Checkout Budget Highlights 2023Rani Mukerji is back with a searing, power-packed role as Mrs Chatterjee in the forthcoming Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway, opposite Bengali actor Anirban Bhattacharya, who is making his Hindi-film debut with this film. In what is being touted as, perhaps, her best role till date, from just the first look of the film (the trailer released this week), Mukerji portrays the part of the titular character, a mother who defies the authority of the Norwegian government in order to be reunited with her children, who have been forcibly taken away by the said government stating that the Indian couple is incapable of caring for their kids, because she hand-feeds her breast-feeding infant, for instance.
The film, written by Rahul Handa, Sameer Satija, and Ashima Chibber, and directed by Chibber, is based on the true tale of an Indian couple whose children were taken away from them by Norwegian social services in 2011.
Norwegian social services took custody of two children of Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya, an Indian couple living in Norway, in 2011. The parents insisted on a cultural bias against Indians, and they enlisted the help of the foreign ministry in their fight. Following a diplomatic spat between the two countries, Norwegian authorities decided to give custody of two Indian children to their father’s brother, allowing him to return them to India. However, the parents’ marriage fell apart in the interim, and the mother sought legal redress to regain custody of her children.
A similar case is going on currently in Berlin, Germany, where, it's been more than a year since an Indian couple, Bhavesh and Dhara Shah, had their child, Ariha, taken away by German child-protection services.
Family, parenting, misunderstanding in relationships also form the basis of National Award-winning filmmaker Rima Das’ new Assamese feature Tora’s Husband, whose trailer was launched this week, too. Her third film had its world premiere at the 47th Toronto International Film Festival last year.
Ahead of the trailer launch in Assam this week, Das said, “Tora's Husband is a very personal film. I started observing how the pandemic was affecting different people and me, and the film evolved. It is not just a story about Tora's Husband but a reflection on life, love and loss. I'm so glad that people can now watch the trailer and get a glimpse into their worlds.”
Das and her films are a festival favourite, she has previously made Village Rockstars (2017) and Bulbul Can Sing (2018). These had adolescent and teenage protagonists, while “this time, I wanted to deal with adult characters, to have a protagonist who is exposed to a larger world and has tackled bigger concerns,” Das has said in her interviews.
With Abhijit Das as the distressed protagonist Jaan trying to make ends meet, and shot in Rima Das's neighbourhood in Assam’s Chhaygaon, where she locates all her films, Tora's Husband — directed, written, shot and edited by her — captures how COVID-19 impacted lives in a small town: lost livelihoods, soured relationships.
Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway will release theatrically on March 17. The release date of Tora's Husband will be updated once announced.