The cast of the movie: Rani Mukerji, Anirban Bhattacharya, Neena Gupta, Jim Sarbh, Tiina Tauraite
Directed by: Ashima Chibber
The story that was close to the heart of many Indians depicted in the movie Mrs. Chatterjee Vs Norway, directed by Ashima Chibber lost its charm after the release. The movie in itself is distracting and it’s an exhausting movie including the performance of the lead Rani Mukherjee. The emotional moments in the movie don’t stay for long and lose their impact as soon as one can process what is happening on screen. The story failed at its execution.
Though Mrs. Chatterjee Vs Norway is based on a true story that we Indians can relate to how a grieved mother would have overcome the situation the movie was not up to the mark and had been manifested.
Debika Chatterjee ( Rani Mukherjee) suffers the consequences of what normal Indian mothers take care of as their way of parenting a two-year-old boy and a 5-month-old girl. She is perplexed to understand why feeding a child with her hand is misinterpreted as force-feeding and based on that she is claimed to be an unfair mother.
The film is about a clash between different cultures which are faced by immigrants in their respective countries and its unfortunate results.
Debika begs and cries out to two women from Norway’s Child welfare services who took Debina’s children away but of no use. They are projected as unsympathetic women who did not give the Indian lady any chance of explanation before taking strict action.
Rani Mukherjee struggles to hit the right note being a star performer because of the story of the film. The movie missed the essence of Rani’s character as she is only moving back and forth to solve the confusion.
The first half is not interesting whereas in the second half the story seemed settled and controlled. During all 135 minutes, the movie does not lose its subject and is tightly edited. The film has a depiction of the entire foster care system being bitter and compromised. The lonely woman who had been pushed to the wall had no option but to fight for her children.
The screenplay by Sameer Satija, Ashima Chibber, and Rahul Handa has been adapted from a Kolkata woman’s struggle with Norway’s uncompromising child protection system. It is too erratic to be able to make the most of the deeply emotional core of the story.
The dragging of the story lost the way the movie would have capitalized on the true story. The courtroom staged in Norway and Kolata in the movie failed to develop a believable character and was unable to move the audience emotionally as it would have been otherwise capable.
The opening of the movie is with Debika’s children being driven away in a Government vehicle from her home and she runs after them crying and shouting. Then it is about questioning for several days her ways of parenting by a Norwegian government counselor and Debika was told to be an unfit mother and hence the children could not live with her. Her husband, Aniruddha (Anirban Bhattacharya), an engineer, appears to be supportive but he is not helpful in this case.
Instead of depicting Debika as a strong and courageous mother she has been picturized as a hyperventilating woman such that the two male characters of the movie Debika’s husband and an Indian-origin lawyer Daniel Singh Ciupek (Jim Sarbh) who represents her in court derailed. The characters seemed confused about taking Debika’s side.
Anirban Bhattacharya and Jim Sarbh’s characters should be more refined in the movie being both of them are accomplished actors. But in the movie, Rani Mukherjee is the only star and which made everyone in the movie appear insignificant.
Neena Gupta has a cameo as an Indian minister on a visit to Oslo to sign an Indo-Norwegian deal.
Mrs. Chatterjee Vs Norway is an overheated affair and has an intrinsically moving story that deserved infinitely better applause.