While interacting with Tannishtha Chatterjee on the sidelines of the International Film Festival of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram, one could see that she was in pain as she kept pressing her left shoulder. “There has been nerve damage from radiation. It will get better, if not a 100 percent. Right now I am in a lot of pain, so I have been popping painkillers,” says the actor-director who was at the festival with her sophomore feature film, Full Plate, a homemaker’s heartwarming journey of self-discovery where food and cooking become the tools for it.
In August this year Tannishtha announced on her social media handle that she has been battling stage 4 oligo metastatic cancer for the past eight months. The actor whose filmography is spread across multiple genres and languages, some of them being films like Shadows of Time, Brick Lane,Dekh Indian Circus, Parched, Angry Indian Goddesses, Doctor Rakhmabai, UNindian etc, was diagnosed during the post-production of Full Plate.
Actor- director Tannishtha Chatterjee during IFFK at Tagore theatre in Thiruvananthapuram
| Photo Credit:
NIRMAL HARINDRAN
The film, which premiered at the Busan International Film Festival this year and has since then travelled to multiple festivals, is about a Muslim homemaker Amreen (Kirti Kulhari), mother of three and wife of a compounder at a health clinic. She plans to work as a home-cook since her husband (Sharib Hashmi) cannot work temporarily due to a fractured leg. Her husband is unhappy about it. Also, many are reluctant to give her a job as she wears the hijab. Thanks to her neighbour Saritha, she is employed by a couple, Parul and Vinod (Monica Dogra and Indraneil Sengupta), who are vegans. Amreen, an amazing cook, struggles since the cooking method and ingredients are alien to her. But she eventually settles in, much to the chagrin of her husband, who becomes insecure. The film explores how Amreen navigates situations involving her employers and misogynistic husband who resorts to domestic violence.
Tannishtha says that the film is inspired by one of her house help. “Even when she couldn’t find a job, she refused to take off her hijab. She was employed by a vegan couple. She had no clue about what to make for them with what she called angrezi sabziyan (English vegetables). Her master dialogue was, Itna mehenga khaana khaane ke baad bhi, didi ko anxiety hain, bhaiya ko acidity (despite eating such expensive foods they have anxiety and acidity)! I immediately wrote that down, which I used in the movie. I started talking to her, visited her place and understood her family dynamics, especially how ambitious she was about her son. The characters are exactly like what I have observed.”
(From left) Kirti Kulhari, Tannishtha Chatterjee and Monica Dogra on the location of Full Plate
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The artiste stresses that while writing the movie she did not cloud her mind thinking about whether her views would annoy anyone, especially while handling a sensitive subject like faith. “I believe that what you wear has nothing to do with freedom. While making Yellow Bus, I worked with a crew from the Middle East, mostly women. Some of them had hijabs and I saw that it had nothing to with how they wanted to view their freedom. My belief is that women riding bikes, smoking cigarettes, wielding a gun or wearing Western clothes does not stand for liberation. It is her choice if she wants to be like that. I want to celebrate femininity that nurtures. That thought comes from the care and love I have been getting from all my female friends over the last one year. I have several male friends who have stood by me but sisterhood is different. I don’t want to lose it,” she says referring to her biggest cheerleaders, including Shabana Azmi, Vidya Balan, Sandhya Mridul, Tanvi Azmi, Divya Dutta, Konkona Sen Sharma, Shahana Goswami, Dia Mirza, Richa Chadha, and Urmila Matondkar.
She adds, “Amreen’s journey is also feminine. She does not do anything rebellious. But she quietly says that she won’t tolerate assault any more.” Kirti was her first choice for the role. “I liked my house help’s spunk. She was tall and looked like a model. I immediately thought of Kirti and called her even before I started writing,” she says. She did workshops with the actors, familiarised them with the milieu, the lifestyle of the community and Kirti even went through some cooking sessions.
Actor – Director Tannishtha Chatterjee during IFFK
| Photo Credit:
NIRMAL HARINDRAN
Reflecting on the film’s ending, which might come across as rushed and simple, Tannishtha says, “As a writer I wanted to take a flight in the end. Being a creator, I prefer to pick a story and do something with it, which makes the narrative engaging, leading to discussions.”
Full Plate has a mainstream vibe about it, with the music, colours, frames, pace et al. “That was a deliberate decision. I wanted to keep the layers and the nuances that come in the writing without making it obvious, preachy and declamatory and yet bring in something that the audience will enjoy watching and relate to.” The film has many LOL moments, especially Amreen’s confusion in Parul’s kitchen and the scene where she discusses the meaning of the terms open marriage and homosexuality with her neighbours having heard the same from Parul.
Tannishtha adds that at the moment she prefers to be in a happy space. “I am fighting something which is terminal. I am a single mother; I need to provide for my 70-year-old mother and nine-year-old daughter. We artistes cannot expect to have a steady income. There is so much to take care of…everything is a chore, it is a fight. Add to it the physical pain and discomfort. But I have humoured it through and through. When my mother says something depressing, I hug her and say ‘this is an experience in life. What is life without experiences? Ma, you are getting richer.’”
She admits that it is not easy to keep up her spirits. “Everyone cannot do it but I can because I am an artiste. I am a performer. In fact, I am currently working on a play on breast cancer, Breast of Luck, a musical comedy I have co-written with Sharib, whose wife is a cancer survivor. We both are acting in it. We decided to talk about everything – women, body, breasts, men, their obsession with it, illness, love, healing etc.”
The conversation veers to the role she enjoys the most — actor, writer or director. “I enjoy everything. Performance gives me a physical high, it is cathartic. Acting is a strange profession. It is fascinating, living so many lives in one life. My writing comes from experiences as an actor.”
But then she has always been identified with what they call parallel cinema. What is her take on that? “I studied at the National School of Drama (NSD). And I have this skin tone,” she says, pointing at her dusky complexion, adding, “So I get cast in particular kind of movies. I am not saying I enjoyed those films. I did not get the opportunity to be explored in another kind of cinema.”
Kirti Kulhari in Full Plate
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Tannishtha mentions that because of the kind of roles she does, she was expected to make a film on those lines. “Many were surprised with the content of Full Plate. I may act in those films, bringing in the nuances. But when I am writing or making something I think differently.”
Having been part of the IFFK several times, Tannishtha says that she has huge respect for the audience here. “I watch Malayalam films and even met Jeo Baby at the festival this year. I loved The Great Indian Kitchen. Right now, Malayalam cinema is just flying high.”