Some years ago, Anupam Kher started volunteering with a school for specially abled children in Mumbai. So he can claim to know what he is talking about when he directs Tanvi The Great, a film about a young autistic woman.
Co-written with Abhishek Dixit, the film stars Kher’s niece Shubhangi as Tanvi. Kher himself plays Colonel Raina, a retired military officer who lives alone in Lansdowne. His regimented life is disrupted when his daughter-in-law Vidya (Pallavi Joshi), an autism expert, deposits her autistic daughter Tanvi (Shubhangi) with him for a few months. Tanvi’s father Samar (Karan Tacker) died in military action.
For an elderly man whose parenting skills have rusted, any kid who fusses about her room, has restricted food choices and insists on rearranging the furniture is a handful. Raina is thrown off when Tanvi, instead of continuing her lessons at a music class run by Raza (Boman Irani), insists on joining the army.
The stern Major Srinivasan (Arvind Swamy), whose life Samar had saved, is manipulated into admitting Tanvi to the Services Selection Board training. The recalcitrant teen who “runs like a duck” (according to the Major) is soon training perfectly with the best of them.
The gradual understanding that develops between Raina and Tanvi is the emotional heart-warming part of the story. When autism isn’t understood too well by people, it does not help to portray Tanvi’s antics as cute or funny (the recent Sitaare Zameen Par had the same problem). The reduction of Tanvi’s symptoms with military training suggests that there is nothing like some discipline and focus to make them like the others.
The word “normal” gets Vidya bristling. When Raina asks what is the opposite of normal, the answer he eventually comes up with is “extraordinary”. Vidya has coined the slogan "Different but not less” for Tanvi, which works in her case.
Eventually, what Tanvi accomplishes is like a fairy tale. Shot with a kind of golden glow by Keiko Nakahara, with MM Keeravani’s music adding to the happy mood, Tanvi The Great is a gooey chocolate of a film – a bit too sweet but also feel-good.
Anupam Kher’s performance is a highlight, with Raina building up a rapport with Tanvi that gets more charming as his mind opens to accept her strong will. Raina’s expression softens from irritation to empathy, with some help from his army buddy, Brigadier Joshi (Jackie Shroff in a pleasant cameo). Shubhangi does well as Tanvi, consistent in her portrayal of an autistic teenager whose determination takes her where she wants to go.
