Nitesh Tiwari And The Art Of Fatherhood

From the Haryanvi patriarch training his daughters to be wrestlers in Dangal, to the harried dad who has to teach his teenage son to cope with failure in Chhichhore, the writer-director tackles fatherhood more sensitively than anyone else in mainstream cinema.

- Maithili Rao

If the daughters feared their laying-down-the-law father in Dangal, Raghav of Chhichhore is on yaari terms with his Dad Ani (Sushant Singh Rajput) Non-conformists are not always synonymous with subversives. A subversion is a calculated act that questions undermine and negates the entrenched attitudes/ norms of people and the society they live in. The more entrenched the attitudes, the more diligently a film has to work at every level of the narrative to subvert them. It’s a highly risky proposition when the film aims to be an entertainer first and then tries to pack in a purpose. It’s a new sub-genre that has delivered hits. The leader of this distinct pack is Rajkumar Hirani and now, Nitesh Tiwari has emerged with his own voice.

Parenting is his forte. It comes under the guise of campus capers in Chhichhore and this is what works for the film: nostalgia for some and revenge of the underdogs for others. Tiwari’s serious underlying preoccupation has been parenting: arduous, often thankless and sometimes, rewarding beyond expectation for those who have achieved through trial and error the right mix of unconditional love, discipline and understanding. They are truly blessed.

Tiwari has done this over a number of good films, whether he has only written the story –