Varun Grover’s World of Words

Varun Grover’s new film All India Rank is an ode to the middle class India we’ve left behind. The middle class India that believed education was a means to upward mobility, not always synonymous with wealth; which walked miles to watch TV shows; which listened to their favourite songs on cassette recorders and walkmans; which made calls from PCOs; and which was devastated when Princess Diana died. It is also an ode to a life that now seems a distant memory, even for those who lived through the era. Grover, a lyricist, stand-up comic, and writer, has directed his first movie, a very personal film, about growing up in the late ’90s, with the pressure of taking the competitive exam hovering around youngsters. Grover grew up in Dehradun and Sundernagar, both in Himachal Pradesh; and then Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, before cracking the JEE exam and getting admission to IIT Varanasi. “The movie is set in 1994-2000,” he says. “India was going through its post pubescent phase and so was I. It was before the Internet but post satellite TV, a particular time when you were told if you didn’t get into IIT or AIIMS, you’d be a loser forever. At 17, when you’re not allowed to vote, drink or marry, you’re supposed to decide your future.” Son of a chemistry school teacher and Army MES Corps officer, Grover grew up with a love of books and words inherited from his father. His father, upon retirement in Kurukshetra, did a two-year course in library science and set up two libraries in the town. Simple times, yes, but also times which put enormous pressure on children, especially young men, who were expected to single handedly take the family into the next social class through their dedication, with limited career options. It meant waking up for coaching classes at 6 AM in winters and braving 16-hour power cuts in summer to complete coursework. Grover escaped the hamster wheel by writing for the entertainment industry, joining a long and illustrious line of poets writing for Hindi cinema, from Sahir Ludhianvi and Kaifi Azmi to Javed Akhtar and Gulzar. Little wonder that he accepts only a fraction of the songs offered to him—one in 15 to be precise. Not everyone deserves gems like he has written for Dum Laga Ke Haisha or most recently, Merry Christmas. “The good thing now is that the definition of success has broadened, as has the meaning of merit, which is both a gift of privilege that comes from access, but also a result of discipline,” he says. Sadly though the middle class has changed, and its defining traits now, he says, are a misplaced sense of persecution and a constant need to acquire more.

Tiger Mom

Expats, currently on Disney+Hotstar, is all about female relationships— between friends, between servants and masters, between mothers and daughters. A particularly toxic one is between a high-achieving Indian woman, played by Sarayu Blue, with her demanding mother, played by Sudha Bhuchar. It’s the kind of mother we rarely see in Hindi movies—tough, uncompromising, obsessed with raising her daughter to be educated and accomplished only so that she can marry well and live a rich woman’s life. The two have a brutal exchange in a lift when the power goes out—the series is set in Hong Kong of 2014, with protests on the streets and China’s complete takeover imminent. It’s a lament women pass down from one generation to another—retrofitting themselves for the men in their lives only to realise it’s not worth it. Bhuchar was one of the earliest British Indians to enter the theatre, setting up the Tamasha Theatre Company in 1989 with Kristine Landon-Smith, and writing several plays, including Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings and a Funeral in 2001, based on Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!, and A Fine Balance (2007), based on the book by Rohinton Mistry.

Scene and Heard

Nimisha Sajayan caught everyone’s eye with The Great Indian Kitchen in 2021, the most stinging slap on the face of toxic masculinity in a long time. In 2023’s Chithha, she again shone as the troubled girlfriend of Eeswaran, played by the producer and star Siddharth. The upcoming Footprints on Water, where she co-stars with the brilliant Adil Hussain, is gathering praise at film festivals everywhere. Now as Mala Jogi, forest range officer, part of the team that takes on poachers in Richie Mehta’s explosive Poacher, she is winning hearts and praise even before the series is out on Prime Video. Nimisha is one to watch out for, ladies and gentlemen.

BollywoodcinemaNimisha SajayanSudha BhucharVarun Grover