Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway

On the flipside, the film drags and should have been 100 minutes long at best. Secondly, the whole social media angle is sudden. When and how was Debika’s picture posted on the internet is not explained. Thirdly, this film is not a simple courtroom drama. The case shown is a complicated one and moves from one court to another with a few technicalities thrown in. Though Ashima Chibber has tried her best to keep the narrative simple, some audiences might get confused. Fourthly, Debika creating a ruckus everytime is a bit too much, especially when she knows that it is weakening her case. Agreed that a mother might go hysterical if separated from her child. But then Debika should also realize that with her behaviour, she risks losing access to her child forever.

Based on Sagarika Chakraborty's 2022 book The Journey of a Mother, Director Ashima Chibber's Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway has a dramatic story at hand. But in her need to tell it hysterically, she forgets to empathise. God could not be everywhere so he made mothers. Rudyard Kipling's famous quote punctuates its opening credits while Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway advances to draw a hyperventilating image of motherhood upheld by frantically running after a moving car, pumping packets of breast milk and sneaking her kids out of foster home. Instead of feeling her desperation, despair or extreme acts stemming from a mother's primal need to protect her brood, what comes through is hollow theatrics.

The best thing about the film is, undoubtedly, Rani Mukerji’s performance. To play a mother who is fighting for her kids in a foreign land, being questioned about her way of raising them can be very difficult and emotionally straining. It is evident that the actress gives this role and this film her all. She is brilliant in every frame and keeps her performance consistent throughout the film. She has the power to move you, to make you understand how heartwrenching it is for her to be separated from her young children for no concrete reason. She is also fighting a lone battle where no one is truly understanding the emotional turmoil she is facing. She hits the ball out of the park and delivers one of her career-best act.