Woman!!!

Have you ever loved a woman?

Like every other year, 8^th 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 9^th 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 8^th 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?

Wanted: Developed Economy Housemates to live with

Developed Economy Housemates.... if there is a term like that, can one of the quintessential answer to the question that plagues many wannabe professionals - stuck-in-a- developing -economy like ours....

Working women, (may your tribe increase) in our country, wherever they maybe... Mumbai,Madurai, Mangalore, Murtizapur, Nagpur...Dispur..or even the entire Indian Diaspora, are more often than not are haunted by too many societal and familial role expectations... Gone are the days where they needed to take permission from their better halves to work or not... they are getting a mind of their own, deciding their own course of life and at the same time, sticking to their decisions.

But..what is probably missing is the support that they need and deserve in their endeavour to not only safeguard but also maintain their individuality. I totally feel we shall forever remain wannabe professionals stuck in a rut.

To explain the opening phrase, its just a matter of living in a developed economy, where each person can afford a decent standard of living and so it is probably a land of no maids, more so a land of professional, expensive maids. .. which amounts to most people doing their own set of chores, picking up after themselves and sharing simple household burdens... can that ever happen to us ... here in India??? i truly feel its a distant dream..

Why can't housemates (read husbands, family members, in laws, outlaws, children) train themselves to share.... not just emotions and thoughts but also simple thumbtack chores???

Why should the so called," mother figure" bear the brunt of the child's tantrums, wash, clean, mend, ensure school, hobby class timings are met, in short be RESPONSIBLE for everything, meaning if anything goes wrong, she is responsible...

And, as if this is not enough also perform at work... wow!!! Will we ever start thinking on a more adult level in this lifetime???

I need answers... and i need them quick....

am sulking and clearing cobwebs in my brain at the same time...

Am sure going to spew some more sputter shortly....

this is just an unanswered prayer....

life

We can lead a perfect life .... only if it is lived "in retrospect".

Kids et al

We just bring up children, but actually they make us grow.....

I firmly believe that we should not hit children, however naughty they may be. I also truly think that no child in the entire universe deserves to be spanked or whacked.... its just that they need it sometimes..

Copycats

Copycat copycat… kill a rat, tell your mother I am fat…..
So went the childish chant at school when lesser mortals (read: so called morally weaker individuals ) succumbed to the ignominious sin of cheating or copying. Today if anti plagiarism activists were to take up a similar chant when it came to Bollywood, they would be thirsting for breath. Infact blind copies from Hollywood, vernacular movies, have become so mundane that no one even lifts so much as the proverbial eyebrow when another such crime is unearthed.

It was one of the highly underrated comedians of our times, Sajid Khan who actually brought such peccadilloes to the audience with his distinctive comic style in a lesser known series, “Kehne mein kya harj hai”. Like each individual goes through the adolescent thrill of discovery of sex, each movie buff goes through this phase of finding similarities in scripts, music or scenes. What used to be funny for sometime now has lost lustre and this loss has resulted in us, the audience, becoming a tad bored and tolerant of such transgressions. During research for this article, I found one of the best sites on plagiarism in Bollywood called www.bollycat.com, aptly subtitled, “Bollycats, the chronicles of plagiarism in India’s bollywood movies.”

Plagiarism as defined in the dictionary means, is the practice of claiming, or implying, original authorship or incorporating material from someone else's written or creative work, in whole or in part, into ones own without adequate acknowledgment. Our film industry is rife with such examples of blatant stealing. Akele Hum Akele Tum was Kramer Vs Kramer, with a little twist and the usual happy, hindi movie ending. In the original, the hero wins the court battle and custody of the child, our desi version had the heroine winning the court case and then coming back to her real love and uniting the family. One of the recent hits, Hum Tum could be termed a rip off of when “Harry met Sally” albeit with a few Indianised differences.

Some of our film makers incidentally specialise in copying, be it scenes, entire storylines or special effects. Zinda was a bootlegged Oldboy, Reservoir Dogs could be morphed into Kaante. Sanjay Gupta, the man behind the scenes in both these movies has although been polite enough to mention that Zinda was a tribute to all the Korean movies that he had seen (he actually meant only one movie, Oldboy). Another big name in film making that comes to mind when we broach this topic is Vikram Bhatt. Ghulam – On the waterfront (Aamir Khan = Marlon Brando); Kasoor – Jagged Edge; Jurm – Fatal Attraction; Raaz – What Lies Beneath; the list can go on…. Unfortunately all his movies are called ‘inspirations’ instead of ‘translations’.

When Mario Puzo wrote the Godfather, he probably didn’t envisage the following that he would spawn, more so when Francis Ford Coppola made it into a movie, he paved the way for hundreds of adaptations, pathetic or otherwise. Aamir Khan one of the finest actors of our times can be condoned for acting in one of the worst ones which was Aatank hi Aatank. Dharmatma starring Feroz Khan was another. (Both competed with Al Pacino as Michael Corleone)

Sholay the best movie of our times, one in which the actors, plot and script have wonderfully dovetailed into each other is a loose lift of The Magnificient Seven which in turn was a lift of the Seven Samurai, which was also copied as China Gate and Khotey Sikkey. But copied or otherwise, we do agree that Sholay was the best Indianisation of a western / foreign / international theme.

Main Aisa hi hoon is I am Sam, Ab Bas is Enough, Hawas is Unfaithful, Judwaa is Twin Dragons, similarly, Khel was Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Ek Ruka hua Faisla was 12 Angry Men, Khwaish was Love Story (E) which was also Akhion ke Jharokhe Se.

The accolades and award winning Black is The Miracle Worker with a difference, the main protagonist is of a different gender. Dhoom was a loose The Fast and the Furious and Lagaan was a rehashed and rural Escape to Victory.( Aamir Khan also admitted to being extremely influenced by Asterix comics).Baazigar can be a rehashed Kiss before Dying.

Omigod…. The list is endless…. Can we please start a competition where readers contribute to this list and also start a new list for scenes, themes, music etc…

Where is the Creative police when we need them..?