Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway movie review: High-strung storytelling defeats even the formidable Rani Mukerji

When the story of Sagarika Chakraborty broke in the media over a decade back, it sent ripples through the government and Indian society. Sagarika and her husband Anurup were living in Norway at the time and found themselves the subject of unwelcome headlines when they were separated from their children by the country’s strict child protection services on the grounds that their home was unsuitable and Sagarika was an unfit mother among other reasons given. Some of their allegations that appeared in the press reflected a clear ignorance of Indian culture. A long fight ensued. An already tricky affair got further complicated though when, at one stage, Anurup himself publicly derided his wife. After a years-long battle, first with the Norwegian authorities and later with her husband and his family, Sagarika finally got her children back.

This is just a precis of the true story that forms the foundation for Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway. The film is based on a book by Sagarika. Directed by Ashima Chibber (Mere Dad Ki Maruti), this new Rani Mukerji starrer is written by Sameer Satija, the director herself and Rahul Handa. Names have been changed in the film – for instance, Rani’s character is called Debika Chatterjee and not Sagarika Chakraborty, her husband is Anirudh (played by Anirban Bhattacharya) and not Anurup – but with the closing text on screen, it makes no bones about who it portrays in the preceding couple of hours.

Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway takes off with a scene in which child welfare workers take the Chatterjees’ two children – a toddler and an infant – away from their house while the parents’ attention was elsewhere. The scene is dramatic, of course, and loud, which is understandable considering how stressful any such real-life scenario would be, irrespective of whether this is an accurate representation of what happened to Sagarika and Anurup or a complete fictionalisation. What it does not prepare you for is the loudness in the storytelling itself in the rest of the film, not merely in terms of volume but in terms of over-emphasising every point made, and even in terms of casting, characterisation and acting. The film also avoids addressing certain issues that are either too inconvenient to the line it has chosen to take – which is, that mothers are god in human form – or too challenging because of their complexity.

Some of the better handled moments and passages in Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway – a tension-ridden cross-border trip, a new lawyer’s exasperation with Debika, scenes in which we witness Anirudh’s violence, the positive depiction of the children’s white Norwegian foster parents – give us a glimpse of what this film might have been if it had been consistent and not prone to over-statement. Too often though, in a choice between nuance and excessive simplification, Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway chooses the latter.

Among other things, the film sidesteps uncomfortable discussions and knotty problems because … well … I guess because they are uncomfortable, knotty and call for more thought than has been invested in the script. For instance, at the time of the case’s resolution, Debika was an unemployed single mother who had no way of financially supporting her children or herself, but is allowed to get away with simply promising to work hard. In one scene, Debika’s little son either does not recognise his real parents or pretends that he does not, but we never get to see how that played out.

Anirudh is shown to be an abusive husband, but his violence is portrayed in a couple of impactful scenes and then left hanging in mid-air. The latter comes on top of the sketchy and formulaic treatment of Debika and Anirudh’s relationship prior to the Norwegian authorities taking their children away – her arrival in Norway as a bride, an evident warmth between them, the birth of their children and their early life as parents are all established and wrapped up during the course of a single song, following which we are shown a tense marriage.

It is curious too that while the real Sagarika and Anurup’s saga unfolded in Norway and India, the Congress was the governing party of India, S.M. Krishna and later Salman Khurshid headed the External Affairs Ministry during that period, but the Minister shown in the film to have played a pivotal role in getting them out of the imbroglio is a woman (Neena Gupta). Although it is not stated clearly which real-life person this character is modelled on or that she belonged to the BJP, the party currently in power in India, the closing text on screen thanking the BJP’s late Sushma Swaraj and Left leader Brinda Karat certainly implies that Sushma, who was one of only two women to have ever been India’s External Affairs Minister, was the prototype. The absence of any name from the Congress is also noticeable.

The motivation behind that pointed omission can never be proven, but Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway is too clunky anyway to be a good ad for anyone it supports, including, as it happens, Sagarika Chakraborty.

Ashima Chibber’s high-strung storytelling style seeks to inject melodrama into a story that was incredibly dramatic in actuality anyway. No effort is made to delve into the Norwegian system with any degree of objectivity or to scrutinise Indian culture, neither of which are beyond reproach. The film shows the authorities identifying the hand feeding of children as force feeding, and listing corporal punishment, marital violence and Anirudh’s unwillingness to share household work with Debika as reasons why they felt the Chatterjees were unsuitable parents, but the script glosses over even the latter three legitimate concerns. Not that I am saying these are justifications to remove a child from its home in the way it is done in the film. Of course not. In fact by doing so, the child protection services were further victimising a woman who was already shown to be suffering, as per the script. But by lazily using the broad term “cultural differences” to explain away everything that led to the children being taken away, Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway squanders a precious chance to have an important conversation on what is best for children of a troubled marriage anywhere in the world. As if this is not enough, deshbhakti as a theme is suddenly thrust into the narrative in the end with the national anthem popping up in the background score out of the blue. Okay then.

Rani Mukerji is one of the Hindi film industry’s most gifted artistes, but is no match for Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway’s over-cooked writing and direction. Not only is her performance over-wrought, her acting compounds the writing deficiencies to turn Debika Chatterjee into a charmless individual. Actor Anirban Bhattacharya does better with Anirudh. His frustration and fury towards Debika are palpable. Jim Sarbh is the only other  actor who gets something out of the script. He adds some zest to the proceedings playing a lawyer who is not as bad as he seems to be. The twinkle in his eyes makes his scenes bearable when all else fails, although both gentlemen are inconsistent and their motivations confusing.

Perhaps the best illustration of the problems besetting Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway is the portrayal of the three Norwegian child welfare services officials. The trio are caricatured in the style of old-school Hindi cinema villains, as uniformly stony-faced, supercilious women  without any redeeming quality. I was almost expecting a big black mole on someone’s cheek or a pronounced facial twitch, and a “Lily don’t be silly” / “Mogambo khush hua” kind of signature refrain. Okay, ignore that sentence – that’s just me being flippant as a way of giving vent to my frustration because Sagarika Chakraborty’s experiences could offer valuable lessons to both countries, but Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway is a wasted opportunity.

Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway is in theatres

Anna M.M. Vetticad is an award-winning journalist and author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. She specialises in the intersection of cinema with feminist and other socio-political concerns. Twitter: @annavetticad, Instagram: @annammvetticad, Facebook: AnnaMMVetticadOfficial

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