3 cheers to women

By Rinky Kumar

Women have broken the proverbial glass ceiling in almost all fields. So, it comes as no surprise that women film-makers are penning scripts and donning the director?s hat. They deal with diverse topics and lend a certain sensitivity to their films. How can we forget, Mira Nair, Aparna Sen, Sai Paranjpe and Deepa Mehta, who have given us thought-provoking movies. We take a look at three dynamic women who have welded the director?s baton and of late given us three interesting films:

1) Nandita Das
Claim to fame: Award-winning actress, seen in films like Fire, Earth, Bawandar, Aks

The actress has enthralled and entertained us with her heart-rending critically acclaimed performances. Born to an artist father and journalist mother, Nandita Das had artistic sensibilities at a very early age. After acting in a street play, she got a chance in a small film Ek Thi Gunja. She later landed the role of Sita in Deepa Mehta?s Fire. After being deeply disturbed by the Gujarat riots and participating in several debates, Nandita decided to make Firaaq.

Directorial debut: Firaaq

Firaaq explores how different relationships unfold a month after the Godhra carnage. It?s about how violence lingers on much after the obvious manifestation is over. Nandita describes it as a very personal film. ?It is an expression of all the helplessness, anguish, anger, frustration, and the fluctuating optimism I have felt over the years. Firaaq explores the fierce and delicate emotions of fear, anxiety, prejudice and ambivalence in human relationships during such times,? she says. After winning several international awards, the film is slated to release today. We, for sure, can?t wait to watch it!

2) Parvati Balagopalan

Claim to fame: Rules:Pyaar Ka Superhit Formula

A graduate from Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi, Parvati Balagopalan gave us the hugely enjoyable Rules:Pyaar Ka Superhit Formula in 2003. The film took a satirical look at a girl who is given 10 formulas by her grandmother to get a good catch and how these rules backfire. Parvati has also directed several tele-serials on human relationships.

Second film as a director: Straight Parvati is back with her second film Straight. It revolves around the life of Pinu Patel, a London-based restaurateur, played by Vinay Pathak and his attempts to find a suitable girl. But then, a sudden incident compels him to re-think his sexual confrontation and decide if he?s straight or gay.

Gul Panag, who has acted in the film says, ?This is my second film with Parvati. I have earlier worked with her for Phir Zindagi, which is currently under production and will be released later this year. Parvati is a complete professional who has a discerning view. She has given an interesting twist to Straight which takes a refreshing and different look at sexuality.?

3) Sooni Taraporevala

Claim to fame: Scriptwriter of Salaam Bombay, Mississipi Masala, The Namesake and photographer.

Sooni Taraporevala has made India proud in the global arena several times. After graduating from Harvard University, she wrote the screenplays of Mira Nair?s Salaam Bombay and Mississipi Masala. She later collaborated with Mira for My Own Country and The Namesake. She has also produced Such A Long Journey, based on Rohinton Mistry?s book of the same name. The scriptwriter is also known as a photographer. She has published the first coffee table photography book on the India's Parsi Zoroastrian community.

Directorial debut: Little Zizou

The internationally acclaimed scriptwriter and photographer recently gave us the sweet, entertaining Little Zizou. Seen through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy Xerxes, it has an ensemble cast of several Parsi characters with diverse inspirations and aspirations. The light-hearted film attempts to highlight the dispute between the fundamentalists and liberalists within the Parsi community. It has won largely positive reviews for its cheerful charm.

Beti no 1

By Rinky Kumar

Saas-bahu clashes, dance reality, talent hunt and comedy shows are passé. Though they are still boring us on prime time television, they no longer enjoy such high TRPs. Trials and tribulations of young girls are the flavour of the season. They have ousted saas-bahus who failed to shock and entertain us with their scheming ways, oodles of cakey make-up and weird camera angles.
Innocent young girls are now the newest stars on the block. We take a look at five beti serials that are ruling the roost:

1. Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo

It takes a realistic look at a poverty-stricken family residing in Bihar. Laali, the protagonist is the eldest daughter in the family of musahars (rat killers) who is married off at a young age. She's a mother figure for her siblings.

Honestly, we were quite depressed even when we saw the show's promos. We wonder who is the target audience and the show caters to which generation? Agreed, such instances might be happening in reality. But in this age, after a long, hard day, do you really want to know what a rat killer's daughter has to go through?

