11 Female directors who had the courage to touch upon bold subjects
Last updated on - Jan 28, 2018, 16:00 ISTShare fbsharetwsharepinshare
01/1211 Female directors who had the courage to touch upon bold subjects
There is nothing that a woman cannot do, and it is absolutely right as these women directors prove that point as they have touched some bold subjects and have come out victorious. It is considered to be male-dominated country, but the perspective of a woman’s creativity lends it is entirely her own. Everyone has to be treated equally be it in any filed, not only in the film industry. Women are extremely talented and also sensible as well at the same time. The identity of women in Indian cinema has changed through the years. The new millennium has seen the rise of women in various aspects of filmmaking, giving rise to a new perspective. Filmmakers like Zoya Akhtar, Farah Khan, Gauri Shinde and many others have time and again proved that they are style and individuality can never be compared or be less than anyone. So here are some women directors who touched upon bold subjects with great courage.
02/12Alankrita Shrivastava- ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’
She has made one of the finest films and the boldest one as well. Alankrita Shrivastava is an independent Indian filmmaker. After assisting Bollywood director Prakash Jha with many projects, she made her directorial debut with ‘Turning 30!!!’ She moved to Mumbai and assisted Prakash Jha on many movies including ‘Gangaajal’, ‘Apaharan’, ‘Loknayak’, ‘Dil Dosti’, ‘Khoya Khoya Chand’, ‘Rajneeti’ and more. ‘Lipstick under my Burkha’ is a black comedy film and produced by Prakash Jha. The film stars an ensemble cast including Ratna Pathak, Konkona Sen Sharma, Aahana Kumra and Plabita Borthakur in leading roles,[8] along with Sushant Singh, Vikrant Massey, Shashank Arora, Vaibhav Tatwawaadi and Jagat Singh Solanki in supportive roles.The first trailer was released on 14 October 2016. The film received two nominations at the 63rd Filmfare Awards, including Best Film (Critics) and Best Supporting Actress for Ratna Pathak. Everyone loved the film and the whole cast was also appreciated very much.
03/12Aparna Sen- ‘Sonata’
The filmmaker is an Indian filmmaker, screenwriter, and actress who is known for her work in Bengali cinema. A leading actress of the late 1960s and 1970s she has received eight BFJA Awards, five for best actress, two for a best-supporting actress and one for lifetime achievement. She is the winner of three National Film Awards and nine international film festival awards for her direction in films. She was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, by the government of India in 1987. Sen made her debut in ‘Teen Kanya’ and received her success with ‘Aparichito’. Her film ‘Sonata’ is the psychological exploration of three unmarried women namely Aruna Chaturvedi (Professor), Dolon Sen (Banker) and Subhadra Parekh (journalist) played by Aparna Sen, Shabana Azmi and Lillete Dubey respectively. Set in the recent contemporary past, it is about three friends, their lives, ups and downs, the men in their lives and a twist in the tale. It is a subtle, cosmopolitan, contemporary, film on women and the uncertainties of life, based in an urbanscape.
04/12Gauri Shinde- ‘English Vinglish’
Gauri Shinde is an Indian ad-film and feature film director. Gauri Shinde has made her directional debut with the highly acclaimed ‘English Vinglish’, which marked the comeback of actress Sridevi Kapoor. Her aspiration towards film-making started right from the days at the end of her college life. The narrative revolves around a homemaker who enrolls in an English-speaking course to stop her husband and daughter mocking her lack of English skills and gains self-respect in the process. The protagonist, played by Sridevi, was inspired by Shinde's mother. English Vinglish was originally made in Hindi; later it was re-shot in Tamil and released along with a Telugu dubbed version on 5 October 2012. The film marked Sridevi's return to filmmaking after a 15-year hiatus; it features French actor Mehdi Nebbou, Adil Hussain, and Priya Anand. Amitabh Bachchan and Ajith Kumar had cameo appearances in the Hindi and Tamil versions respectively. The story revolves around Shashi Godbole (Sridevi) is a homemaker who makes and sells laddoos as a home-run business. Her husband Satish (Adil Hussain) and daughter Sapna (Navika Kotia) take her for granted, mock her poor English skills, and generally treat her with disrespect, making Shashi feel negative and insecure. However, her young son, Sagar (Shivansh Kotia) loves her as she is, and her mother-in-law (Sulabha Deshpande) offers her words of sympathy. Sridevi goes to New York and during her visit, she learns English. Fischer declares that she has passed the course with distinction and issues her the certificate. Shashi thanks Laurent for making her feel better about herself. Shashi's family return to India; during their flight home, Shashi asks the flight attendant in fluent English whether she has any Hindi newspapers.
