Just as with everything in LIFE, films too can be viewed from different lenses.
The other day on Facebook I read a post, which spoke about Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and how the author of the post felt it was an extremely sexist film.
The following were his main issues with the film:
Now DDLJ is a film I watched 32 times in the cinema hall. But I feel very strongly for the issue of representation of women in literature and cinema. Which is not to say that I am not flawed or don’t make mistakes but this subject matters and so it makes me think and introspect and grow.
I thought about this for a while. And the strength of his argument was effective. I began to wonder and also agree with him on various points. Suddenly all the conversations I’d had with my women friends about women not being able to really drive stories forward in popular cinema and how they always only succeeded if they came into the arms of the hero at the end and I began to agree with him.
Then I went down for a swim and I just couldn’t shake the feeling that something in my thinking on the subject was amiss.
And I came to the conclusion that there were a couple of points, which just didn’t work for me. Thankfully I had my storytelling experience and learning at the screenplay writing class at the FTII that id done years ago to fall back on for clarity.
If a story is a man’s story, then it is just that, a man’s story. Yes more stories and films should be made on women’s stories. But that’s a separate issue. So here are my points of difference:
Interestingly in this debate where many people had agreed with him by this time, another woman, named Laura Mishra, came up in defense of the film. And the following were her points:
“How is that living life on someone else’s term? In the Indian context she doesn’t even care about the reputation of her family. This film is not regressive; the message (it puts out) is clear, that the woman has a right to choose and fights for it and gets it in the end.”
Reading her arguments I was happy. Me, being a man talking and defending DDLJ is one thing, but if another woman also feels that way it does prove that even this side of the argument holds water. Of course there are dialogues in the film which are sexist and even racist but those are very very small sections of the film and clearly NOT the whole film. The very PREMISE of the film is ANTI-Patriarchy and the pressures of family.
Also the film was released in a time where this issue, eloping or just succumbing to the pressures of the family, was prevalent. Also the whole NRI indian wedding business where the women marrying someone they had absolutely no clue about was a norm because their father’s wanted them to. And this film broke that mould without insulting the patriarchs but still saying what it had to. So as such at the time when it was released it was a progressive film. And each film also could be viewed in the context of its time of release and the situation and conditions of society at that point.
My final understanding from this debate is that yes films must be seen from the lens of the sexual themes they promote and the depiction of women that they promote but they are also stories and must be seen strongly from the lens of a story. Of course we can view things from multiple perspectives and that’s the strength of having a human mind. So lets, in the future try to apply various lens to understand film. Not just any one kind. And to reiterate, the subject of how women are represented in Indian Cinema is a very important subject.