Home Entertainment “The Slap Was a Metaphor for Something Bigger” ‘Thappad’ co-writer.

“The Slap Was a Metaphor for Something Bigger” ‘Thappad’ co-writer.

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Anubhav Sinha’s Thappad has been receiving praise from fans as well as critiques. The film revolves around Taapsee’s character, a woman who decides to leave her husband because he slaps her. Talking about the importance of that ‘one slap’ in the film Mrunmayee Lagoo who is the co- writer of the film said “II think it is very important to address the beginning you know. See, if it was about a man who has had a violent temper or who is like this then in that case it’s a very different movie. A lot of women go through this once, twice, thrice many times but each one has a starting point, so everyone will identify with that. And when sir (Anubhav) was saying that one is also not okay is a very strong message for people who’d be taking it for too long. You know to raise your voice at that first instance is very important. It is just reassuring for those people who are still in it over and over again. So, I didn’t grapple with one or two or three, what we really grappled with is how to make this slap feel like a metaphor and a catalyst to something bigger.”

Mrunmayee also told that how people on the sets thought that a woman can’t leave her husband because of one slap. “When sir thought of the idea and when I wrote the entire first draft, there were many people who said “sir we still think that this is wrong, that why she is leaving, they should make up, she should forgive, he should say this”.  But see the first draft is the first draft; it doesn’t mean anything it’s just whatever conversations were happening are now on paper. So, we took all of that feedback, we went back and rewrote, rewrote, rewrote. And then the same people when the film was complete, even while shooting there were people like “is this really enough?”, “is this enough of conflict?”. But after they saw the film, I mean I am not even exaggerating, those same people came and told us that it’s a good thing that “it’s good all of you did this, we completely agree”. So, there were like conversions happening right in front of our eyes within the crew. So, I shared all the stories with my dad, my husband, so when I first told them they saw the difficulty but neither of them said that it’s not enough of a conflict and this came from two men. So, I kind of knew that at least in terms of reason we are okay. We are not like exaggerating something which other people clearly define as okay.”