Rani Mukerjee New Film© IMDb

Rani Mukerji Takes On A Nation For Her Kids In Her Next Film

Rani Mukerji is back and how! The trailer of Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway was released a day ago and Mukerji’s performance in the almost 3-minute-long video is phenomenal. Inspired by true events, the film’s trailer establishes immigrant Indian mother Devika Chatterjee’s perfect life in Norway with her husband and her two kids.

For the unversed, it’s been more than a decade since the infamous battle of a real-life Indian couple fighting for the custody of their two children with the Norway government took the world by storm. The year was 2011, when the Norway child welfare service, also called Barnevarne, took away Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya’s two children and placed them in foster care citing objections to her hand-feeding the baby equating it to force-feeding.

The couple also faced allegations of providing “unsuitable” clothes and toys to their kids, and inadequate play space. Norway’s Child Protective Service took equal objection to the child sleeping in the same bed as the father, insisting the boy must have an independent bed.

After a diplomatic row between the two countries, the Norwegian authorities decided to award the custody of the children to the brother of their father, enabling him to bring them back to India.

However, by then Anurup and Sagarika were estranged, compelling her to take legal remedies to win custody of her children. After a lengthy legal battle, Sagarika was able to take her children home. The mum’s determination and hard work paid off in 2013 when she was finally granted custody of her son Abhigyan and her daughter Aishwarya by the Calcutta High Court.

After winning the custody battle, Sagarika in a TV interview in 2013 said, “It’s a huge relief and I want to convey my regards to my well-wishers.”

And now, the couple’s struggle and their fight against an entire nation to reunite with their children has been made into a movie starring Mukerji in the lead role.

Exploring the heartbreaking reality of cultural bias in child custody battles, in the riveting trailer, her character’s life takes a drastic turn after her children are taken away by the Norwegian foster care system. In the clip, Devika Chatterjee is seen battling an investigation spearheaded by foster care officials, who then claim that the Chatterjees are unfit as parents, and even declare Devika as “mentally unstable.”

The latter half of the trailer showcases Mukerji’s struggles as a mother separated from what can be described as her world. She takes a legal route and embarks on a mission to win the battle against the Norwegian foster care system and reclaim the custody of her children, by hook or by crook.

Directed by Ashima Chibber and produced by Zee Studios and Emmay Entertainment, Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway is slated to release in theatres on March 17. The movie has extensively been shot in Estonia and in some parts of India.