Tumhari Sulu has opened to rave reviews and positive word-of-mouth. Reason enough for its leading lady Vidya Balan — who plays Sulu, a happy-go-lucky homemaker who moonlights as a late-night radio jockey — to beam from ear to ear when t2 met her in her suite at Taj Bengal on Friday afternoon, the day of the film’s release. Always ready with a warm smile and a warmer hug, Vidya chatted about the film and her character, that is the beating heart of the slice-of-life film.
Joining Vidya was the film’s first-time director Suresh Triveni.

Vidya, like Sulu, you are always such a warm and happy person to be around. But what’s the mood generally like on the Friday your film releases?

Vidya Balan: (Laughs the familiar Vidya laugh) Normally, I don’t step out on the day of release. But it was Calcutta and I feel we’ve made a good film. And I said, ‘Okay, this time, I am making an exception and stepping out’ (smiles). The only thing that I am right now is sleep-starved (makes a face). I struggled to sleep on the flight, but I couldn’t quite get the position… or maybe, I am just toooo tired to sleep! (Laughs) But I think I’m fine otherwise… you’ll have to ask the people around me (smiles and looks at Suresh Triveni).

Suresh Triveni: Vidya is always Vidya… happy, warm, genuine…. In my case, I don’t know because I don’t really have any context to go by since this is my first film. There’s no background music in life, so I don’t know whether I should be celebrating already or not! (Laughs) We are getting some good feedback, overall…

Vidya: And some great reviews! 

Suresh: I am kind of cutting the GST bit of it and giving you bits and pieces  of the feedback! (Both laugh) 

Happy, feel-good, warm, slice-of-life — Tumhari Sulu has been described as all this and more. What’s touched people the most about the film?

Vidya: Sulu’s spirit is something that everyone’s talking about. They are talking about the little moments that are so relatable. There’s no big drama, but there are some scenes that are so heart-warming. They are finding the characters adorable….

Suresh: Everyone’s telling me how every actor fits his or her character. Like today, someone told me that Sulu and Ashok’s (played by Manav Kaul) marriage has the feel of a good Sachin-Dravid partnership (smiles). Everyone knows that it’s a simple story and it’s the moments that have to tug at the heartstrings. And these moments can’t be created without great performances. Also, the world of Tumhari Sulu is very fresh and honest and people are liking that.

So Vidya, was it all this that hooked you when Suresh came to you with the story?

Vidya: He came to me with a one-line idea and I found that interesting. Then he came back with the script and the way he narrated it, the film just played out in front of my eyes. Not just Sulu, I knew something about every character even before I started shooting and that’s because they were written so well. I just found Sulu so adorable, lovable… so spirited. I wanted to be her… someone who’s unputdownable. And then, of course, was that world… that middle-class family that has dreams, shares dreams… is of modest means but is happy within that.

The other thing was that, for the first time, I saw a housewife who wasn’t bogged down by the drudgery of it all. Sulu’s happy being a housewife… she loves cooking, she loves packing her son’s lunch. Those little moments really struck a chord… like Sulu’s twin sisters (Seema Taneja as Kalpana and Sindhu Shekharan as Aradhana) call each other ‘Didi’ because there is confusion about who was born first! I loved that! (Laughs out loud) These people are not actors… they are people with regular jobs and they are so good! The taxi driver (played by Trupti Khamkar) who takes Sulu to work every night… every little character read beautifully to me in the script. 

Suresh: I wrote Sulu only for Vidya… I never thought of anyone else. In fact, the name Tumhari Sulu came first. I feel most happy now when people come to me and say that no one but Vidya could have played Sulu. 

Tumhari Sulu is about a woman stepping out of her world. Is the film a nod to Satyajit’s Ray’s Mahanagar, in which Madhabi Mukherjee’s homemaker Arati takes up a saleswoman’s job?

Vidya: It’s so wonderful that you are asking us this because Suresh and I have had this conversation about Mahanagar. There’s a scene in Mahanagar where she (Arati) goes into the bathroom and her colleague applies lipstick on her for the first time and when she looks at herself in the mirror, that expression is indescribable… it’s a scene that’s always stayed with me. People count Pather Panchali or Charulata as their favourite Ray films, but mine has always been Mahanagar. I told Suresh that Tumhari Sulu somehow has the texture of Mahanagar….

Suresh: We’ve grown up watching all kinds of cinema and influences are a given. There is a fantastic Malayalam actress called Urvashi and she was called Sulu in a film. When I wrote the film, the name ‘Sulu’ came automatically to me. The Namesake is a favourite and the name Ashoke (Ganguli, played by Irrfan Khan) stayed on and I named the husband in my film Ashok. All of this wasn’t conscious… I realised all of it in retrospect. And now when people mention Mahanagar, just to be next to that name (Ray) is an honour I can’t describe. I just feel that the honesty, the simplicity and the way the housewife is presented in both films… maybe it’s a homage, but in a very subliminal way. 

