Known for helming London, Paris, New York (2012) and Waiting (2015), filmmaker Anu Menon is presently awaiting the release of her next directorial offering Shakuntala Devi, a biopic based on the life of renowned mathematician Shakuntala Devi, also known as the Human Computer. While the National Film Award-winning actress Vidya Balan essays the title role, Sanya Malhotra plays her daughter.
The trailer of the much-awaited biographical drama hit the internet a couple of days ago and amassed millions of digital views in no time. Before the makers dropped the trailer, many people had this thought in mind that the film will be quite serious in tone.
Menon says that her film, just like the personality it is based on, defies the stereotype that mathematicians are serious. "If there was any mathematician who could be a Bollywood heroine, it is Shakuntala Devi. We like to put people in a box and if something is shown to them which is outside of that box, they get confused because in their heads, mathematicians are serious,” she tells a newswire.
Menon says that Shakuntala Devi was in complete contrast to another famous Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan. "Shakuntala Devi was the opposite of Ramanujan. She has been performing on stage from the age of five. For her, her mathematics was drama. She wore her heart on her sleeves, so everything was so dramatic. So, the line in the trailer, 'we Indians are like that only, drama or nothing' is there for a reason. We have not tried making it look like a Bollywood film,” she says.
The director goes on to add that Shakuntala Devi aligns with her attempt to chronicle women on screen who are not “one-note”. “I feel it is important to have some positive reinforcements on-screen. I have always been passionate about how to show women on the screen."
Menon reveals that she decided to make a film on Shakuntala Devi after she heard her nine-year-old daughter say that girls like English while boys gravitate towards mathematics. "That's when I thought to make a story on Shakuntala Devi and found Anupama Banerjee, her daughter, who also lives in London. We met for coffee and the meeting lasted for six hours. This was in 2016 and her mother had passed away in 2013."
Menon returned from the meeting with a fresh perspective about the wizard and an insight into her fractured relationship with her daughter. “I found this daughter who was grappling with this big void in her life. Imagine having this larger-than-life mother, with whom you've had a tumultuous relationship... I felt this is a perspective we need to take. This is what made her human,” Menon says.
"We brought mathematics and motherhood together and that's the narrative to see. It's unflinching because I can't put people on pedestals even in real life. Most biopics are puff pieces because of the kind of freedom you get. But her daughter was ready to go into that space. The film is about this genius who embraced the good and the bad and lived life unapologetically," she adds.
Shakuntala Devi is scheduled for its premiere on 31st July on Amazon Prime Video.
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