Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
In a stifling environment, how does a teenaged girl learn to dream? Advait Chandan’s assured debut, Secret Superstar walks us through this journey.
In an orthodox, stifling environment, how does a teenaged girl learn to dream? And understand that realizing them is the sole purpose of life? Advait Chandan’s assured debut, Secret Superstar walks us through this journey.
While the movie is predictable and formulaic, it becomes disconcertingly real, and that is where it wins – helping us re-craft what ‘commercial’ films could mean. A critical facet of the film is the light it puts on abuse. The #MeToo campaign, critical in voicing anger towards the normalcy of abuse, and highlighting its sheer width, plays the same role. Secret Superstar too, goes beyond just the physicality of the abuse, bringing alive different kinds of abuse – verbal, mental, and of course brutal, physical violence.
In this toxic environment, a girl sure in her talent, ambitious enough to succeed, is a conflict that the film handles with sensitivity, giving it a face of reality. The resulting relationship between a mother and a daughter – as two friends who draw strength from each other, reverse roles with veritable ease, giving the film its real soul. The cultural truth of women finding strength in women – similar journeys and struggles, is palpable in the film. What helps immensely is the impeccable casting, and consummate performances by each and every character.
Meher Vij, as the soft, ambitious, cushion giving mother, forced to stay in her boundary of the kitchen alone (wide shots highlight this several times), is fantastic. She brings alive the disparity and forced humiliation that many women are forced to live with, trapped in a flux of our choices, till we find our strength to arrive at a decision. Raj Arjun as the violent, conservative, patriarchal father is excellent. His portrayal has you weary of what is about to come. Zaira Wasim as the teenager on whose delicate shoulders the film is mounted, proves that delicate shouldn’t ever mean weak. She embodies the role, and works her mannerisms to fit it as well. Her raw, innocent earnestness has you rooting for her from the beginning. Tirth Sharma as the endearing Chintan is a delight and earnest. The little flutterings of the first crush are palpable and make you hark back to the warmth of your first feelings of young love. Commercial Hindi cinema has found some incredible child actors in the recent past – Darsheel Safary, Zaira Wasim, Suhani Bhatnagar, Tirth Sharma are all great finds. It is interesting that they appear in Aamir Khan backed films.
Aamir Khan. A film that he backs or is in, naturally attracts a lot of attention. Playing himself up in the trailer is testimony to his marketing capabilities, while in the film he plays a pivotal but smaller role. He is unapologetically cheesy and crass. I do wish the humor wasn’t sexist, given that the film contests several sexisms in its narrative; however, he is as mainstream, and as rebuke-worthy as can be! So bad that he is good! And therein is its strength! He manages the laughs, and the nose-scrunching reaction that the character evokes.
For a film focusing on music some of the tracks, Mai kaun hoon and Nachdi phiraan are genuinely hum worthy. The lyrics of the former inject the ambition and the conflict of Insiya (Zaira Wasim), and is a pivotal song for character build and narrative thrust. Amit Trivedi is as incredible as ever with soulful tunes. Keeping Meghna Misra’s voice as the only one for Insiya lends excellent consistency to the sound of the film – something that was always done in cinema earlier – when one singer sang for one actor/character lending the required recognizable consistency through the album.
It is critical that commercial cinema creates films that highlight the real issues that we face everyday. That of abuse, of stifling. Because it must be called out till that glass ceiling is smashed through. Its normalcy must be questioned, through our own social media, our voices, stories, thoughts, ideas and through every single thing we create. So if in a formulaic narrative we get the nuggets of reality that are critical to be thought over and acted upon – the film emerges a winner.
Saumya Baijal, is a writer in both English and Hindi. Her stories, poems and articles have been published on Jankipul.com, India Cultural Forum, The Silhouette Magazine, Feminism in India, Drunk Monkeys, Writer’s Asylum, read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
Please enter your email address