Shefali Shah on her short film Happy Birthday Mummyji, turning director, and the plight of hands-on homemakers-Entertainment News , Firstpost

Shefali Shah, known for exemplary performances – from a Filmfare Critics award-winning turn as Bhiku Mhatre’s voluble wife in Satya to Monsoon Wedding’s headstrong Ria, Dil Dhadakne Do’s fiercely complex, vulnerable Neelam Mehra to her recent stride in Netflix anthology Ajeeb Daastaans, – has now donned the director’s hat for a short film.

Written, directed, and performed by Shah, Happy Birthday Mummyji is the story of every woman caught up in the routine of life, duties, responsibilities, and relationships. Shah plays the ever-pleasing Suchi, who is planning a birthday party for her mother-in-law, away from their residence (possibly at a weekend home). Suchi is alone, prepping everything with a few helpers, coordinating with the caterers and decorators. However, a phone call from the family informs her about the lockdown, “Tum news dekhte toh pata chal jata“, her husband tells her almost in a belittling tone.

Nevertheless, Suchi chirps up and suggests he should plan a surprise get-together for mummyji. She arranges the food, invites the extended family, and attends the party over the phone call. She manages everything single-handedly, and yet hears someone say on the call, “She is relaxing over there” while grilling a barbecue for herself. Suchi has layers of anger simmering beneath a placid smile and soft-spoken personality. She is definitely trapped in the cacophony of patriarchy, but is also clever and knows how to use her agency.

Happy Birthday Mummyji is a stark reminder of Neeraj Ghaywan’s Juice, a short film about the gender politics of middle-class Indian households. In Juice, Shah powered the film through the silences, but also made the right kind of noise. However, in an interview with Firstpost, the actor-director clarifies while both shorts talk about patriarchy at large, they do it in their own way.

“We are not comparing it to Juice, because it is Neeraj Ghaywan and he’s a superb director, and I am not patting on him. Happy Birthday Mummyji is a sugarcoated version. While it is talking about similar issues, Suchi’s way of dealing with it is completely different. So yes, it is Juice but in a much lighter way,” Shah says.

The first thing one notices in her short is the colour scheme. When we meet Suchi, she is draped in a blue salwar kameez, her walls are adorned with blue mirrors, with blue curtains hanging loose. However, towards the end, the palette turns golden, silently proclaiming that she is basking in the glory of letting go.

“I knew the progression, the detailing. I wanted it to be extremely robust and rich. I wanted it to hit you, whether it is the music or the colour scheme. It is a very Perdo Almodovar kind of vibe. When we were doing the post-op, colour correction, we wanted to increase the saturation, and make it look even grander. But I have to give it to my DOP, Eeshit Narain; he was my first choice. He was the only choice, actually. He’s a total magician, and he told us what colours would work and for what sequences. She was in the blues earlier, but in the mid-way when she’s in the pool, we wanted a bit of yellow, a complete break from her personality. Then there’s complete red against the greens, and then the flame in the end. The pure white mixed with the golds. So yes, it was thought of, but I have to give credit to Eeshit because he took it to another level, above what I had imagined.”

Shah owns Happy Birthday Mummyji. Her characters appear only in the background but their presence is felt through prickly taunts and ungrateful attitudes. Shah says it was easy to draw these roles because she has seen this happen all the time.

“It is a part of my life, and often a lot of these choices are made by us. I chose to be a hands-on mom, a hands-on wife, homemaker. Wherever I am, shooting in the world, I know how my house is being run. I make sure if my mother-in-law has had her medicines, if she’s due for injection or if the washing machine needs to be repaired etc. I really run my house. But it’s a choice I make and hence there are certain expectations I have built for the family. So if I turn around one day and say I don’t want to do this, they will be confused. So it is my doing. But there are women who have no choice. And I believe that being a homemaker is the toughest, the most thankless job in the world. You don’t even get paid, no chutti and you are just working 24×7, and you will do this for the rest of your lives.

I believe it is a story from my life, my friends, my mom’s. It is perhaps the need to tell that we have reached a point of desperation and would just like to let go.”

The act of letting go is the most important message layered in the short. It is incredible how it evokes a sense of relief when Suchi refuses to be taken for granted anymore and decides to do away with her selfless act.

“Because you know, if you are not happy, you are not gonna make other people happy. Hence, you need that break, you need that me-time. You need that time to do nothing, you need to have that romance. First and foremost, you ought to recognise yourself besides the relationships you have. You are not just a wife, mom, or homemaker. You are a person, a living breathing human being, a woman. You have your own desires. And hence, I think everyone must take that time and liberty to be selfish even if that sounds wrong otherwise it will be tough to maintain our semblance, our sanity. Because no one around you is going to make an effort to make you happy. You have the onus to make everyone happy, and women do that all the time. I think it is very necessary to let go once a while, almost compulsory.”

Watch Happy Birthday Mummyji on Royal Stag Barrel Large Short Films’ YouTube channel here.