2. Sabki Laadli Bebo
This show is a stark contrast to Agle Janam Mohe Bitiya Hi Kijo. It tells the story of a middle-aged couple who is yearning for a daughter after having three sons. They are finally blessed with a baby girl. They laugh, cry and are simply ecstatic after having a young princess.

Sabki Laadli Bebo makes us want to cry, literally. Just imagine, in this new-age world, when working couples want to have just one child, we actually watch an old man having four kids! No wonder, India's population is increasing by the day!

3. Mere Ghar Aayi Nanhi Pari

This show again takes an over-exaggerated look at a baby girl as the newest member of an extended family. So her parents and grandparents are simply on top of the world when they see her or become crazy when she is perched on top of the stairs and is about to have a nasty fall.

What can we say? The serial's regressive take transports back to the 1950s and 1960s in a hamlet where sweets were distributed after a girl is born. Why can't producers give us a show about simple, normal working girls like us who definitely lead a more meaningful life than these regressive oldies! Phew!

4. Balika Vadhu

This is the story of Anandi who is married to a guy of her age before attaining puberty. The matriarch of the family is an iron-fisted regressive lady who wants things her way. Avika Gor as Anandi seen in cute ghagra cholis is simply adorable. Though the serial tackles primarily the issue of child marriage, it also aims to highlight subjects like education for the girl child, and widowhood at a tender age or so the producers would like us to believe. We think they are only TRP-grabbing gimmicks.

The parallel track of Anandi's sister-in-law Gehna seems to add more masala to the plot than throw light on pertinent issues. Gehna constantly challenges and questions the rules set by her dictatorial mother-in-law played by Surekha Sikri and adds a new twist to the saas-bahu saga.

5. Uttaran

This soap revolves around the life of seven-year-old, Ichcha, the daughter of a domestic help who works in an affluent family. She gets friendly with eight-year-old Tapasya, the only daughter of that rich family. The two become bosom buddies. What could have been a treat, to watch the contrasting worlds of these two girls and Ichcha's constant struggle to enjoy the small things of life, actually seems contrite and forced.

Here's to the girl child nonetheless.

Not so straight!

By Rinky Kumar

Parvati Balagopalan's new film Straight has been released this week. It takes a humourous look at a man who intends to discover his sexual intentions after serenading men and women alike.

This is just one of the many Hindi films that deals with homosexuality. That makes us wonder about all those movies that have highlighted this theme in a ridiculously insensitive way.

Mind you, Milk, a film based on gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk, might have lapped up several awards and accolades but it sank without a trace here. Same goes for Brokeback Mountain that depicted the forbidden love between two cowboys.

We can assure you that if any of those films were ever remade in India, there would be utter chaos. We would have moral brigades making a tamasha of Indian morals, cultures and values, assaulting the entire cast and maligning them.

Here, rather than depicting gays, bisexuals and lesbians realistically, Hindi films usually end up mocking the same. So we have Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham prancing around town holding hands and proclaiming 'we are gay' to their lady love, all just for a place to stay in Dostana.

We can't stop ourselves from, walking down memory lane and giving you a low down about only those films that have dealt with sexuality ahem, rather lamely!

1. Bombay Boys

This pseudo-comedy by Kaizad Gustad was one of the early films that looked at sexuality in a lighter vein. Xerxes Mistry played by Alexander Gifford discovers he's a homosexual after coming to Mumbai. He has an affair with his gay landlord (Roshan Seth). The director did not take the theme ahead in the film. It was one of the many sub-plots with a loose end. I saw this decade-old movie recently and couldn't stop myself laughing at the film?s sheer ridiculousness!

2. Girlfriend

Who can forget Esha Koppikar and Amrita Arora's raunchy poses and steamy kiss that created havoc across the country in Girlfriend? Karan Razdan's 'realistic' film not only portrayed lesbians in a rather amusing light but also made the love story quite filmy. So we had Esha and Amrita sharing a steamy night, after which Amrita goes ahead and has an affair with another guy. That turns Esha into an obsessive, jilted lover. The moral brigade was up in arms against the film which had to be pulled off theatres across the country. All for this unrealistic lesbian tale...tsk, tsk!

3. Page 3

Like all Madhur Bhandarkar movies, this film too, took a 'realistic look' (yawn) at the journalism world. So Mr Bhandarkar showed a male model, who was the protagonist?s boyfriend, having an affair with a gay photographer as an easy route to success. The director just showed one scene to convey the message. It just added another twist to the already convoluted story, that?s all! Phew, some people are so pseudo-artistic!

