No, this is not a critique of action films. Or cinema as a source of entertainment. Or a debate about whether or not films have social implications. We’re past that phase, and the discourse is a long-unending one. But the thing is, there’s been a saturation of action as a genre in Hindi cinema this year. We’ve seen massy action movies top the box office charts month after month with stories, more often than not, meaningless. And if we are to go by the latest example, then problematic as hell.
Commercial action movies have helmed the box office in 2023. While this is great for the Industry’s growth as a whole, we’ve somewhat deflected from crediting tales that deserve our attention, appreciation, and love. So today, we decided to look back at some of our 9 favourite movies with a woman’s gaze. These are women-directorial compelling stories from the recent years that we must watch.
1. Konkona Sen Sharma’s The Mirror in Lust Stories 2 (2023)
In an anthology of four movies by filmmakers like Balki, Sujoy Ghosh, and Ravindernath Sharma, it was Konkona’s short film titled ‘The Mirror’ that shined most luminously. Sharma used the mirror as a prop to explore lust as something forbidden with realism and tenderness. Her story uncovered an outsider’s gaze on sex with the insider’s tacit acknowledgement of the same, as gender, caste, and class divide play a role.
2. Alankrita Shrivastava’s Lipstick Under My Burkha (2016)
Four women harbouring repressed desires, ambitions, and dreams live a wretched life, desperately yearning for liberation from a society that seeks to bog them down with regressive gendered ideologies. Srivasatava’s gaze depicts the stories of this group of women who attempt to reclaim their bodies and uninhibited desires in isolated secret spaces whilst being trapped in a conservative stifling world.
3. Meghna Gulzar’s Sam Bahadur (2023)
Gulzar’s movie clashed with another testosterone-driven meaningless action extravaganza that took away all the hype, but not without offering the world a perspective on what masculinity entails and what it does not. Sam Bahadur is a remarkable story about a gentleman who dedicated his life to the Indian army. It’s an important tale about India’s first Field Marshal, the man whose contributions are too magnificent to be covered in 2.5 hours.
4. Gauri Shinde’s English Vinglish (2012)
Shashi is a caterer and an overburdened homemaker in a family that takes her for granted. Her husband and teenage daughter make a point of ridiculing her lack of hold on the English language. When she visits the US to attend a wedding, she attempts to learn English. In the course of her journey, she rediscovers herself and learns to assert her individuality.
5. Zoya Akhtar’s Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011)
Three best friends, Arjun, Kabir, and Imran, go on a life-changing vacation in Spain, where each has the power to choose an adventure sport they’ll do together. The holiday is the Bachelor’s trip before Kabir gets married. In the process, scars are healed, life gets a perspective, relationships are built, fears are combated, decisions are made, and memories are formed.
6. Meghna Gulzar’s Raazi (2018)
A 20-year-old Sehmat becomes an undercover RAW agent, conceding to her dying father’s wishes. She is married to a Pakistani military family in hopes she retrieves confidential information and documents about the enemy. The movie is a compelling adaptation of Harinder Sikka’s 2008 novel ‘Calling Sehmat‘ and is based on a real-life story.
7. Shonali Bose’s Margarita With A Straw (2014)
Laila is adamant her cerebral palsy won’t impact the course of her life and relationships. Bose’s story follows the coming-of-age of a teenage student who shifts to the US to complete her undergraduate studies. Bose’s film explores the sexuality of a self-assured disabled protagonist without invoking ‘pity’.
8. Gauri Shinde’s Dear Zindagi (2016)
Overwhelmed by a series of career and relationships twists and turns, Kaira consults a psychologist to treat her insomnia. It is a coming-of-age tale of a young woman who rediscovers herself, finds her philosophy of life, and gains a perspective in the course of her sessions with Dr. Jug.
9. Anvita Dutt Guptan’s Qala (2022)
Set in the 1940s, Guptan’s powerful directorial explores the inner world of a singing sensation, Qala Manjushree. Qala is torn between her ambition and her deep-rooted desire to be loved and acknowledged by her mother, the shadows of the past and the glitz of the present. What amplifies Qala’s underlying mental struggle in the movie is its visuals. The movie is hauntingly beautiful.
We hope in 2024, we’ll be looking at scores of stories across different genres that get noticed and appreciated for their merit. At the very least, we need cinema what it’s best known for – good stories.
