The appreciation stems from
Bollywood starlet Rani Mukherjee's "strong empathy" for the real-life mother who took on a nation in order to protect her children. The actor "could emote with precision" on the silver screen the "precise depiction" of feelings and angst that the real-life character faced through some of her most difficult times.
However, Sagarika Chakraborty, the mother who sued the Norwegian government and her in-laws in India to gain custody of her two children, believes that Debika Chatterjee, the character based on Sagarika's biography and played by Rani Mukherjee in Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway, is only half-told.
That's because, as Sagarika explains, her fight to maintain her elderly and ailing parents and her children after winning custody over the last decade has been equally, if not more, difficult. The biggest irony, she says, is having to stay hundreds of kilometres away from her children to earn a job, reliving the separation sorrow.
Sagarika, a software engineer with a private firm, has been based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, for the past two years, a distance of over 1500 kilometres from her Dum Dum abode in Kolkata, where her parents are raising her children. Looking for a better job, she plans to relocate to Pune in less than a month, putting another 400 kilometres between her and her children.
"Unless you earn enough, it is difficult to sustain a family of two children, one of whom has serious mental trauma from his experiences in Norway, and ageing parents, one of whom has a heart ailment." My husband does not provide financial support, and I am solely responsible for my children's education as well as my son's and my parents' large medical expenditures. "I was compelled to leave Calcutta since all of the nice job prospects that came my way were far away from home," she explained.
"I'm taking some time to get my financial situation under control." According to the current situation, I may never be able to return to Calcutta. That is why I intend to move my children and parents to Delhi, where I hope to eventually reside," Sagarika added.
The film, of course, is about Sagarika aka Debika's life from 2011 to 2013, when her children, a three-year-old son and a five-month-old daughter, were taken away by Norwegian Child Protection authorities and placed in foster homes on the grounds of parental abuse and the mother's alleged mental instability. Sagarika had moved to Norway to join her husband, who was working there, but she returned to India in April 2012 after Norwegian authorities handed over the children to their uncle under strict conditions following a long and agonising legal battle by the family and a full-fledged diplomatic squabble between India and Norway. Sagarika's children were placed with her in-laws in Kulti, near Asansol, until 2013, when she was granted legal custody. The pair has subsequently split up.
It wasn't just the autobiographical sketch, The Journey of a Mother: Diplomatic War Between India and Norway, which Sagarika authored and sold filming rights to that formed the basis of the story for Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway after returning to India and winning custody of her children. She also improved her academic credentials. Sagarika, a science graduate with a Masters degree in Business Administration who quit her job before travelling to Norway, restarted her education and completed another Masters Degree course in Software Engineering and Computer Applications. She did, however, obtain a degree in Database Administration and complete a number of software diploma courses. All of this to prepare for the job market in India and position herself as the primary earner in her family.
"The film's plot concludes with me gaining custody of my children." They leave theatres believing that my victory will allow me to live a comfortable life. Not at all. My fight over the previous decade has been at times more difficult than my time in Norway. Among all that I accomplished, I took care of my ailing parents and my children, particularly my son, who has a mental illness and will need to take medications for the rest of his life. But I was determined to win that war, and this is where I've ended up," Sagarika said proudly.
"I think I've been a wonderful mother to my children despite the fact that I haven't seen them in two years," she stated.
Sagarika believes her path from housewife in Norway to corporate executive in India is the subject of another book, a sequel to her first title that she is currently preparing to write.
"That is the entire narrative of Debika Chatterjee, her transition from a saree-clad mother to a corporate executive who did it all for her children." I never donned sarees as
Debika does in the film. Yet it doesn't bother me. That notion of a household brings out the mother in her more. "Maybe someone should make a movie about this period of my life, and the saree to business suit image would look much better in that film," she laughed.
