Women documentary filmmakers provide rare insight into Indian society

Date

1/10/2016 4:17:20 AM

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(MENAFN- Asia Times) Saroj Khan

Her documentary The Saroj Khan Story is about the Bollywood choreographer who has broken every rule in the choreography book. One of the most successful choreographers of all time Saroj never cared for glamor or clothes she let her work speak for her and she has been brazen bold uncompromising rude and ruthless.

From a background dancer to Bollywood's best known choreographer her rise has been phenomenal but apart from the professional ups and downs the film takes a look at her personal life where she was dumped by her mentor when she got pregnant. She had to deal with her daughter's illness and her eventual death.

Mamta Murthy

Her film Colours Black made in 2011 is a beautifully structured documentary based on four children now adults in different stages of life recounting mainly off camera their experience of child abuse and the silence they were coerced into which continued till they grew up.

Nishtha Jain A scene from Gulabi Gang

She has made a number of documentaries and won prestigious awards too but two of her best works are Lakhsmi and Me and Gulabi Gang.

Lakshmi and Me delves into the life of a maid Lakshmi who works in Nishtha's home and she shows through the film how little an employer knows about the life of a maid who has to constantly deal with the drudgery of working in different homes and the lack of love and security in her personal life.

Nishtha in an interview in the book says: 'In one scene I seem like such a nag about the teacups and my editor took it out because I didn't sound nice. We finally put it back because I control the camera. I cannot paint myself white.'

Gulabi Gang follows the Gulabi Gang an unsual group of rural women in Bundelkand in central India dressed in dark pink sarees led by their leader Sampat Lal fighting for the rights of women and Dalits across several villages.

Her 2010 film Understanding Trafficking shows how trafficking is an organized crime involving a human chain starting with parents who are willing to sell off their girls and pimps some of whom even pose as social activists.

The film won a National Award.

Her other hard-hitting documentaries include Gandhari where she has shown how women have naturalized the silent process of subjugation suffering and oppression.

Najaayaz is on the vulnerabilities of the children of sex workers. The School that Karmi Soren Built is about this tribal lady who gave all her land for the only school to be built on it in the area so that it could transform lives.

A National Award-winning veteran actress Suhasini Mulay has 60 documentaries to her credit four of which have won National Awards.

An Indian Story based on the 1978 Bhagalpur blindings when a set of undertrials lost their vision when acid was forcibly poured in their eyes and Bhopal-Beyond Genocide on the Bhopal gas tragedy are two of the winners. Her first film made in 1977 on women's literacy was picked up by UNICEF.

One of the best known documentary filmmakers Deepa Dhanraj has a number of powerful documentaries to her credit.

For instance Invoking Justice (2011) is a strikingly original film on how a group of women got together in 2004 to form their own Jamaats (gatherings) in southern India where so far Jamaats were all-men local bodies who tried disputes according to Islamic Sharia Law and rarely gave a chance to women to defend themselves.

The network comprised 12000 women and despite immense resistance from men they have been able to settle 8000 cases that range from wife beating to murder.

Her other film Something Like a War delves into the forced vasectomies and sterilizations on Indian rural poor that were carried out during the Emergency to control the population.

Her film I Live in Behrampada fetched a number of awards. It was a socio-political feedback on the people of Behrampada a slum-like neighborhood near Mumbai's Bandra station where Hindus and Muslims lived in peace and harmony which was shattered by police atrocities on the minority community after the Mumbai riots of 1992.

Her film Memories of Fear which shows how girls are socialized into a fear psychosis about just anything so that it is easier to control and suppress them got her the National Award for the Best Film in 1996.

Her works are tinged with satire and humor and interestingly two of her most successful documentaries talk about society through food.

Annapurna: Goddess of Food is about a women's co-operative started by 14 women in 1975 who cooked meals for the migrant workers. The co-operative now boasts of a membership of 150000 and has its own credit co-operative bank short-stay home and a catering centre.

Defeat of a Minor Goddess tries to delve into food politics as an understanding of intolerance and the meaning of public and private space. The idea struck her when she realized a whole area in Mumbai was vegetarian starting from restaurants to apartment buildings.

Kamlabai the first screen actress of India was 88 when the documentary was shot. The film Kamlabai shot in 1992 remains a landmark documentary that traces the life of this old lady through the mundane daily chores and yet there are flashes of her past and a glimpse of her sense of humor.

Skin Deep is more contemporary and extremely relevant at a time when every Indian woman is grappling with body image. The filmmaker interviews six women in various ages and from different social backgrounds and shows how they constantly struggle to live up to the social expectations of beauty.

Amrita Mukherjeeis a freelance journalist who writes on social issues in India with focus on women. She divides her time between Dubai and India and blogs atwww.amritaspeaks.com

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