Have you ever loved a woman?
Like every other year, 8th of
March will be celebrated by ‘Archie’s, Hallmark, et al as Women’s Day again
this year. Right through the week all of us will be reminded to honour,
respect, remember and appreciate the women in our lives. The men will get a
dressing down and the women will be hailed. Arch feminists will hum the “who
needs men?” tune… and we women will start believing that we can rule the world.
This euphoria will last only for a week. Come the 9th of March and
we will go back to our old selves. And the question now arises, who are these
old selves? We are all mothers, wives, lovers, sisters, daughters, friends,
teachers, mentors (we like to believe that we are all that and more rolled into
one.) But are we “WOMEN” in the true sense of the word? Do we really see
ourselves as individuals who are in fact the embodiment of Nature, earth and love?
Some of the films released hitherto, have
tried to illustrate the same theme albeit with the usual Hindi movie mish mash.
But a few do stand out because of the strength of their central characters,
theme and narration. One of such recent ones is Matrubhoomi (2005) by Prakash
Jha. The title which means Motherland is the biggest paradox that the movie
could have. The tagline, ‘A nation without women’ explains the hard hitting
theme. The movie explores the ugly impact of female foeticide. Matrubhoomi’s
main protagonist, Kalki (Tulip Joshi) is the heroine in every sense of the
word. The movie starts with scenes which have dreadful sexual implications. The
storyline is clearly set in a village where the gender ratio has been thrown
totally off balance by many ‘male heir’ hungry families, where girls are hard
to find, where lust has reached desperation and so has replaced respect, honour
or love.
Kalki is is wedded to five brothers in an
upper caste household because they cannot find one bride each, in exchange for
money. (A high handed take on the Pandavas- Draupadi tale). She is just an
object of desire for each of the brothers who take turns to abuse her each
night. The youngest brother, seems different, he teaches her to read, be
herself and most importantly to love. It is this love which brings hope and
laughter in her life. Kalki’s fate is jinxed when she is caught in a caste war
and then subjected to further rape and abuse by the villagers in the barn where
she is tied like an animal. Towards the end, she becomes pregnant and during
the same time, her entire family and village are destroyed because of the caste
wars.
All through her trauma, she seems in abject
subjugation of her fate. Her attempts to flee are all in vain. But what moves
you are the circumstances that she is subjected to. She seems to accept the
atrocities like a fatalist. The strength and resolve of the character hits you
only in the last scene. Amidst all the strife, Kalki gives birth to a girl
child. The movie ends with the sound of the small child crying and Kalki
smiling. That smile is the most poignant of all. It personifies, freedom, love
and above all, triumph. Kalki who till now was mute when it came to expression
of her feelings, speaks through that tender smile. She teaches us what Janis
Joplin told us, "Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've
got."
Matrubhoomi told a tale which could easily
be a real one in some of the rural interiors of the country. But there are
quite a few examples where filmmakers have tried to explore the woman’s psyche
and delicately weave a tale about her needs and wants. If Deepa Mehta’s ‘Fire’
spoke about intimacy between two women arising out of dissatisfaction or
neglect by their respective partners, her “Water” made forays of a different
kind. It is a movie by a woman about some women who reconcile, question and
rebel for their identities. It is about an ashram for widows. Set in an era
when superstition, religious fallacies
and ritualistic behavior was rife, the movie captures the sisterhood of the
three main protagonists. It is a riveting story told expressively through the
angry embers in Shakuntala’s (Seema Biswas) eyes and the innocent mischief of
Chuiya (Sarala- A Sri Lankan child actor). But “Water” can be easily dismissed
as a story that does n’t happen any more, although if we look carefully, we’ll
easily find parallels all around us.
Portrayal of women and their needs seems to
be changing in mainstream cinema too. “Dor” by Nagesh Kukunoor is one of the
recent flicks, which tells the sensitive tale of two women from diverse
backgrounds thrown together by circumstances. It talks about the tenacity of
Zeenat (Gul Panaag) and the acceptance of suffering of Meera (Ayesha Takia).
Each in her own way fighting and pining for lost love.
Sometimes, relatively average movies have
some really memorable lines, characters or scenes. We have Sushmita Sen in
Samay as the single mother, policewoman holding her head high in the all male
bastion or Kareena Kapoor as the fighter princess who leads an army against the
mighty king in Asoka. Bipasha Basu played the slick executive in Corporate, but
the movie maker played on her feminity to give the movie a twist in the tale.
Her emotions overtake ambition to bring about her downfall. Refreshing though
was Shilpa Shetty’s fight for her rights as the HIV patient in Phir Milenge.
Shobhana in Mitr, as the woman seeking herself or Konkona Sen in Page 3 as the
reporter trying to rise above the filth in society were impressive. Madhuri
Dixit in Pratibandh, Raveena in Satta have thankfully come out of the mould to
play real characters rather than mere cardboard cutouts. Cinema surely seems to
be coming of age, as more women filmmakers are entering the arena and bringing
along their sensitivity to the stories.
If the movies have initiated this trend of
mirroring our real strength, love, beauty and power on us, can’t we unite in
the cause to admire and love ourselves more? Lets then make this 8th
of March a special one by vowing to transform our “old selves” into the lovely
women that we truly are.
Have a great year ahead!!!
P.S: For all the men in our lives, we love
to reciprocate your love and support that you’ve given us till now…. Thanks for
realizing that we should be loved not understood.
Without you, what would we do? …………. How
would we pass our time?
