Not without my children Cast: Rani Mukerji, Jim Sarbh, Anirban Bhattacharya, Barun Chanda, Balaji Gauri Rating: 3.25* Director Ashima ...
Not without my children
Cast: Rani Mukerji, Jim Sarbh, Anirban
Bhattacharya, Barun Chanda, Balaji Gauri
Rating: 3.25*
Director Ashima Chibber adapts this true story into a riveting film with Rani Mukerji giving one of her best performances recently. The way the director has conveyed the pathos of a mother is commendable
The story is based on a real-life incident
of a Kolkata-based woman Sagarika Chakraborty who detailed her ordeal in a
book titled 'The Journey of A Mother’ published in 2022. The story writers in
the film (Sameer Satija, Ashima Chibber and Rahul Nanda) have effectively
induced some hard-hitting and emotional moments in the film.
The film starts at the very onset when Debika
Mukherjee (Rani) who stays in Stavanger, Norway with her husband Anirudh (a
fitting Anirban Bhattacharya) and two kids, run after two women who have taken,
rather kidnapped, the Chatterjee kids. The two women, Sia and Matilda, are from
Velfred, a child welfare service, hired by the Norwegian Government to monitor
the Chatterjee couple in raising their kids. In their findings, they term
Debika to be having an unstable mind and that her husband doesn’t help Debika
in their household chores. The couple is shocked that their kids will have to
go to a foster home as is the rule in Norway. From here on, Debika fights a
lone battle as her husband Anirudh is more bothered about money and
citizenship. Debika adjusts to the Norway ways of living and eating and finds
out shocking truths about Velfred and their hand-in-glove association with the government.
The last half-an-hour in the Calcutta court
and Debika’s in-law’s place are the best parts of the film. The sequence in the
Calcutta court is one of the high points where nobody goes overboard.
Jim Sarbh as Daniel Singh, the Norwegian
lawyer who fights for Debika in Norway courts and later represents the Norway
Govt in the Calcutta court leaves a mark. Ditto for Barun Chanda as Judge
Abhijeet Dutta. Another performance that leaves a mark is Debika’s lawyer
Pratap (played by Balaji Gauri). Neena Gupta has a lovely special appearance as
the minister Vasdha Kamat.
Most of the dialogues are in Bengali hence
the use of subtitles would have been a better option to lure the non-Bengali
speaking audience. Ashima has tried to keep the narrative as simple as possible
but on the flip side, there are some questions/scenes in the film that are left unanswered
and vague. But overall, the film hits you where it is supposed to. Try not to
miss this film.
No comments