05/12Kalpana Lajmi- ‘Chingaari’
She is an Indian film director, producer, and screenwriter. Kalpana Lajmi is an independent filmmaker working more on realistic, low-budget films, which are known in India as parallel cinema. Her films are often woman-oriented films. She had been a longtime manager with famous Assamese/Hindi/Bengali/English singer/lyricist/writer/film-maker Dr. Bhupen Hazarika. Her film is based on the novel, The Prostitute and the Postman by Bhupen Hazarika. The film is a commentary on the abuse of power and in particular discusses the injustices of the priests in India. Beneath the love triangle between the main characters, there is an age-old story that shows that not even "holy men" are exempt from the corruption of power. Later it was dubbed in Tamil as ‘Peyar Thozil Dhasi’. Basanti (Sushmita Sen) is a prostitute with a child, Titali, working with Ila Arun. Chandan (Anuj Sawhney) is a newly recruited postman. Upon his arrival in the village, he is moved by Basanti's sufferings. The third part of the love triangle is Bhuvan Panda (Mithun Chakraborty), the village priest of the goddess, Kali. The story ends with Basanti avenging the death of her lover.
06/12Pooja Bhatt- ‘Jism 2’
She is the boldest director as her father Mahesh Bhatt. She is the eldest daughter of Mahesh Bhatt and has also made bold films. She is an Indian film actress, voice-over artist, model, and filmmaker. Bhatt made her acting debut at age 17, in 1989 with Daddy, a TV film directed by her father Mahesh Bhatt. In the film, she portrayed a soul-searching teenage girl in an estranged relationship with her alcoholic father, played by actor Anupam Kher. Her biggest solo hit and her big screen debut came with the musical hit ‘Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin ‘, which was a remake of the Oscar-winning Hollywood classic ‘It Happened One Night’. ‘Jism2’ is the sequel to the 2003 film ‘Jism’ and marks the debut of Indo-Canadian former pornographic actress Sunny Leone in Bollywood. ‘Jism 2’ was launched on 1 December 2011, on popular Indian television show Bigg Boss, making the launch a first time ever in the history of Indian Cinema. Mahesh Bhatt compared ‘Jism 2’ to Italian romance drama Last Tango in Paris. ‘Jism 2’ has been passed with an A-certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for strong sexual content.
07/12Aruna Raje- ‘Rihaee’
Aruna Raje is an Indian film director and editor known for her feminist works in Hindi cinema. Aruna enrolled initially at Grant Medical College in Pune to study medicine but later quit to join the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). She passed out of FTII with a gold medal in 1969 becoming the first trained woman technician in the industry. At the beginning of her career, Aruna Raje worked jointly with her ex-husband Vikas Desai in the name of Aruna-Vikas. She co-edited acclaimed films like ‘Giddh’ and ‘Masoom’. The duo later took direction making films like ‘Shaque’, ‘Gehrayee’ and ‘Sitam’. She has also made national award-winning documentaries on the well-known classical dancer Mallika Sarabhai and special children, ‘The New Paradigm’. The film stars Vinod Khanna, Hema Malini, Naseeruddin Shah and Mohan Agashe in lead roles. The film dealt with the promiscuity of male migrant workers in urban India, and also the sexuality of women left behind the rural regions. Hema Malini received a nomination for the Filmfare Best Actress Award for her role in the film.
