The Dirty Woman

Every once a while comes a Dirty woman who makes the world cleaner. For every vulgarity that she exhibits, she brings the world inch by inch closer to its own dirty realities. Giving them seek fake voyeuristic pleasures in thinking about their world as an angelic place. Where this Dirty Woman faces the wrath of morals, judgments and allegations by the society. Every once a while comes along this Dirty Woman who brings about a change.

The latest one being Vidya Balan as ‘Silk’ who broke all records (and buttons) to show that it takes sheer guts to be the Dirty Woman. For she was judged, elated and then smashed to pieces by the very people who whistled for her. For someone who endured the pain of a hunter to give audience the forbidden pleasures, she was the one who dared. And there was nothing sympathetic about it. In fact this Dirty Woman was strong enough to endure without any inhibitions.

Time and again there have been many Dirty Women who have been excluded because they did not fit into the ‘good Indian woman’ mould. There was Kamala Das who shocked everyone with her version free writing. Then there was a Protima Bedi, who gave a run to others morality. Or better still, Zeenat Aman who introduced the hippie Indian woman to the mediocre saree-clad world. From a Shobha De who redefined the socio –cultural ethos to a Sushmita Sen who continues to live life on her own terms they have all been tried and tested by the society.

The examples are plenty and each one of them being slammed by critics and society alike. Only to be put on pedestal later for bringing about a change. Helping in the emergence of a modern society and changing its perception of women beyond mundane trophy wives, good girls and angelic deeds. Instead these women have shown their real selves making them catalysts of a truer, better society.

So ready for more Dirty women...are we?

- Prachi Mujumdar-Kurlekar

Relations

Relations

Relations are the core of every human today. Going back to the Stone Age era where man was an animal. His life revolved around searching for sufficient food. With the need for security, he started living in groups. These groups led to attachments and attractions, some physical and some emotional.

‘Relations’ were thus involved.

With frenzy for naming every relation, there came parents, siblings, friends, lovers, spouses, colleagues, acquaintances … everyone. Each came in with its own dynamics. And more so with their respective responsibilities. As we evolved from food hunting nomads to well settled corporate honchos, relations formed a social idea to a self imposed definitions of what we are or what we should be in our lives.

Are they good , are they bad? We can’t say! Ever imagined a world without any relations? Well, who knows, without definite relations we wouldn’t have restricted ourselves to being good, considerate and caring to certain people. Maybe we would have cared a bit more about the old granny who takes a walk on a particular road everyday. Maybe we really wouldn’t have been so selfish so as to think about My Family, My Relatives, My Cousins, My Neighbours or My Countrymen.

Maybe the care and consideration went beyond all these. That man wouldn’t commit crime to keep his kin rich & happy. Maybe it would have helped us evolve as a collective human race. That we didn’t restrict our feelings to a certain clan or country. We would all yet again be humans in the truest sense.

Blog....the four lettered word I swear by...

Blog….

Blog… a four letter word that has been on mind for a pretty long time. Yes its everywhere, the world is blogging from shiny hair to relationships you can get every information, imagination and persuasion through blogs .And yet I have shied away from it for a very long time.

Why? No answers really, mmm… maybe I have just been lazy to open my laptop and start writing ( yes now typing is the new writing). Ideas were many but they came and went, never really documented them. Some while ago I tried writing diary but gave that up when things started getting too personal and the idea, the thought, the inception was lost translation. During my post grad media course we were told to maintain a blog under any god damned circumstances but I didn’t pay any heed then, too easily thinking that writing is what I’ll be doing the rest of my life.

My romance with writing started when I was a school girl , I used to write random poems, stories and the oh-so-typical letters to the editor and mind you every one of them published. Interest turned to obsession when I started freelance writing for newspapers, I bunked my college lectures and attended press conferences, interviews covered launches, film screenings et al. So while classmates were in search of soulmates , I continued with my romance with writing. Then more of college in post graduation where I tried my hand at a couple of movie reviews. However, there came a twist in my love story. I got in to an advertising job…and got married. Settled with my husband in Pune and chose to start off my career in full swing.(people are still awed that at 22 I was already 3 years old in freelancing, had completed my post graduation was into a full time media job and was already married!) Back to obsession, after pretty much settling down in my first job and a year into my marriage, thoughts of the word affair started brewing up. I realized that my tryst with writing was not a fling it is one of those relationships that blossom, that connect on a very different level, more than friends, more than siblings something that can’t really be named.

