Veteran actor Sharmila Tagore will make her grand comeback with Gulmohar. In a recent interview, the actor had talked about how films featuring women empowerment has performed over the years, in terms of Hindi Cinemas. Sharmila cited the names of The Dirty Picture and Kahaani, which featured Vidya Balan in the titular role.
The actor said that both the women-centric films have been made with a noble thought yet the fimmakers have not managed to loopholes and compromised with the themes which appear to be counter-productive in nature.
In a recent conversation with Barkha Dutt, Sharmila shared: “The director (in the Dirty Picture, played by Emraan Hashmi) loses faith after making the film and she (Vidya’s character Reshma) dies by suicide, so she is a victim, right?” Similarly, Sharmila also pointed out that Kahaani which featured Vidya’s character as ‘motherly’ in nature is juxtaposed, “In Kahaani, there is a need for Vidya Balan to say when she goes to her mentor, ‘Only time I felt real was when I was expecting a baby’. Because that’s your maternal role, and that is what women are expected to do. She had killed a man, which women don’t do. And then when the Durga idol is being immersed, the movie could have ended there, but then we hear Amitabh’s (Bachchan) lovely voice explaining that ‘now and then somebody comes to the earth etc etc (to balance the scales of good and evil).’ So, (this means) the director doesn’t have faith in the audience.”
Sharmila will appear in Gulmohar with actor Manoj Bajpayee. The film will stream on Disney+ Hotstar which also marked her OTT debut.