Woman's feminism,man's faux?

This is just playing to the gallery by couching reverse chauvinism in a feminist garb. Smoking, being promiscuous, loud makeup and clothes, and the way the characters speak and conduct themselves are pushed as freedom. But when you scratch the surface, you realise there is little that is liberating/different about these films and their premise," says Delhi-based activist Deepika Narayan Bharadwaj, whose documentary Martyrs of Marriage shines the torch on injustices perpetrated by the misuse of Section 498A, and highlights how men too can be victims in a marriage. Bharadwaj asks, "Is the fight for women's rights over and above the concept of human rights?" and adds, "Some filmmakers get a cheap, vicarious thrill in giving their films a misandrous zeal of vengeance. They know there's a ready market among audience, who want to be seen as concerned about women's rights (when their own contribution is often little more than social media shares and likes)."

She asks, "Would the audience accept a middle-aged man unilaterally making a young girl the object of his sexual desires, seeking telephonic sex and masturbating? Yet when Ratna Pathak's character in LUMB does the same, it is given the feel of why-can't-an-elderly-woman-have-desires?" So didn't Ram Gopal Varma's Nishabd (2007), already do this from the male perspective, when she interjects, "It was the young girl Jia (Jiah Khan) who seeks the attention of the married, elderly Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan), to begin with, and when things get out of hand, the man has the most to lose."

Nearly 1,500km away in Mumbai, Bharadwaj's voice is echoed by Amit Deshpande of the Vaastav Foundation that works for the advocacy of gender-equal laws. He says,"Equality is equally about rights and responsibilities. Like a man has the responsibility of being loyal to his partner, this should be the case with a woman too. Abuse of trust can't be justified for one gender. Whether its AIG, LUMB or Shab, if you reverse genders of the characters in these movies, the same behaviour that is being celebrated, would be seen as a violation and attract several sections of the Indian Penal Code and other Acts," He believes it's not right to use what men did or still do – justify cheating by a woman in a relationship. "If the sexual liberation of women means being promiscuous, then different yardsticks shouldn't be used for men whose sexual liberty is criminalised by the same 'feminists,' who glorify such behaviour by women as empowerment. Otherwise, this reeks of revenge."

Actor and dubbing artist Vikrant Chaturvedi's recent Facebook post questioning "the double standards" of these films had gone viral: "I merely asked all these progressive/liberal/feminist filmmakers whether their liberalism depends on gender, or do they believe in any absolute truth? Feminists forever complain against the objectification of women in Bollywood. Yet in AIG, the lead girls swoon over a shirtless man's abs as he is washing his car, without the narrative once questioning him being sexually objectified." He points out, in LUMB a cheating husband Rahim Aslam (Sushant Singh) is the 'villain', while beautician Leela (Aahana Kumra) two-timing her simpleton fiancé is 'progressive'. In Shab, middle-aged Sonal (Raveena Tandon) forces a young man to sleep with her if he wants to make it big, without it being shown as exploitative in the same vein as Abhijit Sarin (Arbaaz Khan) in Fashion." According to him, if the earlier exploitative and oppressive male portrayals were wrong, then so is the portrayal of women in identical roles now.

Unfair parallel

However, his close friend, Alankrita Shrivastava, who has directed LUMB is livid when asked for her reaction, "This is plain silly. It goes to show how much these people are invested in entrenched patriarchy. What are these men so afraid of? It's not like it is a level playing field yet. How many women are making films and how many among those few films are about women's issues? First, let 50 per cent of the films releasing every Friday fall in this category, then we can talk," she underlines and asks, "Those questioning buaji Usha Parmar (Ratna Pathak)'s character in LUMB, who chases a young man to gratify her desires, should say how many times they've called out the 50+ heroes like the three Khans or Akshay Kumar romancing 20+ heroines in their films. Even with the beautician Leela's character, is she supposed to forget her own desires just because she is getting engaged out of compulsion to a man her mother has chosen?"

While disagreeing with Shrivastava, sociologist and film historian Meghna Kashyap wonders why LUMB never went beyond vilifying male characters and showing the women stuck in victimhood. "Irrespective of how dark the film was making their circumstances out to be, I hoped the women found some resolution. Sharing a cigarette is a light moment, but let's not forget it comes with a warning of how injurious to health it can be," she observes and cites other films, which have been as guilty of what she calls "faux feminism". According to her, this is just an attempt at jumping on the bandwagon of something in currency. "While that may seem commercially expedient, it takes the real struggle of the women's movement back by several decades." According to her, Pink, Neerja, Kahaani 2, Phillauri, Naam Shabana, Noor and Begum Jaan fall into the same category.

