‘Sweater’: Here’s why you can’t miss Shieladitya Moulik’s first Bengali directorial

Ahead of its Friday release, ‘Sweater’ is making all the right noises. Be it the emotionally drenched trailer or the music, director Shiladitya Moulik’s first Bengali movie is already a hit among the audience. Ishaa Saha here plays Tuku who is an under-confident girl. Before marriage, her would be mother-in-law places a condition that she has to be an expert in knitting. Tuku reaches out to a relative to learn the art and eventually it transforms her into a different person. The story, no doubt, looks promising. Even the entire ‘Sweater’ unit is confident the film will move the audience. We caught up with Ishaa Saha, June Maliah, Anuradha Mukherjee – the female leads and Shieladitya Moulik, the director as they beautifully why you can add this relationship drama on your weekend watch list.

Still today, in arrange marriages in-laws often place bizarre conditions in front of the girls. Like show your hair length, walk like this way, whether she can cook and so on. There are so many women who have faced this situation and they will relate to our film. The story has simplicity; it’s a simple story about simple people. The audience has to connect with this simplicity. Films with complex subjects are being made now regularly but I think we need a little bit of relief and Sweater will definitely give that much needed relief.

It’s a story of real people, so everyone will be able to connect to it. I have a lot of memories attached with sweaters since I have family members who are excellent sweater knitters. My mom still knits. My grandparents used to knit. I still have my childhood sweaters knitted by my mother and grandparents. So, in a way this film made me nostalgic.

Sweater speaks about the ridiculous rules in our society. There is always a pressure to be a woman (and) to get married eventually. If a family has two daughters, the father somehow has more pressure on him when one daughter knows everything and the other doesn’t, the more well-rounded daughter, whom I essay in the film, is more pampered then. It is a different story. Shieladitya Moulik had earlier made Mrs Scooter (2015) with Anjali Patil. If you consider that film and Ludo (a short film by the director which also starred Anuradha), he churns out these stories in which women are the central characters, so working with him is an amazing experience. I often tell him you understand women quite well.

I have already seen the film twice and I can actually relate to the emotional quotient the story wants to portray. This film handles our so called relationships from a different perspective. I know, many people in Kolkata have loved my Hindi directorial ‘Mrs Scooter’ and ‘Ludo’. ‘Sweater’ has been made in a completely different format. It has a clean and fresh flavour which I believe will touch the hearts of the audience. There is a positive vibe and it gives me enough confidence before my film releases tomorrow.