Heroines occupy centre-stage

Malayalam industry has been recently seeing some content-driven women-oriented movies that have made an impact at the box office. Though not a new trend, films like How Old Are You set off a very encouraging scenario with filmmakers daring to move away from conventional formula and make women the central protagonists.

These films explored the new-age woman, who is strong, beautiful and independent, intent on celebrating their womanhood, but the reality is that it will take a substantial push for audiences to get comfortable watching a female-oriented movie.

The recently-released Rani Padmini is being actively debated and dissected if a woman-oriented film equates to a feminist movie. Whilst such debates rage on, filmmakers are going ahead and directing scripts which have women as central characters.

The upcoming bilingual film Girls, directed by veteran director Thulasidaas, is novel in a lot of ways. He explains: “The film has no hero at all; in fact there are no male actors in the film and has six heroines. I wanted something out of the box and I happened to get a suitable script. We have treated the film very differently. I know I cannot predict the film’s outcome, but the film has all the commercial elements like action, humour, sentiments and thrill to attract both the sexes to the theatres. I want to highlight that my film is not an experimental one, but one made with much effort!”

The film is shot separately in Tamil and Malayalam because the emotions and reactions of the characters are different in the two industries. “It is up to the audience to decide if there was a need for a male character in the film and I will await the verdict,” Thulasidaas adds.

A director known for his very commercial potboilers, M. Padmakumar too has attempted to analyse the female psyche through his upcoming film Jalam. He says, “My film tackles the social issue of a woman left to fend alone with a child who does not have a house to live in. Though my film is not taken on a big canvas, it is a woman’s struggle and has male characters entering her life at different junctures.”

The audiences have been fed on a diet of heroes being the focal point, so there is a challenge in making woman-oriented films. Padmakumar opines, “The majority of the audience think conventionally and as filmmakers, we are trying to break that way of thought. I personally feel educating the audience to accept women-centric films is the clarion call of the hour.”

Making a move in the direction of educating audiences is the Kerala Sthree Padana Kendram, a non-profit organisation that has launched the Female Film Society in  Thiruvananthapuram. Speaking about the reasons for launching such a society, Padana Kendram director P.S. Sreekala says: “We have a lot of film societies, but none of them concentrates on woman-oriented films or themes. The need for such a society arose because world over, we have a lot of women-centric films that need to be introduced to the Kerala audiences. The criteria for selection is that films should either be directed by a woman director or should have a woman-centric theme.”

Mentioning that she welcomes the women-centric films in Malayalam, Sreekala states, “The films I have seen are not feminist movies. Feminist movies, according to me, should be something that establishes the woman’s identity. Films should not portray women as weak and we cannot tag women-centric films as feminist movies.”

Director Preethi Pannikar is debuting in Mollywood with her upcoming film Thilothama, based on the life of a club dancer played by Rachana Narayankutty. Preethi opines, “This is a commercial film which is made on the lines of a thriller but has comedy woven in. Attempting comedy is difficult but though a debutant, I am confident. Since it is the story of a club dancer, there is bound to be a curiosity value and has four songs, including a club dance.”