Dibakar Banerjee on shelved Netflix film ‘Tees’: A society gets the culture it deserves

Dibakar Banerjee, in search of a new home for his much-anticipated dystopian social drama, Tees, which was shelved by Netflix, discusses his craft, concerns, and contours of casual censorship, in a freewheeling chat

The way production houses and streaming platforms are vetting content with political undertones, soon we could have a separate column in annual appraisals listing films that could not reach audiences due to self-censorship. One film that could not make it to year-enders in 2024 is Dibakar Banerjee’s Tees because of what he calls “casual suppression of freedom of speech.” One of the most original and influential voices in Indian cinema — who started his career with the tale of a Punjabi family’s struggle to reclaim their land in Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006) from a real estate shark — has chosen to tell the story of three generations of a Kashmiri brood set in a dystopian India.

Starring Naseeruddin Shah, Manisha Koirala, Huma Qureshi, Shashank Arora, and Divya Dutta in pivotal roles — after the Netflix original was surprisingly put on hold by the streaming platform — Dibakar is showcasing Tees in non-ticketed shows at film societies for cinephiles and students, with the hope to find a new home for his labour of love that was “originally titled Ghar.” Screened at the Dharamshala Film Festival to a resounding applause, the title is drawn from a future date when some deeply agonising events unfold. However, those who know Hindi well would realise Tees also reflects the twinge that the characters in the film carry, and now it also indicates the pang of stillbirth that the filmmaker is grappling with.

Set in a digitised space where the idea of a monolithic India has almost been achieved, the fictional narrative captures the emotional truth of the world we live in. Juxtaposing the exodus of Pandits from Kashmir in the 1990s with the growing intolerance against Muslims, the film reflects different shades of majoritarianism. From appropriation of cultures and throttling of creative expression to muffling of desire, Dibakar seamlessly intertwines satire with realism to present a worrying yet entertaining picture of the state of affairs. “I recently told one of my friends I now know a bit what it feels to be a minority,” says Dibakar amid an intense free-wheeling conversation.

Impossible to put into brackets, Dibakar holds he made Tees for the audience of Khosla Ka Ghosla, and, in a way, it is his Hum Log, the first Indian soap on the daily struggles and aspirations of a middle-class family. “This film is about a quintessential middle-class Indian family. We are all connected to our families. We carry not only their blessings but their weight as well. We carry the grief and the guilt they have left behind in our heads. We never use them, but they find a reflection in those faded black and white photos that we keep in our family albums.”

Dibakar, who grew up in a traditional Bengali household in Delhi, says he also has a family Whatsapp group called Hum Log. “We don’t discuss politics but, thankfully, I come from one of those lucky families where everybody agrees on whichever path you take. Suppression is not correct, and religion is personal.”

He recalls how, as a 10-year-old, he watched his Hindu Bengali grandmother spending 70% of her day in puja. “But it was purely personal. My father and I had the freedom not to offer flowers in a Puja Pandal during Durga Puja celebrations. At the same time, I would be the cultural secretary of the Puja committee and put up plays or sanction money for decorating the idols.” Dibakar remembers how in his teens and early adulthood he would put the vermilion paste on his forehead and get on a truck to go for the visrajan (immersion of idols) chanting ‘Durga Mai Ki Jai’ (hail the goddess) while being a complete atheist. “That is my personal belief. Many North Indian and Muslim families would come to greet us. I could see it as a social ritual that is not there to exclude anyone.”

Edited excerpts from an interview: