Sherni: Vidya Balan says her character is ‘strong in a way we’re not used to seeing strong women’

In one of her career’s finest performances, Vidya Balan sinks her teeth into the role of an upright forest officer determined to save a tigress trapped in man-animal conflict in Sherni — a film she says portrays strength in women in a way we’re not used to seeing in cinema.

“She seemed to be strong in a way that we’re not used to seeing strong women. She almost seems passive, she is non-confrontational, and yet there was this deep inner strength in her great integrity,” Balan describes the role of Vidya Vincent to The Independent over the phone.

Sherni, which means tigress in Hindi, is set in the heart of an Indian jungle and tracks a man-eating tigress caught in the conflict of hunger, electoral politics, and depleting animal habitat due to forest-adjacent urbanisation and encroachment of human settlements.

“As a character, Vidya Vincent is very different from who I am,” Balan says of the film directed by Amit Masurkar.

Vincent is “a woman with few words but great action,” says the Kahani actor who loved the idea of Masurkar wanting to “tell a story about the jungle and wanting a female forest officer as the pivot.”

From misogynist tropes, nature’s imbalance, to wildlife displacement — the film focuses on a range of issues that tie in with global climate change and rapid development at the cost of nature.

In some ways, Balan’s character is not unlike the tigress she’s trying to save — “the sherni in the jungle is endangered of course, but so is someone like Vidya Vincent who is an idealist”.

A lot rests on her shoulder as the forest land she’s responsible for is enduring an onslaught from manipulative politicians, local villagers, and power-hungry men.

Towards the ending, after calling one of her superior officers “pathetic” for avoiding an investigation, Balan’s character ends up losing her position and is transferred to a job at a museum.

“It was a mixed bag of emotions that she was experiencing” at the time, says Balan. “There was disappointment, betrayal, sadness, anger, frustration, and a feeling that she had failed.”

“She’s been sent into a museum where you have taxidermied animals, and the contrast is quite stark,” says Balan. Sherni is also an example of the exciting direction Indian films are headed — being able to hold their own without the traditional big-ticket theatrical release. Sherni was released on the streaming platform of Amazon Prime on 18 June.

So far, fans have had good things to say about the film. One person wrote on Twitter: “#Sherni is a great wake-up call for all of us. I’m glad that movies related to environment conservation are being talked about and that too so brilliantly. A great job is done by @amit_masurkar in directing this movie.”

“Amit Masurkar’s new movie will make you think. The cinematography of #Sherni feels so real, I could sense myself strolling around the jungle. Once in a while, a great film comes along and this is just that!” wrote another.