And lo and behold! That’s when I decided that I have to let this happen, I have to get back to writing. It doesn’t really matter where you write, it matters how you write..right? and here I am, writing about everything that I feel I can better express through words.

Im ready for this…. Really!

Rita….. The movie.

Rita….. The movie.

(Language: Marathi)

That marathi cinema has come of age is by now an established fact. Rita, the movie is fresh evidence to the premise. The movie is based on a Marathi novel by Shanta Gokhale, Rita Welinkar. With the central character played by Pallavi Joshi the film is directed by Renuka Shahane. Renuka Shahane debuts as a director with this powerful movie. Jackie Shroff also plays a crucial role as Rita’s (Joshi) love interest.

The story of young Rita as she grows to become a supportive daughter to emotionless eccentric parents touches the heart. The movie traces the life of Rita from there to being the ‘other woman’ in Salvi’s (Jackie Shroff) life finally ending into a nervous breakdown. The movie explores her life through a letter to her best friend Saraswati Iyyer played by Renuka Shahne. Rita’s character unfolds as being a little girl running around on the beaches and babysitting her younger sister to being helpless in front of her family’s selfishness. Rita’s journey continues through her make believe love to a married man that makes her emotionally vulnerable and dependent stripped off her self-respect. It is the end that she discovers the latent self respect and speaks up for herself. The movie moves beyond feminism, rather it explores the aspect of individual identity.

The movie is a mostly dark with glimpses of light and liveliness in it. It starts with a gloomy feeling in a psychiatric ward of a hospital. The quick flashbacks are extremely powerful as they create a shock effect. The glimpses of her past thrown in between create more curiosity. The short dream sequence is heart wrenching. The sudden dissolve to a little Rita playing on the beach and a peek into her troubled childhood gives a strong base for the movie to make an impact on the audiences mind. From there on the constant juggling between the past and the present until a full flash back through the letter to Saraswati Iyyer opens up. The sound of the movie creates a lasting impression of the scences. In one particular example where Rita goes though a emotional turmoil the ‘ Mantra pushpanjali’ during Ganesh utsava which contradicts with Rita’s emotions make a strong impact. The immediate silence that follows this scene is completely jarring. The movie ends on a happier note with The three women Rita , her friend Saraswati and her sister Sangita walking by the beach melting into the sunset.th elast scene in a way indicates Rita’s life coming to a full circle.

The movie is clearly a performer’s movie and Pallavi Joshi as the protagonist is astounding. Jackies Shroff fits the bill as married man unable to decide between his family and the person he loves. Sai Tamhankar as the understanding sister proves her mettle. Renuka Shahane performs the dual role as a director and actor with much aplomb.

Rita… is truly a bench mark for more Marathi movies.

- Prachi Mujumdar.

(freelance journalist , Pune)

Slumdog Millionaire :its a question.

Slumdog Millionaire: It’s a question.
A movie that has been written about a million times in the papers. The movie made it to the prestigious Golden Globe awards and won it too. A movie that got the local political parties pondering over the term ‘Slumdog’. Indeed Slumdog millionaire is a history.
But the question is what kind of history is it that we want to etch.

It sure is a rag to riches story with the picture of ‘real Mumbai’. It is a story of a slum dweller turning into a millionaire with answering all the questions. What is interesting and different is the amalgamation f the past with the present, the personal experience as a representation of thousands of slum dwellers which reside in Mumbai.
So the story unfolds giving away the horrors that the city has been through with every experience in Jamal Malik’s life be the riots, the rag picking at dump yards or the fake orphanage.

In Slumdog every question that is asked to Jamal has a scarred history. It shows the different world of Jamal Malik and the host of the show. While they are just questions and steps towards the money for the host and the audience, for Jamal the questions are something that he would never forget. And of course the significance of those mundane questions is something that a non slum dweller would never understand. It is reality of life that has made Jamal stronger than anyone else at the show. His answers are from the tribulations that life posed before him. Unlike most who think that academics and extra bright shiny performances matter in life, Jamal proves they don’t. In fact the real lessons come from faltering, losing and being an underdog who rises up like a phoenix only to win money, fame and most importantly love.
Jamal won because he survived. More than anything in this world he learned surviving; at a very tender age. It was his fighting with hunger, the goons, his gangster brother, the system that made him survive.

