Films through a gender lens: 'Jazbaa' - a tale of two women

Globally, a film is considered gender-sensitive if it satisfies three parameters – has at least two important female characters; presents at least one dialogue between just two female characters; and if this dialogue compasses any subject other than men.   

Going by these parameters, Aishwarya’s comeback film Jazbaa scores top-grade, no matter how it stumbles and fares as a crime thriller. By placing a charismatic woman at the centre of action and pitching her against another equally commanding woman (played by veteran actor Shabana Azmi) who understandably habits much lesser footage, the film bulldozes all ground rules of mainstream Hindi cinema and comes across as a straight gender-bender winner. Of course, there are warts to this story. First, the thumbs-up points. 

Though Aishwarya is as stunningly beautiful as ever in Jazbaa (and seemingly has gym-rinsed every extra gram pregnancy may have left her with), the camera does not let you ogle at her in even a single scene. The opening scene that shows her in different yoga postures, points at her fitness rather than her desirability. Indeed, except for one stray comment about her beauty by the felon (that she, as noted lawyer Anuradha Verma must defend, to rescue her child from a kidnapper), the film treats her considerable beauty as passé, and forces the audience’s attention instead on her conflicted situation and the intricate plot with its horrific twists. The focus is obstinately on her expertise as a professional lawyer and her love for her daughter. The romantic line with her chum and helper, played by actor Irrfan Khan, remains faint and peripheral till the end. A welcome change from the scores of films that hold up women as mere seekers and consumers of male attention, and topline, that there’s more to a woman’s life than a man. 

What’s good about a woman-led film like this is that it allows space for women’s opinions and feelings about different issues, to get heard. Jazbaa’s director Sanjay Gupta ensures there’s ample of that, even if some parts sound cliché and labored like Shabana’s rant in court about rape victims always being blamed for provoking rape. You get some nice perspectives in Jazbaa like Aishwarya’s remark, “A woman becomes a mother once she conceives and holds a baby in her womb, and so she cannot think of destroying that life inside her as easily as a man can.” However, this comes bundled with a highly ludicrous reveal of how her husband in the States had wanted their first child to be a son and tried to get her to abort when they realised they were going to have a female baby – because of which she dumped him and moved to India.

Shabana’s reasons for divorcing her husband in the film are at least stronger and more credible – her hubby’s ‘life is a party’ philosophy and his rampant affairs with women. Shabana’s empathy for her artistic daughter who chooses a similar dubious lifestyle composed of friends, parties, drugs, etc. and her stubborn essays to defend her daughter nevertheless, strike a realistic chord, underlining the unconditional nature of maternal love.           

However, what finally defangs the film is its so-called climax that unpeels the motivation of the villain, the kidnapper. Granted life is stranger than fiction and most of it does not even get into art, but the final motivation of the Jazbaa kidnapper is so far-fetched that it considerably diminishes the film’s overall impact. True, the film breaks a gender stereotype by locating villainy and an extreme desire for revenge in a woman; however, this amounts to nothing since the lengths to which the woman goes to execute her revenge seem completely bizarre and the revenge itself a sad whimper. Of course, one can’t blame Sanjay Gupta for this, for apparently the film is a faithful reconstruction of the 2007 South Korean film Seven Days fronted by lead Korean actress Yunjin Kim. 

What we can be happy about still and cheer is the increasing depiction of leading women characters in Hindi films as consummate professionals – be it Aishwarya in Jazbaa or Tabu in the recent release Drishyam – who take joy and pride in their work and rise to eminence in traditionally male bastions, even as they raise their children lovingly, and who are respected and supported by their spouses /male friends for what they are. And unlike Tabu who borders on the cruel, in her tough police inspector role in Drishyam, Aishwarya maintains a fine balance in Jazbaa between rigour and compassion. One solo, unnecessarily prolonged bout of hysterical sobs alone mars her balanced act. But at least, a fuller picture of a woman’s life with more shades in it, is emerging from Bollywood. So Kudos to that!    

The writer is an author and a freelance journalist

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