Faux feminism

It is for Begum Jaan though, that Kashyap reserves her strongest criticism. "In the garb of showing a powerful woman, all it did was flaunt the worst patriarchy. The agency (ability/independence to act/decide for herself) she enjoys over her body as brothel-keeper is not something Begum Jaan lets the women in her employ enjoy. Shabnam (Mishti Chakraborty) says bitterly, after being forced to sleep with the brothel benefactor, feudal lord Raja saab (Naseeruddin Shah): 'Kasayee ki dukaan mein bakrey ko pyaar se ghaas khilaana sirf ghaas khilaana hota hai, pyaar nahi. (Feeding a goat grass in a butcher's shop is only about feeding it grass. It's not love).' I think the film lost even the fig leaf of feminism, if it ever had one, right there."

Chaturvedi also faults Mahesh Bhatt's much-acclaimed love triangle Arth for the same reason. "Why it is called a feminist film when Pooja's (Shabana Azmi) character seems to define her self-worth by the fact that she has been dumped by her husband Inder (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) for Kavita (Smita Patil). Why couldn't she be a woman who knows how to move on?" he says and adds, "Films like Jeevan Dhara and Arth, which released in the same year, also look at women from the prism of their worth only as daughters, sisters, wives or mothers. Like she just can't be anything else if not related to a man."

Hollywood's sheroes

As Wonder Woman has beaten Spider-Man to become the highest grossing superhero movie in the US, Kashyap underlines how Hollywood does not tom-tom its feminist content but allows the 'sheroes' to slay the box office all by themselves. "2017 had several such success stories, Underworld: Blood Wars, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, Before I Fall, The Last Word, Catfight, Raw, Beauty and the Beast, xXx: The Return of Xander Cage (which gave Deepika Padukone a super showcase) and Life (where Rebecca Ferguson stole the show from under Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds' noses) come to mind."

Renowned Gender and Women's Studies expert, Dr Lakshmi Lingam of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences wonders why feminism is defined on filmmakers' interpretations. "Films have always found a way of playing to the gallery on any issue. Feminism being no exception. Even in the black-and-white era, we've seen feminists caricatured as men haters," she says, citing the example of Mr and Mrs '55, where Seeta Devi's (Lalita Pawar) character tries to ensure her niece is suspicious of all men. "Such stereotypes do a disservice to the struggles that the women's rights movement has waged to reach where it has," she says. "But we live in times when right-wing ideologies are on the ascent. We have the equivalent of women being cornered and harassed on the street and trolled on social media with brazen threats of rape and murder." She is categorical about how feminism is not about replacing one kind of exploitation or violence with another. "Unfortunately aberrations, cinematic or otherwise, are often used to shut down anyone talking about gender or women's rights."

Will that change? Box office should know.

10 Indian films among the few that ticked the right feminist boxes

Ek Baar Phir (1980)

A star's wife ends a loveless marriage by having an extramarital affair

Kamla (1985)

Based on Vijay Tendulkar's namesake play, the film raises questions on women's role in society by juxtaposing a woman from rural India bought by a journalist, chasing an expose with his wife

Mirch Masala (1987)

This Ketan Mehta film, starring Smita Patil and Naseeruddin Shah, is among the top when it comes to women's fight for dignity

Ijaazat (1987)

Gulzar saab weaves a love triangle that gently nudges us into the intersectionality between feminism and patriarchy in middle-class India

Godmother (1999)

This iconic movie sees Shabana Azmi go from being a hapless widow to a ruthless don

Astitva (2000)

Male chauvinism, an extramarital affair, spousal abuse and patriarchy makes a noose of the mangalsutra in this film, starring Tabu

English Vinglish (2012)

Sridevi's comeback touches on patriarchal dogmas and the hegemony of English. Her character successfully gets out of the judgemental space her family has limited her to

Queen (2014)

A girl who is dumped on her wedding day, discovers life can be better without the encumberance of a husband

NH10 (2015)

Anushka Sharma as Meera takes on an entire patriarchal lot without waiting for a hero to protect her

Anarkali Arrahwali (2017)

No means no. This Swara Bhaskar starrer (and not even Big B's gyaan-giver Pink) drives home the message loud and clear