Raveena Tandon is back on the big screen after 11 years with Ashtar Sayed’s Maatr, in which she plays a mother who avenges the rape of her daughter. The actress looks confident and is in no rush to do films. Her last venture was Anees Bazmee’s Sandwich in 2006, and a fleeting appearance in Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet 2015. After staying away from films, she is always rushing home to her children Rasha and Ranbir, who are 13 and 10 years old. Family is top priority for her though she also wants to do interesting work now.
“I’ve worked hard and given my hundred per cent to my work all these years. I gave all that up for the man I love (her husband Anil Thadani) and had children, so now my family is my top priority. I’ll do films that are strong in content, not just glossy. I will not sacrifice my children’s holidays for my work. I drop them to school, take care of their studies and their food. I am a normal mother,” smiles Raveena.
On choosing Maatr as a comeback film, she says she was blown away by its script. “The film captures a mother’s worry for her child. Girls are being raped and molested everyday in the country, and it has become an insecure world for them. They can be threatened anywhere. I knew I had to do the film. We should do such films every month. We must make people aware. We are not lawmakers but we can give messages. Don’t subdue that message, keep it alive and keep it burning. It’s time we stopped giving sugar-coated stuff to our audiences. If lawmakers are indifferent, criminals will be brazen” she says.
This is not the first time Raveena has played the mother of a molested girl. Her earlier movie Daman (2001) dealt with sexual violence and marital rape, and Jaago (2004) was about a molested girl’s mother. “Jaago was about a girl who is molested in a train. Maatr is about a common man’s frustration with law and order and the judicial system. What happened to Nirbhaya was frightening. An actress was molested in Kerala recently, but what is our law and order system doing about it? A boy who raped Nirbhaya was let off because he was a juvenile. These people should be taught a lesson. Her mother’s tears haven’t dried up as yet.”
Raveena believes the upbringing of such men starts at home. “We have to teach them when they are young. Children who can hurt animals or kill them turn out to be criminals later. Start teaching them how to respect their sisters, friends and mothers, and women outside their homes.”
Raveena will also be seen as a judge on a reality show upcoming talent show for children, Sabse Bada Kalakar, with Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani. “I am looking forward to it. Children are so clean and uncomplicated and pure at heart. Adults are more complicated and they have egos and pride. The children on the show are so confident, and I am nervous. I was a quiet and shy child. They can do so much. They can dance, sing and perform.”
About her children, Raveena says her son is a complete sports buff. “My daughter loves to sing and dance, and she is training in classical singing. That’s where her forte is.” But they haven’t watched any of her films except Andaaz Apna Apna. “I want them to watch all my films—Daman, Shool, Satta, Ghulam-e-Mustafa, Kshatriya and Aks—but that will happen at the right age,” says Raveena.
She is keen on doing television but not fiction shows. “Fiction shows take up a lot of time. I have offers but refused since they wanted me to block 210 days. They offered me big money, but I didn’t want to be tied down. As I said, I want to spend time with my children. I can’t miss out on their growing years,” she says. But she doesn’t want her children to follow her dreams. “I want them to fulfil their wishes and goals.”