In Dil Bechara, she played parent to a terminally ill daughter; in Criminal Justice: Adhura Sach, her son
was accused of murder; in Paatal Lok, even though she was childless, her maternal instincts came through in her affection for a street dog that she took in.
Complex and intricate with pertinent emotional depth, Swastika Mukherjee’s portrayals of a mother, curated and played to the demands of the roles across different films and web series, have inarguably been moving.
That is, however, hardly surprising, for being a mama is something she knows well. Having been a single mother to 22-year-old Anwesha Sen, Mukherjee is familiar with the good, the bad and the ugly of being a parent.
“I don’t have to work hard to bring out the mother in me because that is way too natural. I just have to decide if I should dial it up or down depending on the script,” says the 41-year-old actor. To some, the recurring portrayal of a mother might imply a lack of versatility, but Mukherjee is unfazed by the possibility of such deductions about her acting skills.
“I see what my contribution to the film is, and if the script provides me with the scope to leave a mark, I go for it,” she says.
In her latest film, Qala, Mukherjee essays the role of a flawed and broken parent. Directed by Anvita Dutt, the film, also starring Tripti Dimri, Varun Grover and Amit Sial, dropped on Netflix on December 1. It also marks the debut of late actor Irrfan’s son Babil Khan.
Set in the 1930s, the feminist drama explores the mother-daughter relationship, as it follows the life of a talented singer trying to make it big, while coping with self-doubt and the fallouts of success, in an attempt to challenge the stereotypes about women in the entertainment industry.
“Qala shows how the reality of women centuries ago was no different from what it is today. My takeaway from the film is that children, almost always, fail to look at their parents as ordinary individuals. In their minds, they are always on a pedestal,” says the actor, adding that her “intense” character questions the fixed grammar in which mothers have perennially been depicted in popular culture.
An established name in the Bengali film industry, Mukherjee made her Bollywood debut with the anthology film Mumbai Cutting in 2008 but grabbed attention after her portrayal of the feisty actor Anguri Devi in the Sushant Singh-starrer Detective Byomkesh Bakshi (2015).
“I wanted to do something I had not done before,” she says, adding that she has been looking for impactful roles, irrespective of the screen time. Leapfrogging into Bollywood came with its own challenges, especially because of the language barrier, but Mukherjee seems to have made a seamless transition, and has admittedly been enjoying the “wider audience reach and richer exposure”.
Over the last decade, she has starred in several Hindi films and web series such as Escaype Live and Black Widows. Last month, Mukherjee also turned warden at a Child Improvement Centre for Kora Kagazz, also starring Rajat Kapoor, which once again tapped into her instincts as a caregiver.
“I had to carefully tread a fine line between being unapproachable, strict and kind while playing this character,” she says. Mukherjee clearly knows how to play to her strengths.