Watching films with feminist glasses
Award winning actor Swara Bhaskar's extremely well crafted hard hitting feminist critique of Padmavati (in an open letter to Bhansali) has gone viral. It is heartening that an industry insider said what needed to be said, and if anybody really have a 56" chest that is not filled with hollow pride but bravery and integrity, … Continue reading Arnab Ray aka Great Bong Objects to Swara Bhaskar’s Feminist Review of Padmavati, Proves What Periyar Said About Feminism And Men
A father training his daughters to win sports medals may not be a revolutionary idea everywhere, but it is one in a state like Haryana.
There is no wronged woman here who wants to take a revenge, no mother who is struggling and fighting all odds to raise her children, no multi-tasking multi-talented woman who manages both work and family, no fierce police officer or successful film star. Neerja was not Jhansi ki Rani or Devi Durga, she was just Neerja and that made all the difference.
For benefit of those who don’t want to spend money on a film which is not well made, let me give the crux of the gender bender points it tries make, but fails.
Bhansali imagined 18th century Maratha and Rajput kingdoms where women had some agencies. And men respected women. Sadly he forgot to hire a writer to give words to his imagination.
Masaan is the story of bodies – desiring bodies, dead bodies, burning bodies, children’s bodies as a tool of economic exploitation, gendered bodies facing medical negligence, apathy and exploitation and so on.
I am here with another review in my series of Feminist Film Reviews. A shorter and proofread version of this review was first published on Women's Web. Besides the feminist perspective there were a few other interesting observations about the film, which I didn't include in the former are given here. People ask me are … Continue reading Feminist Film Review – Tanu Weds Manu Returns
Regular readers of my blog already know about my Feminist reviews. These are film reviews done by me after wearing my feminist glasses. So this time I did an exclusive review for the women centric collaborative blog 'Women's Web'. Below is the full version of the review, they have put up an edited version. The … Continue reading Feminist Film Review – Piku
Mardaani is just the kind of film I always wanted to see - a film with complete gender role reversals. The hundreds of movies I've watched in my lifetime, I've always wondered how would it be if we changed the gender of the leading characters? In Mardaani, that's exactly what I have. As a film … Continue reading Feminist Film Review: Mardaani – An important film, because it changes the way we see women
Madhur Bhandarkar makes films for the dummies. In the wake of the release of yet another cliched film for the dummies, Heroine, I am republishing my feminist film review of Fashion and other Bhandarkar Films. I have not seen Heroine yet, but I can predict what's is it about. Not only does he make films … Continue reading Feminist Film review: ‘Fashion’ and other Bhandarkar flicks
Introduction: “Change is the only constant”. That’s not my line but I particularly like it. I know just one way of living life, change. I don’t stay tuned to anything, body, person, concept, thought, believe, system, discipline, logic, reason, philosophy for too long. I change all of them. Or let’s say I move on from … Continue reading Feminist Film Review: Fanaa
