Director Aanand L Rai and scriptwriter Himanshi Sharma are basking in the glory that their recently released film Atrangi Re is bringing towards them. The film starring Akshay Kumar, Dhanush and Sara Ali Khan in the lead has garnered much love from the critics as well as the audience. However, many criticized the film on belittling mental illness and childhood trauma. In a recent conversation with an online portal, Aanand and Himanshu addressed the criticisms and said that Atrangi Re “is a film and not a documentary.”
Responding to some critics who said that the film did not do justice to mental health diorders, Aanand said, “We have to talk about mental health only in the films, otherwise we are not taking care of anybody else around us? You are putting so much pressure on films that you’re not looking at the intention with which the film has been made." Himanshu also slammed the criticism and said, “It (mental health) is not the only thing that we thought of. There are many other things like love - a debate between perfection and imperfection, the totality of love, what is love. The kind of conflict that happens with what we expect in our partners vis-a-vis what real people are. We expect them to be the finest of the people, with the topmost quality, but real people are flawed. So there were multiple things that the film was trying to say.”
He further added and said, “In the end, it's a film and not a documentary. It is not a 500 word essay on mental illness, it is a film, it needs to entertain you. When we write a film, it has to maneuver its way to many of the issues that I spoke about, and at times certain things take a backseat, and other times it takes a forefront. Yes, the mental health issue is there but to me as a writer and for Aanand as a director, it was more of a sugar coating to say larger things. See the film for what it is and not for what you wanted. A large number of people saw that, they knew what the film was talking about and that is why we have got so much love."
Commenting on whether the negative comments affect him, Aanand said, “No, it doesn't. What matters to me is the real audience, for whom we are making the film. I think Atrangi Re has got its share of love and that matters to me." Atrangi Re is streaming on Disney+Hotstar.
(Source: India Today)
