‘Atrangi Re’: Aanand L Rai opens up about film’s criticisms related to mental health

Mumbai, January 16 (PTI) Only love can be the panacea for all problems, believes filmmaker Aanand L Rai, whose last film, Atrangi Re, was at the center of controversy for its portrayal of mental health.

The romantic musical drama, written by Rai’s longtime collaborator Himanshu Sharma, stars Sara Ali Khan and Dhanush. With Akshay Kumar in a guest appearance, the film was described as a twisted and complex love triangle.

Premiering on December 24 on the Disney+ Hotstar streaming platform, Atrangi Re received polarized reviews with some criticizing how the film is insensitive to mental health.

In the film, 26-year-old Khan plays Rinku Sooryavanshi, a girl born into an interfaith marriage who lives with the trauma of losing her parents at a young age.

After another failed attempt to flee her maternal family’s home in Bihar, Rinku is forcibly married to a Tamil man, Vishu (Dhanush), but they plan to part ways once they reach Delhi, where she hopes to meet her lover named Sajjad (Kumar).

In an interview with PTI, the 50-year-old director said the film’s sole purpose was to explore a crazy world of love.

It’s really just love. When we talked about Rinku, there was a large part of the people who talked about mental illness. It was never that for me. That wasn’t the only thing I was trying to find. What I was trying to think was that only love can get you out of a lot of complications…

We have become very clever and intelligent. We want to analyze everything. These are difficult times and we want to give logic to falling in love. It’s so unlucky. The only thing that can defy logic is love.

Rai, who has been applauded for producing interesting characters from the Indian hinterland in films such as the Tanu Weds Manu series and Raanjhanaa, said that, like his previous work, love is the driving force for the main characters Rinku and Vishu.

There is a reason why Rinku belongs to Siwan, a city in Bihar, the director pointed out.

We wanted to create that world, we wanted to have those things that were or are there. We address the problems that the region is going through or was going through, he said.

The filmmaker, whose last release was 2018’s Zero, said what critics call trauma can be someone’s entire life.

Rinku was living a life the way she wanted. From our perspective, she was going through something. But from his perspective, he was living his own life beautifully with his father around him. For her there was no problem but for us to see her like this, he added.

When asked about negative reviews indicating the film doesn’t take mental health issues seriously, Rai said he was prepared for bricks.

Deep down he was ready for this, he said, recalling an earlier speech on Raanjhanaa from 2013, which was criticized for its version of bullying.

The director, however, agreed that when he tells a story about mental illness in the future, he will approach it differently.

The day I make a film on the subject itself, then it’s something else. But here the character is very casual about it. She believes in it.

When asked if the team discussed the idea of ​​Atrangi Re with anyone from the medical fraternity, Rai said yes.

We had that session. The story to tell was what love is all about. But how much using that (mental health) perspective was our call, he said.

The director said he wanted to celebrate the magic of love.

We have been so calculating with our emotions. Let’s leave other things in the calculator and not love, he added.

All in all, Rai is happy with the response to Atrangi Re as he believes that he has managed to touch the hearts of the viewers.

I’m happy with the reaction of the audience, their likes and dislikes. I like every bit of it and am taking note of it. It’s overwhelming, he said. PTI KKP RDS BK