MRS. CHATTERJEE NORWAYVS VS

Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway is based on a true story. One can fully comprehend what the aggrieved mother would have gone through as she took on a heartless system bent upon pummelling her into submission. Sadly, the film never rings true because it is way too strident and unsubtle.

Debika Chatterjee (Rani Mukerji) suffers the consequences of doing with her children - a twoyear-old boy and five-month-old girl - what most Indian mothers tend to routinely do by way of parenting. She is unable to understand why feeding a child with her hand would be construed as force-feeding and used as a pretext to accuse her of being unfit to be a mother.

The film is primarily about a clash of cultures - the sort that immigrants often encounter in their adopted countries - and its unfortunate fallout. The heavy-handed treatment of the character's ordeal and her response to it turns her despair into a spectacle. What could have been a genuine cry from the heart turns into a shrill shriek in the process.

Two women from Norway's Child Welfare Services who take Debika's children away are projected as unscrupulous operators who give the Indian lady no chance at all to get her point across before they swing into action. Debika begs and bawls but to not avail.