Category: Ms Representation

A column about women representation in Cinema

Ms. Representation: Kidnapping the Girl Friend

KGF 2 has changed the conversation around Indian cinema. Its box-office success (after Pushpa and RRR) has established the Indian cinema fraternity’s new catchphrase: ‘pan-Indian’. The question is, when will Tamil cinema get its own ‘pan-Indian’ project?

With all this talk about pan-Indian films, it’s natural to wonder what this term actually indicates. Does it indicate films made in multiple languages? Nope. KGF, Pushpa, and RRR were all made in one language and dubbed for release in multiple languages. Okay, so, does it mean films being celebrated across demographics? Not really, because then, films like Jai Bhim, Karnan or The Great Indian Kitchen should have made the cut too. Fun fact: The Great Indian Kitchen is currently being remade in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi. But that’s not what pan-Indian success means. What it essentially boils down to are two things: a big-budget, mass-masala-commercial film and box office success.

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Ms Representation: Glamour and gaze

What do Deepika Padukone, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, and Neena Gupta have in common? In the past few weeks, they have all spoken against trolls who have harassed them on their sartorial choices. After being ‘criticised’ for a deep neck gown she wore for an awards show, Samantha put up a social media post that read, “Making snap judgements about a person simply based on the clothes they wear is quite literally the easiest thing one can do. Now that we are in the year 2022, can we finally stop judging a woman based on the hemlines and necklines she adorns and focus instead on bettering ourselves?” Neena Gupta shared similar sentiments in a recent video: “I am posting this video only because I feel that women who wear short or skimpy clothes, like the one I am wearing, are thought to be worthless. But let me tell you that I have done an M Phil in Sanskrit. I have many more accomplishments to talk about. One shouldn’t judge a woman by the outfit she wears. The ones who troll should know this.”

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Ms Representation: Gangubhai Kathiawadi-The woman bears the brunt

One of the strongest tenets of patriarchy is to burden the woman with the complete responsibility of sex and lay accusations. If it is pre-marital, then the woman gets called a slut. In a marriage, there are accusations of ‘mundhanai la mudiyarathu’. Even in extramarital affairs, the other woman carries more blame than the man involved. In rape too, the frequent response is sadly still that she probably asked for it. Our cultural system absolves the man of responsibility and holds the woman accountable and judges her for the same.

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Ms. Representation: Are the parts worth more than the whole?

Did you know our brains see men as whole and women as parts? A 2012 study in the European Journal of Social Psychology suggests that our brains process the images of men and women differently. There are two ways — global processing and local processing. Global processing is when your brain identifies objects as a whole. For example, faces. While we know and remember faces in their entirety, we don’t always recognise noses or ears separately without the rest. Local processing focuses more on individual parts of an object. The study says that people (regardless of gender) process female images ‘locally’ (to identify body parts even when they are isolated) while male images were processed globally — a sign of objectification. In a nutshell, men are people, and women are parts.

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Ms. Representation: Sivaranjaniyum Inum Sila Pengalum-Dissent in the drawing room

“If I have seen further, it is because I am standing on the shoulders of giants.” Newton’s iconic words have, for long, been used to symbolise progress. But watching Director Vasanth’s Sivaranjaniyum Inum Sila Pengalum (SISP) reminded me of all the battles our women have fought in their drawing rooms. Whatever modest progress we, women, have achieved, is because our female predecessors have fought tooth and nail for it. This isn’t always out of choice; in fact, they happen because there is no choice. When the space for a woman continues to shrink, at some point, she is forced to fight to reclaim it. Dissent becomes survival. SISP, an anthology, brings stories of three women and how they reclaim their space (all of them are stories adapted from short stories by Ashokamithran, Adhavan, and Jeyamohan respectively.)

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Ms. Representation: Where are the older heroines?

One of the most exciting casting announcements in recent times was that Khushbu and Meena were going to be part of Rajinikanth’s Annaththe. Naturally, there was curiosity over the announcement. Two of Tamil cinema’s successful heroines from the 90s, Khushbu and Meena have played the female lead in several Rajinikanth blockbusters. Conventionally, older heroines do not get to play the female lead when they return to cinema. They turn into sisters, sisters-in-law, or even mothers of the same heroes they had once been partners of. Annaththe followed suit: Nayanthara was paired with Rajinikanth, while Khushbu and Meena played Kalaiyan’s (Rajinikanth) hung-up ‘morai ponnunga’ in a ridiculously unfunny track that did no justice to both women. Pachakili (Soori) says, “Ivanga close panna account-a reopen panna vandhrukanga.” The film and the treatment stop that from happening.

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Ms. Representation: MeToo from the Medieval times

“Are you sure you didn’t dream that he raped you?” “Was the sex pleasurable?” “Perhaps you had another lover, and you are accusing this man to cover it up.” No, these aren’t comments from the internet trolls on a #MeToo testimony. These are remarks made by the prosecution in the court while interrogating a rape survivor in Sir Ridley Scott’s latest release, The Last Duel. Set in 1386, the film captures the last judicial duel ordered by the Parlement of Paris — between Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) and Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver), where the former accuses the latter of raping his wife, Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer).

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Ms Representation: What makes a woman?

Mard Ki Body. This was the comment Taapsee Pannu received when her look for Rashmi Rocket was unveiled. The Pink actor sports a tough, sinewy look to play the role of a medal-winning international athlete. Our society, however, ascribes that description only to a male. Responding to the comment, Taapsee wrote, “Many women actually hear this daily for no fault of theirs. An ode to all the athletes who give their sweat and blood to the sport and their nation and still get to hear this.”

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Ms. Representation: Danger in disguise

In his paper, ‘Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development’, BR Ambedkar says that subjugation of women is inherent in the process of caste formation. “Man—as a maker of injunctions—is most often above them all,” says Ambedkar, as he formulates the genesis of caste. Endogamy is the essence of the caste system, and so, women who marry and reproduce become important for the caste system to flourish. Intercaste marriages are ‘allowed’ as ‘natural order’, when a man from a higher caste marries a woman from a lower caste (described in Manusmriti as anuloma).

However, an upper-caste woman marrying a man from the lower castes (called pratiloma) is banned. It’s thought ‘unnatural’ and worthy of ‘punishment’. That’s why we see devastating crimes occur around such developments. Furthermore, women are to be ‘taken by her father, then her husband, and later her son’. Woman, as an unwitting instrument in caste politics, is controlled, often by the violent suppression of sexual liberties. In speaking of caste, we must notice intersectionality and acknowledge the deep gender factor.

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Ms Representation: A journey through time to denigrate women

A clip from Santhanam’s latest Zee5 release Dikkiloona made waves on social media (no, it’s not Anagha dancing to Per Vechalum). In this trending clip, Mani (Santhanam) criticises a woman for wearing a little black dress. “Freedom is not living as per your wishes but living in a manner that’s acceptable to society,” says Mani, who probably graduated in freedom at the Whatsapp University. The clincher comes next. He says, “Konjam izhutha avundhrum, idhu suthanthiram”. The first question is, why should someone tug on her dress? Let’s bypass that for a moment though. Mani is wearing a veshti in the said scene. Is he saying his ‘virtuous’ veshti would not come off were someone to tug at it?

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