Angry Indian Goddesses and Kajarya – the voices of the Women of India.

This week, the voices of the women of India are doubly intensified!

written by Souranath Banerjee

It has always been a paradox that in a country like India, whose gender has been proudly defined as ‘female’; our beloved ‘mother land‘; where people visualize and worship the female form as their Goddesses but at the same time issues regarding ‘women empowerment‘ are still been a topic of considerable concern!

And it’s about time that the current Indian filmmakers should focus on these various dilemmas and intolerances faced by the women of our country, and portray the female sentiments, their grievances and exasperations, their demands and desires, and even their vulnerabilities on celluloid.

And the good news is, that’s exactly what they are doing!

And the result is the release of two ambitious films this week, Angry Indian Goddesses and Kajarya.

Apparently, both the movies concentrate on telling stories based on the lives of the Indian women of our current society but then again, these two films are poles apart in the way they are made and also the amount of impact they make.

Firstly, let’s talk about the much hyped film Angry Indian Goddesses made by renowned director Pan Nalin (of Samsara fame).

It’s a relatively easy-going masala film with spicy dialogues and peppy music, in a way showcasing India to the world (pretty much tailor-made for the International festivals), and definitely The ultimate manifesto of feminist problems. My Ratings: 3/5.

Six friends (along with a maid) get together to celebrate the wedding of one of them in the ultimate fun paradise of India, Goa. And there, they not only open up to each other and discuss all their individual problems, but also get into some tough situations themselves.

And eventually the current male-dominated society makes them very angry and by the end of the film they have all become ‘Angry Indian Goddesses’ (a direct reference to the angry Hindu Goddesses Kali).

Scoring points for the film are the effortless acting by the girl team Tannishtha Chatterjee, Sandhya Mridul, Sarah-Jane Dias, Rajshri Deshpande, Pavleen Gujral, Anushka Manchanda and Amrit Maghera.  And also Cyril Morin‘s music.

The film’s energy level and intention is no doubt commendable but the quest to tap on every possible female related problems along with an extra dramatic (illogical) ending; well, at least it’s entertaining but a bit too mainstream to expect from Pan Nalin i guess.

On the other hand, the film Kajarya, made by debutant writer/director Madhureeta Anand focuses on the specific problem of ‘female infanticide’ (the deliberate killing of newborn female children) and churns out a thrilling tale surrounding the issue. My Ratings: 4/5.

In a village not far from New Delhi, a young ambitious reporter named Meera (Ridhima Sud) tries to investigate a suspicious case of child sacrifice and soon meets Kajarya (Meenu Hooda) who shares some terrible facts that eventually becomes the prime media story.

But in this whole incident of finding the gruesome truth and then in the process of punishing the guilty, the lives of these two women, Meera and Kajarya become entangled in a strange way.

Brilliant acting by the two main characters, good story telling and direction, and powerful score by Richard Horowitz.

Though the ending is a bit too hasty for me but Kajarya surly raises some important questions for our society to answer, a film that doesn’t shy away from addressing such serious issues with enough courage and honesty.

Overall both the films solve their purpose, they are made for different kinds of audiences and I am sure they are successful in their own ways.

More such powerful Indian films should be made and encouraged; but then again, they shouldn’t be treated simply as a trend or the latest formula to box office success.

‘We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back’ the perfect words of wisdom by Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.(also recommend He Named Me Malala, a documentary recently made on her courageous life).

Poster courtesy: www.koimoi.com, www.imdb.com, filmicafe.co, indiannerve.com, thereviewmonk.com, www.india.com.

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