Taali Review: Sushmita Sen gives her heart and soul in essaying transgender activist Shreegauri Sawant

Taali is undoubtedly Sushmita Sen’s best performance and she has given her all for this part. Being a single mother of two adopted kids was a decision Sushmita took very early in her life and probably that is the reason she could ‘feel’ the role. Taali is a biopic on Gauri Sawant , who fought with determination against all odds until the third gender found a place on the official documents in India. The story too was handled in a very sensitive manner. It was a bold move by Sushmita too to play the role of a transgender and knowing Sushmita who always follows her heart, I am sure she didn’t think twice before taking up the role. All the actresses of Bollywood must learn from her what honest performance looks like. Taali is a true honest narration and depicts the classism and politics within the transgender community itself. There is not a single time that you will feel that Sushmita has  underplayed the role of transgender champion, Shreegauri Sawant. Director of Taali, Ravi Jadhav, is known for making meaningful bold cinema like Natrang which was about a man who plays the nachya (eunuch) in a traditional lavni troupe and Nude which was about a woman who strips to model for art students. This time too his approach to Taali has been equally sensitive. Another person who has caught the attention of the viewers is Krutika Deo who plays the role of little Gauri aka Ganesh. Deo made her Bollywood debut with Arjun Kapoor and Kriti Sanon’s Panipat (2019).  Taali  opens with Ganesh (played by Krutika) sitting in a classroom, sporting long nails and fidgeting with a pink hairband. The next frame shows Ganesh’s teacher asking her students what they would like to be in the future. The teacher says that probably Ganesh would like to become an inspector like his father. To which he gets up and says, “I want to be a mother,” leaving his classmates in splits. In the next frame, Ganesh is seen pretending as a girl in front of a mirror and her mother comes from behind and gets shocked. He gets caught performing lavani on stage and his/her father gets him/her to promise to never dance like a woman again. The best thing about Taali is that in the past we have seen transgender roles being played like a caricature and a laughing stalk for the dumb heads. But this time, Sushmita Sen ensured while depicting the life of Gauri Sawant that they may be different, but there is nothing abnormal about them. The series makes us think and probably next time, we will think twice before rolling up the glasses when we see a transgender coming to us begging for money. It is time for inclusivity and most importantly it is time to give all the freedom to work and get educated no matter what gender he/she is from. Now is the time for Taali!

Rating: 4 out of 5