The day i heard about this film, i had major issues with its title, and since then refused to spend my time, energy and money, to go and watch the film, but then while lazying around in bed and flipping through channels, i finally came across it on television, and with nothing else to do really, on a lazy afternoon, i decided to watch it, finally.
While i love Rani Mukerji's character, and she's done a great job playing it, the film did nothing for me in terms of making me feel powerful, or strong as a woman, which i am sure, was the intention and motive of Pradeep Sarkar. Instead, all it did for me was remind me of the power of the male genitalia, which gives males, god knows, what kind of extraordinary power and makes them strong?
And worst of all, i feel as a woman and a viewer, (please note: woman first), that to be strong and independent in this society, i have to be like a 'mard',
I mean are you trying to tell me that i can't be myself, without 'growing a pair of balls' (as the slang goes), be a 'woman', who likes to wear dresses, put on make up, likes pink, and yet, be strong, independent and powerful? What bullshit.
I'll give the film a thumbs up for the issue it has addressed (child trafficking), and the whole police investigation, and how Rani Mukerji goes ahead with her investigation, and fights off the baddies. All that stuff, great, but the person who's story you're trying to tell, just because she's a woman who's in power and a great officer, she's got the 'mardaani' factor? I mean what the hell does that even mean?
You're literally giving the message to all the women out there, that we need to learn about, strength, power, and independence from 'mards', the men? Leech on their personality traits? You're going right back to reinforcing stereotypes and male superiority, what's the point of even showing the whole idea of a female inspector, who's fearless and powerful when, through the title of your film itself, you're trying to put the males above the females, and attributing all qualities of the protagonist, to the entire species of males?
While i was getting over the whole dislike for the title, and appreciating the issue that the film addressed, the last dialogue of Rani Mukerji, brought it all down to one message, for me to take away from the film, and that was, 'you need to find the man in you, to be a strong woman'. WOW. That did it for me.
Like you're telling me now, that i can't just simply be a strong woman in itself, i have to find and leech on the testosterone hormone inside me and only then i can be a 'strong' woman?
Did the male species like, buy the sole rights of 'strong' as a personality trait or what? It's as if strength only belongs to men! Its like a time machine, taking us back to the times of women in veils and men toiling the grass.
With all due respect to the intention of the filmmaker and the entire team of 'Mardaani', i'm sorry, but as a feminist, and i'm sure i speak on behalf of a lot of women out there as well, this film is kind of demoralizing and demotivating.
For starters, your title completely contradicts what you're trying to show through your film. You're showing a fearless, independent, professionally competent woman, who's doing a great job in a male dominated, patriarchal society, and yet you're putting her in a position and calling her qualities, 'Mardaani', and completely spoiling the whole intent and motive of the script. You're almost saying that because she's so great she's like a man? Why?
Why does any woman being strong, professionally competent or flirty etc., have to be 'like a man'.
Why can't it just be like, 'Oh, there's a strong person'
Why attach labels?
Last but not the least, the closing dialogue by Rani Mukherji, where she says something like, 'Apne andar ki mardaani ko dhoondo' or something along those lines, i don't know the exact dialogue, is a complete put off for a woman, and a completely unnecessary ego boost for the man.
Every man watching it would find his chest size grow two inches bigger, because they would find themselves on top of the world, and every woman would find herself submissive to the male power, finding herself weaker, because, she is after all, a 'stri' and not a 'mard' and the film is asking you to find your inner 'mard'.
I wish i had heard something more offensive and outrageous, but this is such a slap in the face of women empowerment, and such a pullback to old times, instead of pushing women forward and rising above from stereotypes, you've done a great job of pulling them back and reinforcing them, through a mass media like cinema, which reaches and influences millions of people, across the globe. And it's scary that this is the kind of message that's reaching millions of people out there.
As a female viewer, this is what i took from the film: 'To be a strong woman, find the man inside you'
Ha! Like we don't have enough of them already. No thank you.
I'll be a woman because i was born that way, and i'm more than sure, i'll get my way through just fine. :)
I'll leave you with a link to a short film made by my friends on labels attached to women. Hope you enjoy it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpuBQ3RdoJ4