So it’s the question again which history do we want to etch in our hearts,
A movie that made it to the awards or a lone man who won over all odds in life?
Prachi Mujumdar

Celebrity Gossip And Youth.

Celebrity gossip and youth
John has dumped Bipasha indicating there’s indeed trouble in paradise. Vidya and John have become best buddies!! Hang on these are just filmy rumors and have got nothing to do with the real picture. We are talking about the gossip columns dedicated to celebrities. In these columns who’s wearing what, who’s dating whom and who’s slapping who is mentioned. And what’s more?! The faithful readers lap up almost anything and everything about the favorite stars. Most of the youngsters will agree that the celebrity columns are the only things that they look forward to in a newspaper. The latest buzz is that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt visiting Pune for shooting a film. It’s the case of all smoke and no fire. Pune seems to be completely smitten by these rumors for articles and gossips about Brad and Angelina have been splashed across the entire newspaper for more than a week! Ashwini Paliwal a die hard fan of Brad Pitt and a student of fashion technology at SOFT feels that an unnecessary issue is being made about the ‘Brangelina’ visit. If at all they are visiting Pune there should be a public appearance and then they should be left alone to complete their work instead of creating a Brou ha ha about the entire thing.
So does it mean that celebrity gossip is really important topic among the youth .Well not everyone shares the same opinion on this. Some are least bothered about these futile gossips while there are few others who want to know every bit of available information about their favorite stars. One may question the authenticity of information mentioned in these columns as most of these turn out to be mere rumors. Take the example of Ash- Abhishek link up; many believe that this is just a publicity stunt for their forthcoming movie Umrao-Jaan. ‘Stars use such rumors to remain in limelight ‘says Ankita Chandawarkar, a SYBA student S.P college. While Jay Banpel a second year engineering student at SIT opines that stars are well beyond false publicity, they are too famous to resort to such tactics. Thus the general opinion is that this information is just a ‘time pass’ and not to be taken seriously.
Like it or not the bling factor serves a major attraction for the youth. Though one can’t help but read about personal lives of ones on-screen idols, almost everyone agrees to the opinion that there should be a limit for the media intervention in the private lives of celebrities.’ The life of celebrities is like that of an open book. Since they are idols for the youth they have to undergo severe public scrutiny and though ideally the media should draw the line where private matters are concerned it is a fact that gossips sells like hot cakes ‘says Sachi Agarwal a fashion student.
Another factor which comes across is the fact that it is the girl gang which indulges in gossiping more than the guys. It is the girls who are bothered about the on goings in the personal lives and love lives of film stars and socialites. Ankit Ranade an engineering student informs that usually guys just take a look at the attractive photos and that’s it while the female counterparts simply devour the related information .However most of the girls claim that they read things just for information and to keep themselves ‘updated’.
When asked whether celebrity stuff has any effect on the youth, one comes across a lot of mixed reactions. Some agree that it does have an effect on the way they dress up and get the ‘feel good’ factor by getting to know about high profile lifestyles .Again here too it’s the girls who are more concerned. Many girls agreed that they do keep a watch on the make up and dressing up of actresses and like dressing up same way. Revati Limaye a student at SOFT is of the opinion that the celebrities inspire the youth with their stylish lifestyles. And that is what they really look for when reading the gossip columns. However, when it comes to having the same hairdo that John Abraham sports not many guys believe in blindly aping the filmy awtaars. Niranjan Pandit, a second year engineering student brings in that gossiping is the sure shot way to increase interaction with friends, specially the girls as they enjoy gossiping more than anything else!
Many believe that profession or the academic course that one pursues has a strong connection with amount of indulgence in celebrity stuff. For instance somebody pursuing hard core pure sciences or medicine obviously won’t have the degree of interest that a student of photography or an aspiring model will have. Take example of students of fashion designing, they have to keep themselves updated with the latest trends in the world of fashion. Like it or not they need to keep a watch on the page 3 personalities in every possible way.
In the end it is the individual choice and priority that matters more than anything else. One may just read things and leave them for good or blindly follow what the rumor mills churn out. It’s ultimately up to the reader to decide for themselves what to read and how much it should affect them as responsible individuals of society. One must essentially learn to separate the reel life from real life.

- Prachi Mujumdar.
august 2007