It’s delightful to watch Bollywood actress Vidya Balan sink her teeth into a meaty role and she does it with aplomb in the swift and engaging trailer of her new film ‘Sherni’, out on Amazon Prime Video on June 18.
The trailer opens with Balan playing a stoic forest officer who’s on call to hunt down a tiger on the loose. She’s surrounded by male colleagues who are inherently patriarchal in a job that doesn’t see many women. At some point, there are also veiled references to her having a troubled personal life.
Balan has her game face on in this seemingly buoyant Beast vs Man tale. ‘Sherni’s’ trailer isn’t as dark and bloody as Lijo Pellissery’s savage Malayalam film ‘Jallikattu’, but ‘Sherni’ seems to be tackling the same complex topics of villagers, their desperate hunt to find the rampaging beast, and man’s own beastly nature.
As always, Balan nails the scenes that require her to be effortlessly witty and sardonic. Actor Neeraj Kaabi, as her domineering hyper-masculine colleague, seems to be perfectly cast.
Produced by T-Series and Abundantia Entertainment, this drama is directed by Amit Masurkar of ‘Newton’ fame and who is known to weave satire and drama seamlessly in his works.
The movie also boasts of consummate actors such as Sharad Saxena, Mukul Chaddha, Vijay Raaz, Ila Arun and Brijendra Kala.
Balan told reporters that she found ‘Sherni’ fascinating.
“Ever since I first heard the story of ‘Sherni’, I found the world fascinating and so far removed from my own. Also the character I play, Vidya, is a woman of few words but many dimensions. The film deals with a sensitive topic that touches upon respect, mutual understanding, and coexistence, not just between man-animal, but between humans as well,” Balan told reporters.