08/12Deepa Mehta- ‘Fire’
She is an Indo-Canadian film director and screenwriter, most known for her Elements Trilogy, ‘Earth’, and ‘Water’. She has also co-founded her production with her husband, producer David Hamilton in 1996. In 2015, Mehta wrote and directed the crime thriller ‘Beeba Boys’ (2015), a film starring Randeep Hooda as Jeet Johar, a proud observant Sikh, and a ruthless gangster. It premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. Mehta's film ‘Water’ was later published by Sidhwa as the 2006 novel Water: A Novel. All three films have soundtracks composed by A. R. Rahman. ‘Water’ is the story of an eight-year-old child widow who is forced to enter a house of widows for the rest of her life. The film, meant to be shot in India, was attacked by Hindu fundamentalists. Riots broke out, sets were destroyed, and death threats were issued towards the actors and Mehta, forcing production to stop. Four years later the movie was made in Sri Lanka. Her film ‘Fire’ is loosely based on Ismat Chughtai's 1942 story, Lihaaf (The Quilt). It was one of the first mainstream Bollywood films to explicitly show homosexual relations. After its 1998 release in India, certain groups staged several protests, setting off a flurry of public dialogue around issues such as homosexuality and freedom of speech.
09/12Leena Yadav- ‘Parched’
She is an Indian Film Director, Producer, Screenwriter & Editor. She started her career in the television industry and gradually moved on to making feature films. Her first international feature film, ‘Parched’, premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in 2015. She was born to an Indian Army General in Madhya Pradesh. As a TV show's director, she directed both fiction and non-fiction for almost 12 years; some of the TV shows. As a mainstream film director, ‘Shabd’ was her directorial debut with unconventional storyline released in 2005. ‘Teen Patti’ was her second film after a gap of five years. ‘Parched’ is the latest movie directed by her starring Tannishtha Chatterjee, Radhika Apte, Surveen Chawla and Adil Hussain playing lead roles. The film was produced by Ajay Devgn. Parched is the story of four women in a desert village of Rajasthan, India. The village and the society are plagued by several social evils, age-old traditions, and practices of patriarchy, child marriage, dowry, marital rapes and physical and mental abuse. Rani (Tannishtha Chatterjee) is a widow struggling to support her old mother-in-law and teenage son, Gulab (Riddhi Sen). Following village customs, Rani marries Gulab off to a child bride by paying a hefty sum to the bride's family. Meanwhile, Gulab is disrespectful, rebellious, and prefers to loiter with a gang of spoilt friends and spend time with sex workers. As Rani witnesses, Manoj falls on fire and is burnt alive. Rani, Lajjo, and Bijli together finally run away from the village in search of a better life, away from all the misery of customs, traditions, and patriarchy.
10/12Madhureeta Anand- ‘Kajarya’
She is a prolific, independent filmmaker. She has directed two feature films, written five feature films, directed many documentary films and series, spanning an array of genres. Many of her films have won national and international awards. She also writes for various websites and magazines and has been featured in various books and other publications. She is also an activist for women’s rights and rights of other minorities. She has consistently used her films and influences to support the causes of ending violence against women and children. ‘Kajarya’ is a Bollywood docu-drama film directed. ‘Kajarya’ explores the issue of female infanticide, and was released commercially in India on 4 December 2015 to rave reviews and a good audience reception. The film is co-produced by Bengali director Qaushiq Mukherjee popularly known as Q, Starfire movies, and Madhureeta Anand’s company. The film is shot in Haryana. It is a feature film that deals with the pertinent topic of sex selection in India. It is a thriller about two women - The first is Kajarya played by Meena Hooda, a woman who lives in the village and has the job of killing babies and the other is an opportunistic journalist from New Delhi played by Ridhima Sud.
