There has been a social media gripe going on about the actresses who shared the national award for their performances this year — Nithya Menen for Thiruchitrambalam (Tamil) and Manasi Parekh for Kutch Express (Gujarati). The posts say that Sai Pallavi was more deserving of the award for her role in Gargi as a woman who fights to defend her father who is accused of rape. Nithya Menen asked a valid question — why can’t a lighthearted role be worthy of an award? It just so happens that in the past most of the winners of the national award have been serious actresses doing dramatic parts and a majority of them falling within the ambit of victim-turned heroine plots.
Manasi Parekh’s role follows that graph to some extent, in a film that does manage to veer away from stereotypical portrayals of women. For instance, last year, the award was shared by Alia Bhatt for Gangubai Kathiawadi and Kriti Sanon for Mimi — both films about women who rise above the dire circumstances in which they find themselves. A look at the list of part winners would indicate this trend, with perhaps a few exceptions.
Awards juries have been particularly partial to roles of courageous mothers. In Thiruchitrambalam (directed by Mithran R Jawahar), Shobana is the platonic friend of the eponymous protagonist (played by Dhanush). They have grown up together and so have a strong bond, though not a romantic one.
They are each other’s confidants and there is a lot of teasing banter, without any undercurrent of sexual tension. A tragedy in Thiru’s life made him abandon his education and become a food delivery worker, living in an unhappy household consisting of his father and grandfather. Shobana has a successful career and is about to be sent for further training to Canada.
Her parents do not seem to push her into marriage or object to her relationship with Thiru (or Pazham — coward — as he has been mockingly nicknamed), that is clearly not headed towards matrimony. When a former classmate flirts with Thiru, he immediately seeks the advice of Shobana on how to woo her. Rejected by her, he is then attracted to another young woman and Shobana helps him approach her too, and he fails again.
It is strange that in a normally conservative city like Chennai, Thiru and Shobana are so uninhibitedly together, without anybody commenting on it. She even travels with his family to a wedding in their village, without anyone asking who this woman is and why she is with them. When his grandfather knocks some sense into Thiru’s head, he proposes to Shobana, but she turns him down — she does not want to be his rebound girlfriend.
It is not a particularly difficult role for Nithya Menen, who has played far more complex characters — what must have appealed to the awards jury is the very girl-next-door spirit of the young woman — she is seldom seen glammed up, or trying to impress Thiru with her beauty. She wears simple and often shapeless clothes, is unself-consciously plump, speaks her mind and laughs with unrestrained abandon — more often than not at Thiru. Her friendship with him is unconditional, even though she does not articulate her love.
For the fiery character she is, the end seems a little disappointing, but that does not take away from Shobana’s charm or relatability. In contrast, Monghi of Viral Shah’s Kutch Express , played by Manasi Parekh (also co-producer of the film), is an ordinary homemaker from a Gujarat village cast in the “ ghar-var-rasodo ” (her words) mould. She had an arranged marriage with Dharmesh (Dharmendra Gohil), has a grown-up son and a widowed mother-in-law (Ratna Pathak Shah), who is the de facto leader of the village women, called Baiji by all.
Once in a while, the women sedate their husbands and mothers-in-law and meet at a deserted spot, just to chat, sing, dance, smoke and let off steam. They call this ‘ sisoti ’ which sounds like mispronounced ‘society’, but means whistle in Gujarati. Monghi discovers that her husband is having an affair with a co-worker in his office, and he treats her with more indifference than usual.
For 22 years, she has been the perfect homemaker; though Dharmesh enjoys the food she makes and accepts her care as a male right, he also complains that she is not the kind of wife he wants, that he has nothing to talk to her about. Dharmesh is the curator of a new museum that displays Kutchhi art, still he does not appreciate his wife’s artistic talent. That skill is recognised by a mural artist, Madan (Viraf Patel) and his foreign crew, who have arrived on an assignment to decorate the village walls.
Her husband forbade her from riding his motorbike saying it’s not meant for women, to which his mother drily says, “Does the bike know whether it is a male rider or female?” With Madan’s help, Monghi rides his motorbike through the town, as jaws drop in surprise. Monghi is hurt and angry, but with Baiji’s encouragement and the other sisoti women, channels it through her art, and eventually finds an escape. Taking off on the famous Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge scene, Monghi gets into a train to go to the city with Madan, but refuses to leave without Baiji, and pulls her into the train too! Like the butterfly motif used in the film, the ‘caterpillar’ women sprout wings and fly.
(Not a spoiler, since the film was released last year and was a success.) It is Baiji who brought her the divorce papers, and also admitted to her son her mistake in getting him married without asking him first. It is an ordinary story of a woman reclaiming her dignity, but told with warmth and pleasant songs.
Madan may be the catalyst, the sisoti of change is finally blown by the women. Manasi Parekh plays her part with an understated grace, but the most remarkable character is played by Ratna Pathak Shah, a woman who grew up within a patriarchal structure, and learnt how to buck it. She became the woman nobody can mess with — not even her son.
The appeal of Shobana and Monghi is that they are not made to resort to melodrama or violence, and they still reach where they want to be. Some of those battles have been fought, some won, by women characters in films before them — the ones who kicked out unfaithful husbands, beheaded monsters, shot down rapists and murderers, protected their loved ones, achieved impossible dreams. However, the women in films today have an important task — they have to make sure they do not drop the baton of change and progress.
Deepa Gahlot is a Mumbai-based columnist, critic and author.
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