New Delhi: With the fourth and final season of Four More Shots Please now out, Kirti Kulhari is saying goodbye to her character, the fiercely independent Anjana, with a sense of satisfaction and a slight hint of relief.
“I did get bored with my character in the third season and told Rangita Pritish Nandy, why aren’t we moving ahead from what she is doing? She did listen, and I am happy with the way season four is,” Kulhari told ThePrint.
The Amazon Prime Video series, often referred to as the desi version of Sex and the City, has attracted both love and brickbats since its premiere in 2019. Its first season was the streaming platform’s most watched show, and made the characters household names.
“The show really connected because it feels like our story—that there is a rebel in every woman. All the characters are absolutely flawed, and that’s why the resonance,” Kulhari said.
The actor, known for her roles in films such as Pink (2016) and Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019), plays Anjana, an ambitious single mother who is negotiating life after divorce in Four More Shots Please.
The third season showed Anjana helping her ex-husband reunite with his estranged wife, while also trying to mend a complicated relationship at work with a married ex-lover. The final season, which released on 19 December, sees her focus on her career and daughter, while also starting a new relationship with Rohan, played by Dino Morea.
Despite low ratings for the latest season, Kulhari’s performance has been lauded by critics.
“Kirti Kulhari stands out as Anjana Menon, portraying a committed lawyer and single mother with quiet authority and restraint,” wrote Abhishek Srivastava in his review of the show.
After her long stint as the well-heeled Anjana, Kulhari has been expanding her repertoire this year, from playing a Muslim cook in the indie film Full Plate to a rebellious antagonist in the masala potboiler Badass Ravi Kumar.
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‘Being bold looks different to different people’
Kulhari said she confounded expectations with her turn as Amreen in Tannishtha Chatterjee’s Full Plate, which premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in September this year.
Much of the film was shot in Versova village, including a home there.
“A lot of people were surprised because they didn’t think I could do a role like this, live in the area for 15 days and shoot,” Kulhari said.
Chatterjee, who had been Kulhari’s co-star in Jal (2013), offered her the role two years ago. Kulhari plays Amreen, a cook who becomes the sole breadwinner after her husband’s (Sharib Hashmi) ability to work is compromised by an accident. A mother of three, she takes up a part-time job as a cook for an upper-class couple, and soon finds her choices policed, first by the people in the ghetto she lives in, and then by her overly possessive husband, who creates barriers in her work life.
The film got mixed reviews, with Asian Movie Pulse deeming that it relied largely “on the on-screen chemistry between Kulhari and the rest of the cast.”
Kulhari, who is not very fond of cooking, identified more with the role played by Monica Dogra, the woman whose house Amreen cooks at. But the role gave her fresh insights into what rebellion and liberation can look like.
“People expected Amreen to remove her burqa and claim her freedom. But that was never a thought in my or Tannishtha’s mind. Not all women are uncomfortable with hijab and that’s fine. Being bold and empowered looks different to different people, Amreen and Anjana are both empowered in their own ways,” she said.
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Making a ‘badass’ choice
Known for being a ‘serious’ actor, with roles in films such as Indu Sarkar (2017) and Blackmail (2018), Kulhari’s decision to act in the musical spoof action film Badass Ravi Kumar fuelled furious online debates. The Himesh Reshammiya-directed film, where he also played the lead, was an out and out entertainer that had a competent run at the box office.
“If you look at my career, the fact that I have not done something like a Badass Ravi Kumar is precisely why I wanted to do the film. It was an extremely conscious decision. I have a rebel inside that will do a Full Plate because people cannot imagine me as a maid, and a Badass Ravi Kumar because they do not think I will,” Kulhari said.
But it is streaming that the actor credits with expanding her career. Apart from Four More Shots Please, she acted in the second season of Criminal Justice (2022) and as Dr Sabharwal in the medical thriller series Human (2022).
“It has given opportunity to actors who were feeling lost in Bollywood, and did not want to do television. It put me on the map, allowed me to showcase my craft, and has helped me reach where I am,” Kulhari said.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)