AGAINST THE GRAIN

FILMMAKER SHAKUN BATRA HAS NEVER PLAYED BY HINDI CINEMA’S RULES, AND HIS UPCOMING GEHRAIYAAN ONLY REITERATES HIS QUIET ICONOCLASM

- Poulomi Das

According to SHAKUN BATRA, a happy ending doesn’t necessarily make for a satisfying ending

In Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu (2012), arguably one of the more underseen debuts of the previous decade, writer-director Shakun Batra redefined the rules of romance. He told a love story that didn’t have the kind of ‘happily ever after’ we have been trained to expect or recognise in Hindi cinema. Four years later, Batra followed it up with Kapoor & Sons (2016), a sensational family thriller that underlined with piercing clarity that it’s not always about loving your family— sometimes, what’s harder is living with them. Now with Gehraiyaan (streaming on Amazon Prime Video from February 11), a love triangle starring Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Panday and newcomer Dhairya Karwa, Batra wants to change the way Hindi movies villainise infidelity.

Growing up, Batra remembers questioning infidelity and the morality behind it. Reading Intimacy, British novelist Hanif Kureishi’s 1998 novel, provided the 39-year-old filmmaker with the necessary inspiration. “I forget the exact quote from the book but it basically said that sometimes you have an affair not to find the one but to find yourself. I began from that when I was writing this film,” Batra says over a Zoom call. “I was more interested in figuring out the stuff that is beneath the surface. Not so much what was actually happening but what was not being said.”