Let’s Talk About Women | Mili and the stoking of female suffering for social good

In Mili, the latest Janhvi Kapoor film, it takes her getting captured in the cold storage of the fast-food restaurant she works at and fighting for life in sub-zero temperatures for her father to accept her boyfriend.

As she battles for survival for five long hours in the isolated deep freezer, her father (played by a wonderful Manoj Pahwa ) reluctantly joins forces with her boyfriend ( Sunny Kaushal ) to find her. During the frantic search, they warm up to each other as they unwittingly unravel systemic apathy and personal prejudices.

However, this Hindi remake of Mathukutty Xavier’s 2019 Malayalam film Helen isn’t the first to make a woman suffer on screen to enlighten the audience and the men around her. It is a tool much preferred by Hindi filmmakers to bring about social reformation. Even the so-called women-centric films are guilty of exploiting it. But who do you hold culpable in a country where over 4.2 lakh cases of crimes against women gets registered in one year alone (2021; source: National Crime Records Bureau)?

Do you remember Kya Kehna? The 2000 film starring Preity Zinta tried to destigmatize unwed pregnancies at a time when pre-marital sex was seen as the biggest crime a woman could commit. On the surface, its intentions were noble but it fielded profoundly problematic ideas. It reduced its protagonist’s suffering to tragedy porn.

Then there is Pink, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s much-loved 2016 courtroom drama on sexual consent that put Taapsee Pannu on the map. Sure, it amplified what needed to be said much before #MeToo knocked the world into sense. But the way it plays around with the physical safety and sexual security of its three key women to drive home the point is exploitative.

Pari, the brilliant 2018 Anushka Sharma film directed by debutant Prosit Roy, is also a noteworthy example. To illustrate how misunderstood the idea of who is human and who’s not is, it endlessly tortures the central character Rukhsana, a demon baby. It is only when she is mutilated beyond recognition or repair, that our hero realizes his myopic sense of judgment.

I cannot write about the stoking of female suffering in cinema to bring about social awareness and not mention Chhapaak and Bulbbul. A Deepika Padukone film, the former is inspired by the struggles of real-life acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal. The Meghna Gulzar directorial shows a lot as it happened but why does it always have to be a woman that is sacrificed for societal good?

Bulbbul, a 2020 Netflix film directed by Anvita Dutt Guptan and starring Tripti Dimri in the lead role, is no different. It navigates deep-seated, unflinching misogyny using various several established practices of power play—child marriage, rape, witch-hunting, and domestic violence. It’s gruesome and graphic and yet cinematographer Siddharth Diwan probably didn’t feel it was enough, so he uses red to excess; in his hands, it becomes a metaphor of haunting.

You may argue that these films only mirror what has been happening around us for centuries now. But the way we tell stories shapes how we think. It builds narratives that sometimes get cemented for a lot longer than should be tolerable. There is a reason why our films, more often than not, show heroes as larger than life and heroines as sufferers and scapegoats. Why? Because we want to continue to peddle the prevalent status quo as fiercely as we can. And if we don’t reiterate it to them enough, our women might forget their true vocation. For if they won’t bear the brunt, who would? Men? What blasphemy!

If Mili didn’t get stuck in the cold storage, would her father ever come to terms with her relationship or accept her beau the way he does? If Ananya (Mrunal Thakur) didn’t die in Toofan (2021), would Aziz (Farhan Akhtar) have taken up boxing again? Or would her Islamophobic father ever reconcile with him? The image of Nargis dragging a plough through a field on Mother India’s poster is symbolic of Jesus’s crucifixion. We need to stop applauding self-sacrifice. Women are people, not baits to be tossed around or proffered for the service and convivence of others.

When not reading books or watching films, Sneha Bengani writes about them. She tweets at @benganiwrites.

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