Meet Artist Manjri Varde, Also The Cool Mother-In-Law Winning The Internet

Artist Manjri Varde is cooking, laughing and dancing her way into our hearts with her fun videos on social media. Here’s what makes this #SassySaasoo tick!

Manjri Varde, 65, is having a serious conversation about the vegetables she needs to order for Undhiyu, when we call her. The artist, grandmother and newly-minted Instagram influencer makes the famous Gujarati winter dish every year and despite moving to Goa during the lockdown in 2020, doesn’t want to let go of her Undhiyo obsession. “Eight kilos of vegetables are on their way,” she says over our Zoom call, the glee on her face clearly speaking of the delightful vegetable-laden dish to come.

As expected, the Undhiyu video drops on Varde’s Instagram soon, turning a famous and popular recipe into a fun activity, with her entire family chipping in. Daughter-in-law Sameera Reddy does a little dandiya to celebrate the occasion, daughter Alishka holds the Undhiyu veggies as Mama Varde does a mini aarti and even the grandkids are put into action – sorting vegetables before Varde gets ready to cook it all!

The video is a riot but that’s no surprise. Varde has 69,870 followers on Instagram, a complete nod to the popularity of the videos she regularly uploads with her daughter-in-law, model and actress Sameera Reddy.

“The credit for the idea goes to my daughter in law,” says this SassySaasu as social media knows her.

What makes the videos tick is the easy, no holds barred, humour-laced relationship between Varde and Reddy, who’ve completely flipped the switch (they have a video by that name too) on how the conventional mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship is perceived. They banter, they bicker and they have each others’ backs — with Varde sportingly participating in everything from dancing to new age numbers or posing in a Cowgirl avatar with boots and hat to match! It is lighthearted yet not without strong messages — of an intergenerational bond that is unconventional simply because of our social conditioning and of turning age-related stereotypes on their head.

Varde, who never anticipated the explosion of reactions that have happened to their videos (and also the increase in followers) says people have loved seeing the bond between the two.

“I hear things like, it’s so nice that you drop the whole television cliche about a negative saas bahu relationship. To that I say, I’m living in the same house right. Why would I be fighting with her? Why would there be a power struggle between us?”

Varde says both she and Reddy, who married her son Akshai seven years ago, share a wonderful rapport built on honest communication. She is happy if they are setting MIL-DIL goals for their audience. “Once in a while like everyone else, something might come up but she’s very vocal about it and just speaks her mind out. And I appreciate someone like that who doesn’t sneak around behind my back and says what’s up front instead.”

Varde has a unique style of her own that she carries off with panache. She’s often dressed in sarees and scarves designed with the artistic font she devised, called AumAkshar, which showcases shlokas, mantras and poems. It reads in English but has the appearance of the Devnagri script. Varde uses it across her art – from the canvas to the saree.

Family has always been Varde’s support system. Her art is probably in the genes — her father was famous Gujarati theatre person Vijay Bhat. ‘He encouraged me to do applied arts at a time when many parents wouldn’t have,” she adds.

Today her creative cheerleaders are the younger people in her family. Now with her daughter-in-law, Varde, a self-confessed introvert, is discovering her performer in her.

“I’m 65. For 60 years we have done what it expected of us. You have to be fearless at some point. Because you have lived your life. And you’re leaving a legacy for the younger girls who are coming. So if you’re not going to stand up for yourself (to age stereotyping), and for them, then I think your life is wasted.”

We couldn’t have done better straight-talking than that!

Photographs courtesy: Manjri Varde