Huma Qureshi did Tarla for her mom, all homemakers of India: 'We don’t address loneliness women here feel' | Exclusive

Huma Qureshi’s new film Tarla released today on streaming platform Zee5. The film, a biopic of famous chef and TV personality Tarla Dalal, sees Huma enter into unchartered territory. And although the film dramatises a lot of events in Tarla Dalal’s life, Huma says she found it very relatable. In a candid chat with DNA, the actress talks about her preparation, why she chose to do the film, and the best compliment she received for it.

When you approached the role, were you trying to be Tarla Dalal as she was or Tarla on the script, because the two can be different?

The script is not an exact rendition of what really happened. Of course, one has taken a lot of creative liberties. But the idea is to capture the essence of who these people were and what they stood for. Of course, one has to apply a modern lens to a story that is from the 60s and 70s to be able to tell it to an audience of today. That was the idea. My approach to Tarla was to capture the essence of who that woman was because I don’t look like her or talk like her. But somehow I have to get the closest to her and what she was trying to say.

So, are you from that school of thought who thinks physical resemblance between an actor and the subject in a biopic is overrated?

I did do a transformation. I am much taller than her and that is something I can’t do anything about. But we did do the whole dentures, glasses, and hair thing. For me, the best compliment came from Renu Dalal, her daughter. When she met me she said, ‘you have really captured the essence of my mother’. For a daughter to say that, that meant everything to me. I know if there were ever to be a biopic on my mother and somebody were to play her, I would think ‘my mother isn’t like that’. You have so much possessiveness for your loved ones.

There is a scene in Tarla where she says she is searching for that ‘kuch’ (something) in her life that will be her aim. When did Huma discover that kuch?

Delhi University, Gargi College! During my Dram Soc days, I performed in a play that I very clearly remember was directed by a senior of mine named Rupal. It was called My Son Does Not Eat Fish. I remember that it was my first time on stage in a proper production. I remember people responding to that play and to me in a certain way. And I thought ‘I love this. This is fun, I can do this’. There is a different feel to live audience. That taste I got there, that carried me.

The film shows Tarla as someone who is a little tied down by domestic duties. She isn’t exactly shackled but has forgotten what she wanted to do. It’s amazing that the story is set in the 60s but this holds true for Indian women in the 21^st century as well.

There is a scene where I am looking out the window and talking about life. I felt something while performing it. At that point, I thought of my mum, my khalas, and a lot of women who I have, over the years, overheard say ‘sab busy ho gaye hain, hum to ghar pe rehte hain’. I feel that emptiness is a very real thing, which we don’t address. We don’t talk about the acute loneliness that women in this country feel since the husband is busy and children are busy. So maybe I did this film for my mum, and all those women who feel this way.

Another thing the film subtly talks about is how the onus of maintaining the work-life balance is so much more on the woman. It’s like women are, by default, expected to manage their home while working more effectively than men and shamed when they can’t do it.

It’s very subtle. You have to catch it or it evades you. We are all guilty of it in some way. Even something like representation of career women in shows is always as someone who is ruthless, hard, somewhat of a bitch. Short-cropped hair, sharp business suits and cold! It’s almost as if that if a woman has her dreams, it means she can’t have a solid family life.

The film is as much about Tarla’s journey as it is about her equation with her husband Nalin and how they both grow. In the film, both Tarla and Nalin go out of their way to make the other feel loved. When was that time in your life when you did something for a loved one just for the sake of it?

I love the fact that I make my own money and with that money, I can buy things and spoil people around me. I really like to pamper them. I live with my brother and sometimes he gets busy like these days he is travelling. So just because I wanted to, I bought a few things for his room and did it up. I like doing that. It’s just my way of expressing love.

Tarla, directed by Piyush Gupta, also stars Sharib Hashmi in the lead. The film released on Zee5 on July 7.U