Women's Day 2021: Through the kohl-lined lens: Women directors just make movies better

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If a woman had directed The Godfather, Connie would have killed Carlo Rizzi herself instead of waiting for Michael to give the order. She would have confessed to him, but she wouldn’t be whining and doing the banshee thing. There’s more to Italian mothers than the book or the movie show. I love the movie, but these lame female characters: Kay, Mary, Connie and even the mother Carmela don’t really make any difference to the book/movie. And Appleonia has to be blown up dramatically to turn Michael into the hero. It would have been wonderful to see a little ivory-handled pistol in Carmela’s handbag...

For all you Tarantino and Scorcese fans, Harvey Keitel is a Reservoir Dog, a pimp in Taxi Driver, and a baddie in The Irishman, but it took Jane Campion to make him into this magnificent male who can create a pit of desire in your stomach because of the way he looks as Ada playing the piano. The Piano is a brilliant movie where Campion makes her heroine sullen and treacherous and not likable.

Had a man directed writer Kunal Basu’s short story called The Japanese Wife, could he have managed the silences with which Raima Sen lives in Rahul Bose’s home? Rahul Bose is Snehamoy, a gentle mild-mannered math teacher and the closest he has come to a relationship is with a pen pal called Miyage - The Japanese Wife - with whom he exchanges the most beautifully written letters. When a widowed Sandhya (Raima Sen) arrives at his home with a young son Poltu, his life changes. Who’d have thunk that Moushumi Chatterjee (yes, that star who danced about ‘Hai Hai Ek Ladka Mujhko Khat Likhta Hai’) would be matriarch, an aunt in a movie about love letters.

Also read: Women's Day 2021 | Dark, Funny, Poignant: Two authors on stories of impetuous women

It took Aparna Sen to smash patriarchy with silences and stolen glances between the characters.

Aparna Sen is not only a fabulous actor but a director with an eye for incredible detail like in Mr and Mrs Iyer when the two are at the mercy of rioters. There are other films too that offer that delicate sound of thunder, and only because it takes that special kohl-lined perspective to show us the goings-on at 36 Chowringhee Lane or the schizophrenic sister’s feelings in Paromita’s Ek Din.

Normal is not something you should aspire to, it’s something you have to run away from, is a quote attributed to Jodie Foster, and I love it simply because that works for most of the women directors in India, who battle the toxic masculinity and patriarchy that characterise our mainstream cinema and manage to create fabulous films. Zoya Akhtar is known for her many ‘hit’ films, but I am continued to be amazed by Luck By Chance (her debut film) and Honeymoon Travels Private Limited which are much fun and different. Could anyone tell the story of a man with Bollywood dreams in his head with as much hope than she did? If you do a dream cast in your head every time you watch a movie, then try imagining Woody Allen or any other male director) making this film. A daunting task it will be!

I’m not saying only women can handle stories with a delicate touch, I believe no other song offers a more feminist narrative than Waheeda Rehman breaking out with an ‘Aaj Phir Jeene Ki Tamanna Hai’, but then Vijay Anand was a director with such magnificent sensibilities…But it makes a difference to the way women handle the subject. Nowhere else has Sridevi looked as vulnerable and yet strong as she did in English Vinglish. The film directed by Gauri Shinde is one of the best films to come out of mainstream Bollywood. If you watch it today, you will want to call your mum right away because you realise that you have - just like Shashi’s family in the film - hurt your mother in small ways not even realising that she is trying her best to adjust to this world that has changed so quickly. What happens when a woman is transported from a small town (Chidambaram) to the United States, and she finds herself neglected by her husband, hated on by her daughter? Revathi’s story about finding a friend on social media Mitr, My Friend won a lot of awards when it was released, but aren’t we still discussing if chatting intimately online is infidelity or not even today!

Speaking of mainstream movies, women directors have made action films too. Kathryn Bigelow directed The Hurt Locker and changed how women directors are perceived by the masses. I am quite sure women directors in India could just as easily make cars explode or show Devdas pining away for his Paro, but I wonder if they’d still make their heroines submissive or desperate damsels in distress if they were to direct a Dabaang type cop movie?! Katheryn Bigelow has already made duty vs friendship and love in Point Break. Who else but a woman director gives us the most ridiculously good looking men - Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves - and pit them against one another. Where else could you get so close to Swayze’s bluest of blue eyes and find heaven there even though Keanu’s FBI agent has just revealed himself to him…

The film was so amazing it was remade in 2015, but personally, even though the action was great, the film lacked soul. Speaking of soul, no other female director could have been the soul of a body of work that keeps her heads over other filmmakers. Yes, I’m talking of Sai Paranjpe. From the super sensitive Sparsh to the slice of life in Katha (still cannot get over that she made Farooq Sheikh the flirty one to Naseeruddin Shah’s meek man unable to express his love for Sandhya (Dipti Naval). Another meek lad Chirag Dubey (Ayushmann Khurrana) tells the obnoxious Preetam Virodhi (Rajkummar Rao) to handle the firecracker Bitti (Kriti Sanon) and you smile through the comic love triangle in Bareilly Ki Barfi. Ashwiny Iyer Tiwary has directed the delightful Nil Battey Sannata which tackles women’s education as never before. If women help other women break the barriers constructed by society, more girls would be in school.

Would a male director be able to get the awesome Julian Sands away from his hideaway (he’s not on social media writer/director Sooni Taraporewala insists) and get him to portray the irascible Saul in the most incredible film called ‘Yeh Ballet’. Who could better convey the conflicted childhood in the ghetto as Sooni Taraporewala does?

And last but not the least, it takes a woman’s heart and soul to make a film about football and have Beckham’s poster be yelled at by an Indian mom. Bend It Like Beckham remains one of my all-time favourite footy movies. Yes, Gurinder Chadha’s lens captures the joy of kicking a ball and dodging aunties in ways we could have never imagined.

Thought I’d leave you with a thought though: Would Sholay be different had a woman directed it? Would Jaya Bhaduri’s character only light lamps and look longingly at Jai or would she do more? Would a woman director make Veeru a trifle less annoying? Would she get rid of the annoying jailor and his band of idiot police?Follow our full coverage of Women's Day 2021