‘it was a lady-
like film, their
fantasy about
life,’ whatever
that may mean...
Both ‘S Durga’
and ‘Nude’ have
dared to focus on
ladies and ‘their
fantasy about life’ in a medium where only men have
traditionally held centre stage. Both try to tackle the
real problems women face in our society. And that
possibly is upsetting everyone – the voice of women,
actual women... It’s the voice of reality, the voice
of truth. And politics, as we know, has no place for
either. It’s in the business of selling illusions.”
Sociology professor and ex-member of the Censor
Board, Nandini Sardesai too feels that patriarchal
mindsets are taking center stage. “I always tell my
students that when I was growing up in the ‘50s
and ‘60s, we were much more broadminded and
tolerant. Now society seems to be making value-based
judgments which are rash, highly biased and
subjective.”
ARE WE REGRESSING?
This controversy is hardly new, but it does prompt
the question of what the impact of imposing such
patriarchal mindsets on a fi lm will have on society,
especially where the state machinery is concerned.
Prahlad gives us some perspective, “When you have a
patriarchal social system that panders to patriarchal,
lunatic mindsets for the sake of votes, it affects all
of us. When you have the Karni Sena talking about
Rajput valour and so on, what are they actually talking
about? They are talking about perpetuating a rule where
the victim is always going to be women. Today it’s a
movie, tomorrow it’s what you wear. They are already
telling you who to marry. It’s a slap on the face of
women’s rights.”
FIGHTING FOR
EXPRESSION...
Nandini Sardesai feels
that a strong message
can be sent out, only
if Bollywood stands up
and speaks out. She
says, “What makes
me really angry is
that the fi lm industry
has not stood up and
spoken out in one
strong voice. None
of the big actors have
spoken up, including
the lead heroes of the“In a free society,
filmmakers must be
allowed to say their
own thing, in their
own way, without
being terrorized.”
— Pritish NandyA film poster of ‘Nude’A film poster of ‘S Durga’Pritish Nandy127 SAVVY DECEMBER 2017