Let’s Talk About Women | Shefali Shah is unstoppable, Darlings proves it yet again

When I met Shefali Shah in June 2019, she was basking in the afterglow of the success of Delhi Crime’s season 1. Though she had been acting since 1995, her performance in the Netflix series as DCP Vartika Chaturvedi put her on the map like none of her previous roles, no matter how poignant or impactful, had.

Among other things, I asked her if all the praise was translating into meaty offers. She said, “Nothing changes overnight. But at least now, they are considering me for roles that fall in my age bracket, they are looking at me as the lead for anthologies, short stories.”

“I am hoping it changes. It’s not drastic, the offers are not equivalent to the appreciation, but I am really hoping that all this praise does translate into more of the kind of work that I want to do,” she added.

It’s been three years since and in this time Shah has starred alongside tour de forces such as Vidya Balan and Alia Bhatt in two of the best films to have come out post COVID-19. The first was Suresh Triveni’s thriller Jalsa, which released earlier this year. In it, she plays the cook to Balan’s Maya. The second is the recently-released Darlings, in which she plays Shamshunissa, the middle-aged single mother of Bhatt’s Badrunissa. Though Shah has always been known for making small parts memorable—be it Bheeku Mhatre’s wife Pyaari in Satya or Ria, the older, unmarried cousin of the bride in Monsoon Wedding, or Neelam Mehra, the wife of a fading businessman struggling to come to terms with his liaisons—but Jalsa and Darlings have cemented her position as a peerless frontrunner who brings to every part excellence unmatched.

When you are introduced to Shamshu 10 minutes into Darlings, she is stealing curry leaves from the potted plant of a neighbor living on the floor below her in a modest Mumbai chawl. When Badru chides her for it, she says matter-of-factly that it’s not about the money; she gets bored being by herself in the house all day. That’s just Shamshu’s way of amusing herself. Darlings establishes right in the beginning that she is no regular mum; she is slightly off-kilter. Tired of her abusive son-in-law Hamza, she is eager to save her daughter from him whatever it might take—beg, beat, poison, incarcerate, or kill. Her big, bottomless eyes hide a lot more than they express.

Three key scenes in the film offer a window into the cunning unpredictability of Shamshu’s person. The first comes early on when she, along with Badru, manipulates Zulfi into selling her a mixer-grinder at one-fourth the quoted price. The next is when she blames Zulfi for kidnapping Hamza in front of the police. But when he confesses his attraction for her, within a heartbeat, she talks the cop into believing that he’s innocent. Within the next minute, we see her kissing Zulfi, in one of the most radical, subversive scenes in Hindi cinema in recent memory. But my favorite moment comes toward the end when she reveals to Badru her traumatic past. There are no dialogues in that entire sequence which melts seamlessly into the flashback. There’s just a deafening silence and Shah’s remarkable command of her craft on full, glorious display.

Jalsa’s climax is just as thrilling, thoughtful, and haunting. It asks more questions than it chooses to answer. Enveloped in silence, it has no dialogues either. Just two actors being their absolute terrific best. If look closely, Shah has always thrived in silences. Through them, she communicates with easy effortlessness what words almost always fail to. Do you remember Neeraj Ghaywan’s 2017 short film Juice? It is a stinging commentary on the everyday misogyny rampant in the living rooms and kitchens of middle-class households. Shah hardly has any dialogues in this 14-minute film but she conveys a gamut of stifling, piercing emotions ranging from servitude, resignation, to frustration, and finally dissent so powerfully, it takes your breath away. And all this, without saying a word. Who could ever think that pulling a chair, sitting in front of a cooler, and drinking juice could be an act of rebellion?

Then there’s her Natasha from Ankahi, Kayoze Irani’s short in Netflix’s 2021 anthology film Ajeeb Daastaans. Since her daughter and love interest in the film are both deaf, she has little to no dialogue in the entire short. It’s a masterclass in acting. Shah is plain terrific as a woman who finds love in a photographer as she tries to make sense of her crumbling marriage. The end sequence is particularly telling. The best singers need minimal music and other paraphernalia; they are at their most iridescent when they are allowed to just be, minus all the noise, the frippery. Shah belongs to the same order of performers. Just let her be and she’ll conquer.

It’s so heartening to see her finally summit the mountain of praise she was buried under all these years and turn it into a throne. Right now, she’s sitting on top of it, regal and unstoppable. In a recent conversation with Film Companion, she made it abundantly clear that she is in no mood to be working from the sidelines anymore. She wants to be at the heart of the action, the undisputed center. “I don’t have a long resume, but I have a very strong resume,” she said, adding, “If you’re not going to put me out there, then I’m making that choice of standing up and putting myself there. And this is what I’m going to choose. So don’t put me on the side, I’m not interested. It’s not because I love myself, it’s because I love what I do.” About time, queen. Just about time. She is all set to strike again on August 26 with the much-anticipated second season of Delhi Crime, Netflix’s best Indian show of all time.

When not reading books or watching films, Sneha Bengani writes about them. She tweets at @benganiwrites.

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