On Friday, 13th July, Kajol flew in to London to reveal the official poster of her forthcoming film. The poster shows Kajol as a puppeteer, trying to control her son with the puppet strings and its tagline reads "She is here, there and everywhere”.
This film is about a ‘helicopter parent’, a single mother named Eela, who is an overbearing and somewhat controlling mother, and the relationship she has with her son, a typical millennial who does not want his mother’s life to revolve around him. In an exclusive one-to-one with Asian Voice, Kajol revealed that in the film, we will see a lot of her as a mother in real life. Talking about the dilemmas of parents, she said this is a film that is not about the coming of age of a son, but of the mother. The film is largely based on a popular Gujarati play titled ‘Beta Kaagdo’, penned by Anand Gandhi. Talking about the young National award-winning actor Riddhi Sen, enacting the character of Eela’s teenaged son, Kajol said, “Riddhi made my job easy. I am convinced that he will have an astonishing connect with the audience through his role in this film”. The actress added, “I got attracted to play this role because of the way it has depicted the mother’s dilemmas as well as the son’s. No one is right, and no one is wrong”.
The film is being touted as yet another female-centric film. Speaking on the tag of ‘female-centric’, the actress said, “It is all about who can bring the audiences to the cinema halls. These tags do not matter”. She hopes that someday, the industry will not feel the need to use such tags. Talking about her role in the film, Kajol had earlier said, “As a mother, I felt a real connection with Eela’s character. She loves her son unconditionally and has built her life around him. But as he grows up, she finds herself becoming more and more dispensable. She has also put her life and dreams on hold, like so many mother’s do. This is a life situation that so many women face once their kids grow up. And, one that I will inevitably face is, what do I do now? How do I hold on to my baby?”
To her fans in the UK, she says, “I hope you enjoy this slice-of-life film. Watch it with your parents and grandparents. It would be an experience to see if they see a part of themselves in it. This film is all about reinventing parenting techniques”. Helicopter Eela releases on 14th September 2018 and is directed by Pradeep Sarkar who is known for directing Parineeta, Laga Chunri Mein Daag and Mardani, with music by Amit Trivedi. It also stars Tota Roy Chowdhury and Neha Dhupia in pivotal roles.