4. Life in a metro

This film attempted to look at life in the big, bad city of Mumbai in a realistic way. But it only ended up making a mockery of homosexuals. Konkona Sensharma?s boyfriend (who is actually a gay in the film, sillies) fools her by having an 'affair' with her. He intends to have Konkona as the trophy wife and go steady with his boss boyfriend behind her back.

Perfect, so here we had a film that portrayed gays in a mean light and drive home the message that all gays are conniving! Great, one more label on the community.

5. Fashion

Madhur Bhandarkar was at it again! But this time, unlike Page 3, he presented every other character as gay. Almost all the designers in the film were portrayed as homosexuals who were either conning girls into becoming their wives or ridiculing models. But, we are not surprised, for the film failed to give us a reality check about the fashion world too.

So how could we expect Mr Bhandarkar to do justice to the homosexuality sub plot??

6. Dostana

This wins hands down! Two good-looking actors are made to act as gays and then the producer and director claim that the film tries to create an awareness about homosexuality and respect people's choices. Yeah right!

That's why they made Abhishek Bachchan wear those ridiculous pink shirts with a weird gamcha and gave him those '! I?m so gay mannerisms!' We definitely deserve something better!

Lady behind the lens

By Rinky Kumar

Nandita Das's directorial debut Firaaq is all set to hit the theatres this Friday. The talented actor's first film has already garnered a lot of critical acclaim and won several international awards. In a tête-à-tête with iDiva, the actor-turned-film-maker tells us about what inspired her to don the director's hat.

1) Can you tell a little bit about Firaaq?

Firaaq is a human relationship film. It is about the impact of violence on our lives, how different relationships unfold a month after carnage, over a period of 24 hours. It's about how violence lingers on much after the obvious manifestation is over. For me, this is a very personal film. It is an expression of all the helplessness, anguish, anger, frustration, and the fluctuating optimism I have felt over the years. Firaaq, explores the fierce and delicate emotions of fear, anxiety, prejudice and ambivalence in human relationships during such times.

2) How did the idea come about?

Firaaq is a work of fiction based on a thousand true stories. It had to do with waking up to newspapers with stories full of violence; having conversations about religion and identity and soon finding oneself in a polarised 'them and us' debate; meeting many who were victims, and many more who remained silent ...Firaaq is a reaction to all that and more. I think what happened in Gujarat was deeply disturbing and I started engaging with the issue of communalism in a much deeper way. I felt compelled to tell these stories that I had seen, heard, read and felt. And that's how Firaaq was born.

3) What challenges did you face while shooting for this film?

The journey of making Firaaq has been a cathartic experience that has pushed my boundaries, in ways that have even surprised me and I have enjoyed every phase of film making, with all its challenges, big and small. While it is a collaborative process, it is also a lonely one. I have never had to make so many decisions, multi task at all times and be responsible for so many different things.

4) Since your film deals with the aftermath of the Godhra carnage, as a debut filmmaker and well-established actor what kind of sensitivity did you want the characters to portray?

Firaaq is primarily about fear and prejudice, love and anger, trust and betrayal, hope and despair… basic relatable human emotions. The film is not set during the riot and in fact hardly has any violence. Audiences across board have felt deep empathy for the characters. Each of the actors have brought out the many layers of the characters. I have to say that half the job is done in doing the right casting. In fact, I had some actors in mind even while scripting and feel thrilled that they are in the film. They are, Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal, Raghubir Yadav and Deepti Naval.

I got to experience a diverse range of talent as I searched for my characters; and finally an incredible cast came together. The additions to the list were Sanjay Suri, Tisca Chopra, Shahana Goswami, Nowaz and many other wonderful actors.

5) Firaaq has won a lot of international awards. How does that feel?

I have been overwhelmed by the audience reaction at every festival at which Firaaq has been screened. It has reaffirmed my faith that human emotions are universal. While the film has made the audiences aware of the context, they are also able to relate it to their own experiences.

6) What kind of audience reaction do you expect your film to garner here?

I hope Firaaq continues to touch the hearts and minds of all those who watch it because it is here in India that the film is most relatable and the nuances most understood. The film is not bout pointing fingers or preaching an easy solution, but the idea is to raise a lot of questions we hesitate to ask ourselves. And as with any creative work, each person will take from it what resonates with them.