What were your references to play Sulu?

Vidya: I grew up in an environment like that. I come from a middle-class Tam-Brahm south Indian family living in Chembur in suburban Mumbai. My mother wasn’t a working woman, but she would take tuitions at home. She would do everything… she had no break. Even if she was sick, she would have to wake us up, get our dabbas ready, send us off to school, send my dad off to work….The script threw up so many kinds of people that I have known all my life. I borrowed a lot from the world I came from and the rest came from the script. 

Suresh, so much of Tumhari Sulu seems like Vidya’s own touches. Like that scene at the beginning when she comes second in the lemon-spoon race, but sneaks in a moment to stand on the podium marked ‘1st’ so that Ashok can take a picture. Did a lot of that come from Vidya?

Suresh: (Looks at Vidya and they both laugh out loud) I always say that if you go exactly by what’s written in the script, then it will look like a prescription. It’s so uncanny you mention that scene because in the script, she wasn’t really meant to move from the second podium to the first. We took a shot without her doing that and just as she was about to do it, I told her, ‘Why don’t we try it this way?’ 

Vidya: I thought I would do it in the next take and surprise him. But before that, he said it. And I was like, ‘You just took the words out of my mouth!’ (Laughs) 

Suresh: There is another scene where she sees her neighbours -—two airhostesses — holding their handbags in a certain way and she comes back inside, takes out her own bag and poses like them in front of the mirror. The way Vidya did that was so much more than what was written in the script… she has the unique ability of humanising a character. During the readings, she never showed me how she would do that scene. Of course, being a first-time filmmaker, I wouldn’t dare ask her! (Laughs as Vidya throws him a mock angry look) But when she did it, I was spellbound. That, for me, is soul… that for me, is pure class. I wrote all these things, but she’s the one who perfected the nuances… whether it is wiping the sweat off her brow and that trickle travels down the side of her palm or making dal and her expression when she tastes a bit of it with her forefinger…. She brings alive all that is written in the script… and how! 

The Sulu-Ashok marriage has a very lived-in feel… they have their in-jokes and their private moments of eye contact and just make marriage look so good. How much of it was in the script and how much of it came from you and Manav?

Vidya: It was all in the script. All the improvs we did also came from Suresh only.

Suresh: Please! She’s being very modest (smiles). Actors like Vidya, Manav and Vijay Maurya (who plays Pankaj, a scriptwriter at the radio station) are national resources… you can’t be careless with them. A 12-year-old marriage can easily show boredom… but Sulu and Ashok aren’t like that. I wanted them to have a song —  and I was intrigued to see how Sulu would sing Batata vada in that S.P. Balasubrahmanyam voice (laughs). Not everyone can do that, but Vidya can. 

Vidya: One of the big reasons I did the film was how marriage was shown. I’ve not seen a single marriage in our films where either the woman is not being a sacrificial goat or the couple haven’t lost interest in each other. Sulu and Ashok’s chemistry is so alive even after so many years. I’ve been married five years and I can tell you that marriage doesn’t end the romance… (pauses) not if you don’t want it to! (Laughs the Vidya laugh) 

Suresh: It’s like I always say, ‘It’s not about who you go to sleep with… but who you wake up with’. 

Did anything about Suresh’s way of working surprise you?

Vidya: His script! After he finished narrating the script, I wrote on it… that this is one of the best scripts I’ve heard in a long time. In our films, we don’t spend enough time on our writing and so when a script that detailed comes to you, it’s such a joy.  

On set, he knew exactly what he wanted… when he directs, he gives you the right amount of liberty and most importantly, gives you the correct cues. Music plays a very important role on his set. We had a ‘Sulu’ theme that would play on set all the time for us to get into the mood. I also love the way he handles people… he entrusts people with a job in such a way that they feel a sense of ownership over it. Everyone on set went that extra mile just thinking, ‘How can I do my job better?’ And then he brought in his ad film discipline. It’s the most professional set-up I’ve ever worked in. Working on this film with Suresh has been a one-of-a-kind experience.

Vidya, you’ve just spoken about how we need to invest more in our writing. But isn’t Tumhari Sulu the latest in a line of some great films propped by solid writing that have come out this year?

Vidya: Oh, definitely! What this year has shown is that there’s not just one type of film that ensures success. We’ve had films like Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, Newton and Bareilly Ki Barfi, along with a Judwaa 2 and Golmaal Again. People have begun to wake up to the fact that you can’t take your audience for granted.   

Finally, will there be another Sulu film? We’d definitely like to see more of her and her world…

Suresh: Only when Sulu talks to me! (Looks at Vidya and they both laugh)