Anubhav Sinha’s ‘Thappad’ belonged to the ladies, Taapsee Pannu, Tanve Azmi, Geetika Vidya and Maya Sarao
Anubhav Sinha
According to appearances, the problem in Anubhav Sinha’s Thappad can be fixed. Amrita (Taapsee Pannu), a settled housewife from an upper-middle-class Delhi family, takes her husband’s slap to heart. Her husband doesn’t understand what seems to be her extreme reaction.
Please accept my greeting: “Ek thappad hi to tha!” In a monotone, Vikram, Amrita’s husband, keeps hammering home the point about how monstrously, organically entitled men have become in our country. The lack of reality checks has led to the acceptance of norms that regulate and normalise male dominance, even in the more progressive parts of our shaky social structure.
Geetika Vidya, Maya Sarao (her husband’s poorly drawn role is a minor aberration), Tanve Azmi, and especially Taapsee Pannu, who gives her role as a hurt wife a heroic dignity and a distant poignancy, make Thappad their own. These women pare down to the essentials in a performance of shrill pauses. We dare say that no other working actress today comes close to matching Taapsee’s performance in terms of sheer persuasion.
Who exactly is Anubhav Sinha, the man behind the hit app Thappad? Director Anubhav Sinha helmed sugary treats like Tum Bin and Dus. Having first appeared in 2001, he lasted until 2016’s release of Tum Bin 2, his final piece of garbage.
After that, however, events transpired. The director of Cash and RA.One, Anubhav Sinha, has evolved into a very different person: a socially conscious storyteller who would make the guy who made those films roll his eyes.
Anubhav shared our astonishment at the 2018 appearance of this new avatar in Mulk. “It’s unclear what went wrong with me. Simply put, I needed a change. Sure enough, I did. As much as I loved him, I knew I couldn’t stay with the man behind Tum Bin and Aapko Pehle Bhi Kahin Dekha Hai “is what he had said.
In 2019, Article 15 came after Mulk. It was the year’s most stimulating and enlightening movie. In making Thappad, Anubhav established himself as a major player in Indian cinema. Anubhav Sinha’s cinematic voice must be heard clearly in these troubled times of muzzled creativity.
To put it another way, he can turn political coin into poetry that will last forever.
