Women bound by the shackles of society and then setting out on a path of self-discovery and self-love is no new plot twist. The last two months already saw three such stories hitting the big screen – Sukhee, Dhak Dhak and Thank You For Coming. Tahira Kashyap Khurrana’s feature debut Sharmajee Ki Beti might be like old wine in a new bottle and just another addition to the bandwagon but that’s not to say that it doesn’t deserve a watch. After all, stories about ordinary women and their journey towards empowerment is a tale that needs to be told over and over again until feminism becomes a reality.
As the title suggests, Sharmajee Ki Beti revolves around the lives of five regular women – Kiran Sharma and her daughter Gurveen, Jyoti Sharma and her daughter Swati, and Tanvi. Kiran is a homemaker who has moved to Mumbai from Patiala a year back due to her husband’s job and is still struggling with adjusting to the indifferent and fast-paced city of dreams. Much like Mumbai, her husband pay her no heed and she spends most of the time trying to strike up conversations with vegetable sellers, neighbours and strangers. Jyoti, a career-oriented and enterprising woman, is trying to strike a balance between her home and a coaching centre where she works as a teacher.
Tanvi, on the other hand, is struggling to find a place at the national cricket team and dating an aspiring actor who keeps whining about how Tanvi isn’t ‘girly’ enough. While Gurveen is trying to come to terms with her identity, Swati doubts if she’s woman enough for not getting her periods unlike all her classmates. The common thread between these women is their want and need for respect and love and the desire to live life on their own terms.
Womanhood isn’t all milk and honey, reiterates Tahira as she tells this story. She beautifully manages to convey that resistance always doesn’t come from a man but can also stem from intrinsic insecurity and other women (sometimes, from your own daughter). Despite being told from a feministic lens, Sharmajee Ki Beti doesn’t portray men in a horrific light. While Jyoti’s husband is a regular middle-class man filling in for his wife’s role when she’s out all day working, Kiran’s spouse unapologetically looks for companionship outside the confines of four walls but Tahira makes sure that she humanises him.
With Sharmajee Ki Beti, Tahira reinforces the need to be. Without trying too hard or resorting to a preachy treatment, she helps understand that feminism is all about the power to exercise one’s personal choice and that choosing to run a home can be as fulfilling and important as prioritising one’s dream and ambition. Further, to challenge the status quo, the film has a narrator who is a woman and not ‘a man with a baritone’. Sharmajee Ki Beti may not be path-breaking but it’s an easy-breezy watch that makes a subtle statement on gender constructs and social conditioning. However, the first-half of the narrative is too slow and tests your patience. Tahira, intentionally perhaps, takes a whole lot of time to establish each character.
However, she deserves credit for fleshing out a bunch of characters that will remind you of your mother, the woman next door or even yourself. Divya Dutta as Kiran puts a stellar act and carries the trophy home as a bored housewife who’s trying to find small joys in the most mundane things. She brings a rare dignity and grace to the table and is easily the best thing about the film. Coming a close second is Sakshi Tanwar, who plays Jyoti. She’s a complete natural and her mellowed battle between trying to excel at her career and be the most supportive mother to her spoilt teenage daughter (who hates her) wins your heart. She shares an easy chemistry with her husband, played stupendously by Sharib Hashmi. In modern lingo, he dishes out major husband goals who doesn’t bat an eyelid or let his ego get threatened by an ambitious wife.
While Kiran and Jyoti’s stories strike a chord, it is Tanvi’s story that underwhelms. A while back, we saw Saiyami Kher deliver an incredible performance as specially-abled cricketer in Ghoomer. She once again is seen playing a cricketer but her track lacks a spark. She seems like a miscast and some of her confrontation scenes with her passive misogynist fiancé appear too contrived. Sure, there are enough moments where she is silently accepting of her fiancé’s expectations of her which are written well, but she doesn’t quite hit the right notes. The child artists Vanshika Taparia and Gurveen Arista Mehta are brilliant.
Sharmajee Ki Beti might lack novelty, be extremely predictable and have a screenplay riddled with many bumps but it deserves a chance for its simplicity. A tighter screenplay would have definitely helped the film. However, sometimes, minimalism is delightful. Sharmajee Ki Beti doesn’t make lofty promises but manages to hit home and leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. It is a love letter to bitter-sweet womanhood and everything it stands for.
