Rani Mukerji believes that her role as a mother has given her a deeper insight into her craft, says Saimi Sattar
For Rani Mukerji, motherhood has spelt a huge change, not just in her as a person but also the way she approaches her craft. “Probably my emotions and understanding have changed drastically because I am hearing a lot more now after I became a parent. It is more important to hear and analyse as well as pick up cues. During a child’s early years, you need to be clued in to understand the emotional needs of the child. So you become more observant and patient all around,” she tells us. And the huge learning that Adira Chopra, her two-year-old daughter with filmmaker Aditya Chopra, brought to her has helped her approach the character with Tourette’s syndrome in Hichki, her latest cinematic outing .
The film is an adaptation of the Hollywood film Front of the Class (2008), which itself was based on the book, Front of the Class: How Tourette Syndrome Made Me the Teacher I Never Had byBrad Cohen. Tourette syndrome is a neuropsychiatric disorder with onset in childhood, characterised by multiple motor tics and at least one vocal tic.
Mukerji had to make the character more convincing to ensure that she looked like someone who had her own peculiar tic. “For me, it was difficult to meet people with Tourette because in India very few people are aware of the syndrome and people that we contacted were not very comfortable with the idea of bringing their children in the open. There is not much awareness and they are very protective. Hopefully Hichki will change it,” she says.
Her one point of contact was Brad on whose life the film is based. “I had to understand the emotional and mental complexities that he went through while growing up. I had to understand his relationship with his parents especially with his mother who was extremely supportive, his relationship with his teacher who was not that supportive. I also looked at his relationships when he grew up and wanted to be a teacher and got rejection,” she says.
But since each person with Tourette’s has their own peculiar tic, Mukerji had to give the character of Naina Mathur some thought. “For the character to be convincing, I had to invent my own tic. Going on YouTube, I could have observed other people’s tics but then I had to invent my own. What would be my tic, if I had one, I wondered. And I came up with it based on my own behaviour patterns,” she says as she sits comfortably in a five-star hotel dressed in a green T-shirt and ripped jeans, sunglasses delicately balanced on her forehead.
And the film has had rave reviews from the likes of Anil Kapoor, Karan Johar, Shilpa Shetty, Sushmita Sen and Tusshar Kapoor. Johar says, “It is a feel-good film and an extremely sensitive one which addresses a disorder with dignity and strength. Rani Mukerji is the soul and life of this film. She is absolutely brilliant. And reminds you of her exceptional talent.”
Anil Kapoor says, “Rani you are my new favourite teacher. Your performance has left me speechless.”
Mukerji is easily the most well-known name in the film, which also stars Harsh Mayar, Supriya and Sachin Pilgaonkar. So does she feel that the time is ripe for women actors and producers to take over the industry with Oscar-winner Frances McDormand highlighting the need to insist upon an “inclusion rider” in the contracts signed by female starsIJ Mukerji has a wider perspective to the current scenario. “Rather than putting it in the context of men and women, I can say that it is a great time in general for cinema because it is a different time. Perhaps people have evolved with exposure and influences and therefore expect a new taste in cinema and are driving the change.There are different kinds of films that are doing well. There is more exposure to foreign language films that has paved the way for our filmmakers to think out of the box to get stories which are novel and new. For actors like us, it helps us innovate where we feel that that we can do something new. There can be a new ethos which we can share. For me, I feel that it is a great place and time to be in,” she says.
Talking about women actors inevitably brings us to the question of pay parity with male counterparts. “There is a lot said and spoken about it. But there is a right time for everything and automatically things will start to change. As soon as women actors start opening films in greater numbers, things will change. We have pushed the envelope but we have to be patient. We have to wait and take things realistically rather than keep talking about it. We need to focus on our craft and how well we can do our job,” she says and goes on to add that it is important for them to bring out more relatable stories for the audience. She believes that once that happens, there would be no looking back.
So have women reached a point where they can carry the film on their own shoulders rather than relying on a Khan in the lead. Does a Kahani, Queen or Tanu Weds Manu and now Hichki point towards that directionIJ “I will have to see with Hichki but I know that I do not bring in the first day numbers. I don’t think we can replace the Khans as they bring in the first day numbers. They are irreplaceable. We are not in the right place to compare ourselves to them. I have huge respect for them. They have also carved this niche for themselves as they have been working hard for 25 years. And I am in no hurry. Rather, I am very happy, content and will continue to do good work,” she says.
Mukerji believes there is a simple mantra to make films that do well at box office. “The script is the king. It is the backbone of a movie. A good script binds a lot of actors, technicians and also audiences together when they come to watch it in large numbers,” says the actor who ensured that she caught the evening flight home to be with her daughter in Mumbai.
The other important thing in a movie is the way a character is made more realistic. She says, “How do you bring out the character in a film where I should look the part is the key. For me, it’s very important that when the audience comes to watch me, they should see me as character rather than Rani Mukerji. I don’t think my age or my being a mother or a wife should have anything to do with what role I play on the screen. When they see Hichki, they should buy the thought that I am Naina Mathur. When I fail to do that, is when people will get reminded of who I am. I truly believe that this can happen because we have an example like Aamir Khan who can play a 50-year-old in Dangal and 35-year-old in Dhoom and make it believable,” says Mukerji who will turn 40 in four days and wants to play a 60-year-old.
As had been reported, Mukerji who made her last outing in 2014 in Pradeep Sarkar’s crime thriller Mardaani, slipped back into the role with practised ease. “When I first faced the camera, I felt that this was where I belonged. That is where I am supposed to be. I had gone the motherly way — changing nappies and all which was my thing. But this too is my thing,” she says pointedly before signing off.
Mukerji does not mind the hiccups in her life. Earlier, she had said, “The beauty of a hiccup is that you can get over it as well. It’s not like that you have a hiccup and you keep hiccuping all your life... There have been times professionally and personally I have been through hiccups. But I got over them.”
Hichki releases on March 23