Film Review: Sharmajee Ki Beti [Sharmajee’s Daughter]

Starring: Sakshi Tanwar, Divya Dutta, Saiyami Kher, Parvin Dabas, Sharib Hashmi, Vanshika Taparia, Arista Mehta, Ravjeet Singh

Director: Tahira Kashyap Khurrana

This light-hearted coming-of-age tale streaming on Amazon Prime Video marks the directorial debut of a talented writer-actor, married to fellow actor Ayushmann Khurrana.

Swati (Taparia) and Gunveen (Mehta) are best friends who happen to share the same surname, making them Sharmajee’s daughters in arms who are collectively tackling the raging hormones and upheaval fuelled by their teenage angst. While one fears being left behind in the biological race of womanhood, the other is secretly dealing with some gender identity issues.

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In a generational shift, their mothers Jyoti Sharma (Tanwar) and Kiran Sharma (Dutta) have their own grown-up issues of work-life balance to deal with. They are married to two very different kinds of husbands, the former’s being the supportive and devoted Sudhir (Hashmi) and the latter’s being the deviant Vinod (Dabbas). Another Sharma in the mix is professional cricket player Tanvi (Kher), who lives in the same building and is struggling to keep up with her sexist boyfriend Rohan’s (Singh) demands.

The humdrum of their daily lives has a distinct sense of unfulfillment, with each of Sharmajee’s daughters trying to tap into an elusive equilibrium. Will these lost souls be able to meander through their turmoil to find happiness?

This is an intelligent piece of writing and direction, which makes use of one of the most common surnames in India as a common thread between very diverse feminine travails. Khurrana keeps an impressive hold of her plot as it wades through some hard-hitting issues, from homosexuality to workplace bias. Each of these is handled with care, with some light humour thrown in so as not to belittle any of the serious concerns being dealt with.

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The filmmaker is ably backed up by perceptive performances, with Sakshi Tanwar and Divya Dutta shining through in particular alongside the two teenagers and Saiyami Kher in her ‘Ghoomer’ comfort zone. This female-led take on middle-class Indian society succeeds in side-stepping the sermonising to make some poignant points about embracing life to its fullest.