, both literally (Chutney) and figuratively (Chhuri).
As she laughs out loud at the usage of words, 'weapon of choice', she confesses her arsenal is gradually getting compromised. "My next is a feature film. I am done with shorts," reveals Tisca, before retracting promptly. "Not done completely. But I will take a break and go back to feature films."
One would not question her decision, not only because she has performed exceptionally in Bornila Chatterjee's revenge drama The Hungry this year, but also because of the trials she faced as a producer of both the short films. "In Chhuri, we were much more organised. But in Chutney, I was doing all of this for the first time. I had no prior experience in filmmaking. In fact, we got the poster ready just 10 days before the film's release."
The poster of Chhuri shows Tisca has learnt from her mistakes. It is designed with due care and employment of creativity. The still shows Tisca sitting comfortably on a bed in the middle of Anurag Kashyap and Surveen Chawla, as if third-wheeling. But the 'third wheel' is actually Chawla, involved in an affair with Kashyap, who plays Tisca's husband.
Surveen Chawla, Tisca Chopra and Anurag Kashyap in the poster of Chhuri
No, Tisca does not actually go about chasing Kashyap and Chawla with a chhuri (knife). She, like the calculating homemaker of Chutney, devises innovative ways to get back at her cheating husband. In the process, she gives the audience enough reasons to compare her new short not only with Chutney but also Neeraj Ghaywan's recently released short Juice.
However, unlike what happens in Tisca's films, Juice was much more restrained in its narrative. Shefali Shah plays a homemaker who has been relegated to the kitchen and forced to look after the kids by her husband. But she decides she has had enough and puts her foot down during a get-together. Her resistance, however, is neither loud nor crafty. It merely allows her to disobey patriarchy and make her presence felt before her husband, as she sips on juice sitting next to a room cooler.
But for Tisca, the underdog must win. "I am always intrigued by the concept of the underdog overcoming the odds. Because just like Chutney, you do not expect the woman to be of any harm. She is seen as this naive, helpless victim. But then she rises to the occasion and fights back, in her own way. Even in Chhuri, her husband blatantly lies to her and walks away expecting that she would not get to know anything. But she does get back at him and how," says Tisca.
(Chhuri review: Tisca Chopra, Anurag Kashyap's short film is sharp but not as powerful as Chutney)
