Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway review: Rani Mukerji film builds melodrama to point of exhaustion

The Bollywood star plays a mother who fights for custody of her children, but its real message is lost in a messy plot

Rani Mukerji's character takes the Norwegian government to court after her children are put into care. Photo: Zee Studios

A disclaimer at the start of Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway, Bollywood star Rani Mukerji's latest drama, warns audiences that creative licence has been taken in order for the story to be told effectively.

Based on the book The Journey of a Mother by Sagarika Bhattacharya who, while living in Norway in 2011, took the nation's government to court when her two children were forcibly taken away from her after she was deemed unfit to look after them and mentally unstable.

But Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway takes way too much creative liberty, turning Bhattacharya's nightmare ordeal and gutsy battle into a melodramatic mess of a film that refuses to let up on the histrionics.

Mukerji plays Debika Chatterjee, who's modelled on Bhattacharya, and whose children, aged five months and two years, are snatched by Norwegian child welfare authorities at the beginning of the film. Some of the charges levelled against her include feeding her children with her hand, co-sleeping and applying kohl — practised in many Indian cultures to ward off evil. There are also insinuations of domestic violence, a charge vehemently denied by Debika's husband Anirudh (played by Anirban Bhattacharya), who's determined to be a model citizen as he awaits his Norwegian passport.

However, what could have been an effective look at the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, institutionalised racism and one woman's desperate fight for justice in a foreign land, is reduced to an overwrought portrayal that soon becomes exhausting. Sentimental songs meant to add to the emotional heft, featuring scenes of a happy Chatterjee laughing and playing with her children, only extend the agony.

Director Ashima Chibber, who also shares co-writing credits, fails to give the talented Mukerji the chance to strike the right tone, as she flits between tantrums and outbursts. Meanwhile, actors portraying Norwegian authorities are given one-dimensional roles, scheming and scoffing at our long-suffering heroine's distress.

Jim Sarbh as Daniel Singh Ciupek, a Norwegian lawyer of Indian descent, is given one of the most confusing roles whose true loyalty is never really explained.

The film eventually finds its stride in the final act, when the action shifts to India and Debika fights another battle against her in-laws. The courtroom sequences in particular feature a scene-stealing performance by Balaji Gauri as Chatterjee's lawyer. But it's too little too late.

Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway is out in cinemas on Friday