Paperback: 280 pages
Publisher: HarperCollins (January 1, 2019)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9353029511
ISBN-13: 978-9353029517
This first book by academician
and film columnist Nandita Dutta who has earlier written at several platforms
exclusively about films opens with a thoughtful quote:
‘When
a woman makes a film that is a radical act in itself.’– Ava DuVernay (first
African-American female filmmaker nominated for a Best Picture Oscar in 2014
for Selma)
In the introduction itself the author states the almost
obvious:
“
\A
simple counting exercise online reveals that, out of the 116 Bollywood films
released in 2018, only seven were directed by women. The year before that,
2017, saw the release of 120 films out of which only eleven were directed by
women. That’s women directing less than ten per cent of the total films, in one
of the biggest film industries in the world, two years in a row.”
Dutta’s style is that of a seasoned film critic fused
with that of a well-read academic researcher and entices the reader to get
engrossed in the stories of the 11 women filmmakers.
She defines in detail this term too and its issues in
the introduction itself. She opens the
book with the chapter about Aparna Sen and brings many interesting anecdotes
from her life both as an actress and then later as a director. The nuances of
being a single mother to two daughters and a professional woman are stated and
seem to be true for most women even today. She says:
“I
never felt that I had to be less of a woman to be more of a director”
The directors like Mira Nair who have looked at and
altered world cinema with an Indian/Indian diaspora lens have been looked at
from their specific contexts and film making canons and in chapters dealing with
directors like Tanuja Chandra, Farah Khan and Meghna Gulzar she delves into the
problematic space of the patriarchal industry almost run in a feudal manner.
She delves into the other intermingling and
multi-layered spaces of films made by women and films about women too and gets
the reader re-look at their perception of women in films both on and off screen
and the characters they portray.
In the chapters about directors like Reema Kagti, Anjali
Menon and Shonali Bose the author explores the stories of women filmmakers
trying to push the margin more and more towards the center, removing the
baggage of being “woman” and just being a marginalized voice with a difference
challenging the mainstream discourses. Anjali Menon says being called a woman
filmmaker “…sounds like a discount coupon.”
In Nandita Das’ chapter the author says, “The
juggernaut of the Hindi film industry works on labels and perceptions-once you
set yourself in a mold, it is impossible to get out of it.”
In Meghna Gulzar’s chapter a film as recent as the 2018
release Raazi is brought into the narrative and in context to the fact
that while the directors agree that the film industry is now more open to films
that are “female-led” most of these directors do not want the tag of
“women-oriented” cinema.
Through Kiran Rao’s chapter the author brings on the
various hats some of these women wear so well ranging from moms, star-wives to
social icons and via Alankrita Srivastava’s filmography delves into the
problems of portraying Indian women’s sexuality.
The after word sums up well her struggles in getting all
these stories together and out there and issues like subtle sexism, toxic
positivism in the industry and the “mothering” model of leadership for women.
The cover by Sourav Das with the overpowering glossy
black F kind of defines the unique space of this book.
F-Rated: Being a Woman Filmmaker in India is available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle versions.
My rating : 4/5
This review is part of the
Blogchatter Book review Program.
