Sudhir Mishra defends Bollywood's portrayal of women

In the light of recent incident of gangrape that shook the entire nation, Bollywood as a part of popular culture, has come under the scanner for commodification of women. While the community has strongly defended itself so far, saying that it has in no way inspired the violence that women face, critics in the media and elsewhere have maintained that the film industry has had a role to play in showing women in poor light.

Incidentally, Sudhir Mishra’s upcoming film Inkaar deals with a very sensitive issue, especially for women - that of sexual harassment at work places. The filmmaker along with the lead actors of the film, Arjun Rampal and Chitrangada Singh, participated in a freewheeling chat about the social responsibility of cinema and the portrayal of women in Bollywood with Sagarika Ghose, Deputy Editor of CNN IBN.

When Ghose asked Sudhir Mishra about Bollywood glorifying violence, the filmmaker quipped that films have also been talking about peace, amity and communal harmony. However, that doesn’t mean that communal discord has been wiped off India. He concluded that it’s not necessary that what Bollywood preaches, the nation follows. In fact, at times, the film industry reflects the what is happening in society for real.

Chitrangada, who has played both strong and candyfloss roles in films, says that there is nothing wrong with song and dance or item numbers in films. While micro blogging sites like Twitter are still abuzz with how item songs in films often objectify women, Chitrangada points out that dance and songs are very important part of Indian cinema and is mostly added only for entertainment value. If a particular song-dance sequence shows a woman being stalked and wooed by a bunch of men in a playful and romantic manner and she is enjoying the attention that she is getting then it in no way sends out a wrong signal.

While talking about their upcoming film Inkaar, the director as well as actors deny that the film has a moral play. The characters, like in most Mishra films are not black and white and the story is basically a clash of perspectives - those of a man and a woman.

While describing his character, Arjun Rampal says,“Well, first of all, my character is not a male chauvinist pig. He meets Maya who is an intern. He teaches her, helps her find her feet and suddenly there is a clash of opinions between them. The film spans seven years. You start the film with him being accused of sexual harassment. Now what Sudhir has done very nicely is that he has brought in two distinct points of views - the male point of view and the female point of view. And you don’t know who is right or wrong till the end of the movie. And maybe they both are right in their own way, or maybe both of them are wrong.”

The film explores the various dynamics of a man-woman relationship in the workplace and the director describes the film as a ‘modern day relationship fable’. To know more about the film read the full transcript of Sagarika Ghose’s interview here .