Divya Dutta, Annup Sonii’s The Relationship Manager asks women to break the silence on domestic violence

Divya Dutta plays a homemaker struggling with abuse at home, during the lockdown period in The Relationship Manager. How Annup Sonii - a relationship manager from her bank - manages to offer the much-needed mental support and push she needed is what the short film traces.

Actors Divya Dutta and Annup Sonii have collaborated for a short film that landed online Saturday and it is quite an impressive watch. Written and directed by Falguni Thakore, The Relationship Manager is an intriguing and brilliantly-written short film that touches the sensitive subject of a woman’s mindset when in an abusive relationship and handles it quite well.

Divya Dutta in a still from The Relationship Manager.

Annup’s character works as a relationship manager in a bank while Divya is one of his clients. Set in the backdrop of the lockdown that has rendered almost everyone homebound, The Relationship Manager opens on a sweet note. In the 18 minute-long film, Annup and Divya form an engaging as well as touching conversation that is warm, close and yet hard-hitting.

Divya plays a homemaker who is facing abuse from her husband and Soniii happens to overhear a sound that makes him believe something is not right. He decides to call her up and enquire, but as a bank’s rep, he has his limitations. In his own words, “Mai apka relationship manager hoon. Kuch bhi bolo to logo ko lagta hai, ab kuch bechega. (I am your relationship manager, no matter what I say you will be wondering what am I trying to sell).” With that in his mind, how will he extend that helping hand, without sounding too intrusive?

Annup’s lines have been written crisply to avoid any melodrama that may creep in for such situations. He shares a rather personal experience with Divya but without much fanfare. Both Divya and Annup have enacted their parts with enough restraint to cut the overload of emotions and yet make it look authentic.

The short film also has a short cameo by Anupam Kher who plays a typical customer - someone who does not want to answer calls from the bank and when he does, is the most rude, even when he knows the discussion is for his own benefit. Annup’s wife Juhi Babbar also plays his onscreen wife in the short film and has a small but decent appearance as a pregnant woman sensitive towards the needs of others.

The closing sequence of the film is both intriguing and empowering. Watching it can make you realise how anyone can provide an ounce of courage to the victim of domestic violence that can lead them to stand up for themselves in the time of distress.

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