Shlok Sharma was about eight when a family—comprising two sisters, one’s spouse and child—moved to his neighbourhood. Their unusual family arrangement intrigued him to an extent that more than two decades later, the director’s third feature film, Two Sisters and a Husband (TSAAH), has been inspired from this childhood memory he recalls every now and then.
“A lot of interesting incidents happen in your life but you don’t make a film on every single one of them. I did not spend much time with them [the family], which is what keeps me curious about them till date,” elaborates the 36 year old. The initial draft was worked on by Sharma and his co-writer Shilpa Srivastava in 2013. However, they had to stall since other projects came his way. Later, in 2019, the duo revisited this script.
The next delay happened due to the COVID-induced lockdown period—they were to commence shooting in March 2020, but could only wrap up their schedule in November 2020. TSAAH was recently screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City—it was India’s official entry here, in the International Narrative Competition category. “Being selected to screen at Tribeca was huge; we were overjoyed. It is a huge platform and one of the major film festivals… it was phenomenal,” shares Srivastava, talking about the team’s experience at the Festival.
Exploring familial bonds
Set in the Himalayan foothills in the 80s-90s, TSAAH follows the tangled relationship of Rajat (Dinker Sharma) and siblings Amrita (Manya Grover) and Tara (Avani Rai), who move to a hill station from Meerut. A carefree and blunt Amrita—the younger sister—is pregnant. Tara, on the other hand, has found solace in silence. We also meet a bizarre hotel owner Bhed Singh (Himanshu Kohli) and a therapist Mohsin (Ashutosh Pathak).
This relationship drama attempts to bring out the “humanness” of every character. Sharma and Shrivastava have fleshed out the personal stories and traits to not just add nuance but also include the rationale behind their actions. “We wanted the viewers to understand the characters; whether you hate them or love them,” says Srivastava. While the multiple drafts helped in refining the details, Sharma—formerly an assistant director with Vishal Bhardwaj and Anurag Kashyap, who later helmed the Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer Haraamkhor (2015)—also admits that he was certain that he did not want to judge his characters. “If upon seeing a certain character [from TSAAH], the viewer relates [to the character] or feels concerned about them, I would consider that a win because every human has a grey side… we are never always right. We wanted to justify their [the characters] stories.”
A challenging journey
Despite it being his third directorial attempt, Sharma mentions that he treated TSAAH as if it were his first film. “The learning never ends”, he shares. This film also marks the debut of Manya Grover and photographer Avani Rai. Grover, who has portrayed an emotionally-challenging role, recalls the directions given to her, “Amrita is as human as anybody. We all justify our actions in some way or the other. I did not have to play her ‘greyness’ because it was very human.” Viewers will have to wait to see this drama since the team plans to take TSAAH to other film festivals before releasing it commercially in theatres.