Tumhari Sulu

About the film

Tumhari Sulu (transl. Your Sulu) is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language comedy-drama film written and directed by Suresh Triveni and produced by Bhushan Kumar, Tanuj Garg, Krishan Kumar, Atul Kasbekar and Shanti Sivaram Maini under the banners of T-Series and Ellipsis Entertainment.

Tumhari Sulu stars Vidya Balan as the titular character, an ambitious housewife who becomes a radio jockey for a late-night relationship advice show. Manav Kaul and Neha Dhupia co-star as Sulu's husband and boss, respectively. Tumhari Sulu was released worldwide on 17 November 2017, to become both a critical and a decent box office success which earned over ₹513.9 million on a ₹200 million budget.

Plot

Sulochana Dubey, nicknamed Sulu, is a middle-class housewife living in Virar with her family. She enjoys her life to the fullest with her husband Ashok and 11-year-old son Pranav. Sulu dreams of being a working woman, but since she couldn't complete high school, she is unable to apply for white-collar jobs. Her elder twin sisters mock her, seeing Sulu as beneath them due to her education. Ashok works as a manager in a tailoring firm; a frustrating job since all his colleagues are cantankerous and over the age of sixty. To make matters worse, the firm is taken over by the owner's grandson, who is extremely rude and abusive to his employees. Sulu and Ashok's son, Pranav, is going through a rough time in school. He is incessantly teased by a group of delinquent classmates who sell R-rated magazines and videos.

One day, Sulu wins a contest hosted by her favourite radio station and goes to collect her prize. While at the station, she sees a poster advertising auditions for an RJ, and feels that this is the job she is meant for. Sulu meets the boss, Maria, who finds her extroverted nature intriguing and gives her an opportunity to audition. Sulu laughs throughout the audition but at the end, says 'Hello' in a sensual tone, which impresses Maria. Inspired by her performance, Maria asks Sulu to do a call-in night show, where people would call her to talk about their problems and she agrees.

Ashok is irritated at first that Sulu took up the job without discussing it with him but relents out of love for his wife. On her first day, Sulu faces a rude caller who tries to change their chat into an obscene one, but is able to tactfully handle it. Next, she gets a request to sing, and excitedly does a song she only sings for her husband. Ashok is annoyed by her behaviour, his displeasure further exacerbated by his frustrations with his new boss who treats him terribly. Sulu's family disagrees with the tone of her show and wants her to quit, but Ashok stands by her. The show becomes successful and Sulu enjoys her work, growing more worldly and confident. However, Ashok continues taking out his frustrations at home about both his job and her. Sulu's life becomes high at work and low at home.

Production

The official announcement of the film was made in November 2016.

The principal photography of the film commenced in Mumbai on 25 April 2017. The team started the shoot by performing a 'puja' which was attended and blessed by the mothers of the producers and director on 21 April 2017.

Soundtrack

The music of the film is composed by Guru Randhawa, Rajat Nagpal, Tanishk Bagchi, Laxmikant–Pyarelal, Amartya Bobo Rahut and Siddhant Kaushal while the lyrics have been penned by Randhawa, Nagpal, Javed Akhtar, Vayu, Siddhant Kaushal and Santanu Ghatak who sang the song "Rafu". The first song of the film "Ban Ja Rani" from Randhawa's 2016 album "Tu Meri Rani" has been recreated for this film and it was released on 16 October 2017. The second song of the film titled as "Hawa Hawai 2.0" from Anil Kapoor's 1987 film Mr. India has also been recreated for this film by music composer Bagchi and it was released on 26 October 2017. The third single to be released was "Manva Likes To Fly" which is sung by Shalmali Kholgade was released on 3 November 2017. The soundtrack was released by T-Series on 4 November 2017.

Key details