By Anam Kazmi
‘Ek aurat hi aurat ki sabse badi dushman hoti hai!’
(A woman is a woman’s worst enemy!)
Everyone loves to bring this old adage into the conversation anytime there is even the slightest friction between two women; however, not many are as keen to talk about the different ways in which women are also each other’s biggest sources of support, strength and solace. In a world that is socially constructed and physically designed to be difficult for women to navigate, it is by holding the hand of our female companions and leaning on their shoulders that most of us are able to get through the trials and tribulations of our lives.
When it comes to films, I have always found myself gravitating to stories that depict the experiences of women in with nuance and complexity. But the portrayal of a ‘real’ female friendship on screen, one that is depicted in all its ugliness and glory, is a rare sight to see. Many mainstream Bollywood movies have attempted but failed to capture this very essence in the recent past. Although these films market themselves as ‘feminist’ and ‘female-centric’ and claim to champion female friendship and sisterhood, they often fall into the trap of viewing and presenting women through a lens that is still deeply clouded by patriarchy. Films like Veere Di Wedding, Dhak Dhak, Thank You for Coming, and Crew have strong female protagonists, but these women don’t feel real; they are more caricature than a complex human being.
While I have been disappointed by the portrayal of women in these overhyped films, there have been two recent Indian films that left their mark on me for their subtle yet powerful explorations of female friendship and solidarity. The first is All We Imagine As Light, a 2024 drama film written and directed by Payal Kapadia which revolves around the lives of three different women who work at the same hospital in Mumbai. Prabha (Kani Kusruti) is a young nurse who is patiently waiting for her husband’s return from Germany. Anu (Divya Prabha), another nurse who works and lives with Prabha, is caught in the complications of having a ‘forbidden’ affair with a Muslim man called Shiaz. Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), an older woman who works as a cook at the same hospital as the other two, is embroiled in a legal battle against a powerful builder who wants to demolish her home to construct a skyscraper. Over the course of the film, the lives of these women overlap, and they forge a strong bond despite their different desires and dissimilar outlooks towards life. The women at the center of the story are ordinary people living ordinary lives, yet somehow, Kapadia tells their stories with such depth and compassion that it lends the viewer finds them extraordinary and magical.
Another film that gets the portrayal of female relationships right is Girls Will Be Girls, a 2024 Indian drama film written and directed by Shuchi Talati. A coming-of-age story that focuses on Mira Kishore (Preeti Panigrahi), a high school student at a boarding school who is goes through the ups and downs that come with being a teenager, the movie is a poignant exploration of girlhood and the camaraderie as well as rivalry that exists between women. While Mira’s feelings, her experiences with puberty and her first encounters are important elements of the film, it is her love-hate relationship with her mother, Anila (Kani Kusruti), that is the beating heart of the story.
While these two films are, technically, very different from each other, set in very different contexts, and feature women of different ages, there is something that they both share (and I am not talking about the actor Kani Kusruti). The invisible string that ties them together is their unblinking and unfiltered focus on the female experience. They show us what it means to be a woman in contemporary India. By making their protagonists ‘unglamorous’ ordinary women, they tell the stories that are often considered not important or exciting enough to be told but stories that most of us who identify as women and have grown up in Indian society will find a resonance in. There were many scenes in both films that had me thinking, “I have felt this way before” and “this experience happened to me too!”
This is not to say that movies like AWIAL and GWBG are not flawless; they too have some stereotypical tropes (the strict boarding school teacher, the gossipy nurses at the hospital and the absent husbands, the oblivious father figure), but for the most part, they feel grounded in reality. The worlds they are set in and the characters that inhabit them feel like places we have been to and people you and I have met at some point in our lives. What these movies do particularly well is to offer commentary on sociocultural issues without preaching about them. It is the small moments, such as a teacher comparing the skirt length of two girls, the little dance party that the women have at Parvaty’s house and the uneasy silences that creep into Mira and Anila’s conversations, that remain in your head long after you have finished watching these movies.
These films feel timeless yet also discuss issues that are very much of their time. They expose the obvious as well as subtle ways in which patriarchal societies try to regulate women, their bodies, clothing, love lives and ways of existing. The cultural anxiety and fear of the woman as a free and sexual being are explored in interesting ways in these films. In AWIAL, the people who work at the hospital judge Anu and question her character because she flirts with the male doctors openly and is known to go out. And in GWBG, the teachers blame the young girls at the school for acting “provocatively” rather than holding the boys accountable for their bad behaviour. These are comments that most women who grow up in India have dealt with and can relate to. However, while these films show how patriarchy can be perpetuated by women in some cases, they also highlight how it is women who stand up and speak up for other women in times of crises. It is Anila who rushes to her daughter’s rescue when the schoolboys are harassing her and it is Parvaty who gives financial and emotional support to Anu when everyone around her treats her with unkindness.
AWIAL and GWBG show the multifaceted nature of female relationships. They challenge the idea of women only being each other’s rivals and “dushmans”, showing how women, despite finding themselves in disagreements and at opposing ends of the spectrum, manage to be each other’s closest friends and confidantes, sisters-in-arms and support systems.
About the Author
Anam Kazmi is a writer and editor based in New Delhi. She is currently a Writing Fellow at the ReFrame Institute of Arts and Expression. She has a Master's degree in English Literature from the University of Delhi. She likes to write about a variety of topics, ranging from politics to popular culture.