The Beginning

Last night I watched Bulbbul, the movie on Netflix that everyone is talking about. A friend recommended it to me, I was skeptical about watching the movie after seeing the trailer but I watched it anyway. here is my review of the Movie. 

To start with, the movie was good on the visuals, the costumes, the settings, the use of colours and great performances by the actresses especially. I thought the background score was good too. I see how the movie can be a bit cathartic for women who feel suffocated by the systemic oppression on patriarchy in everyday lives.  But overall, Bulbbul fails to impress, it is a one time watch, not something you can go back to where you feel connected to the characters. 

The plot was predictable from the beginning and honestly it does a pretty shoddy job in storytelling. The movie touches upon subjects like child marriage, rape, enforced widowhood, physical violence on women and the subtle manner in which the women are bound by chains, both the ones that adorn their bodies that restrict their movement and the invisible ones that stifle their voices. This is beautifully depicted in the scene between Binodini and Bulbbul as Binodini tends to Bulbbul who is lying on the bed with wounds after being raped by Mahendar. Binodini simply repeats what was said to her when she was to be married to Mahendar as she goes on to cleans her wounds and put clothes on her without once trying to actually striking a conversation with Bulbbul. This soliloquy is beautifully delivered by the actress, it is chilling to see the way she just goes about things and you really empathize with her. 

But this constant portrayal of the strong woman as possessed by the spirit of Kali or as an embodiment of Kali is frankly utterly boring annoying and problematic. We are indirectly told that of Bulbbul's 'purity' thereby making it easier for her to be an embodiment of a goddess. When something is portrayed as 'pure' you are indirectly saying that there is something impure. The incessant need to deify the woman is something that Bollywood needs to seriously get over and the constant binary of witch/goddess  is theme that we need to move away from. The movie would have been a much stronger one and refreshing had the woman just been a woman and not an embodiment of Kali. Society puts us through so much pain both physical and mental, and when we retaliate we are automatically seen as evil, unruly, sinister and so on simply because we defy. Had that been the underlying message of the movie it would been so brilliant. The depiction of the feet was really beautiful, they could have done so much with that, the notion that witches have their feet backward is a myth but in this movie, the protagonist's feet have been so brutally hurt that they no longer are straight, that could have been a depiction of how patriarchy turns us into witches, for not falling in line. in mythology, history and even the present we see often how women who are bold are seen as 'bad' an not someone to be trusted. Women who take their agency into their hands are always put down and called demonesses and witches, it would have been a revolutionary take on things had it just been left at that, especially for a Bengali setting to not touch upon the subject kali and simply let the woman be a human being who endures pain and tries out to reach out those who have been wronged as well. Dehumanizing Bulbbul was just shoddy work and lazy writing. In the garb of trying to question patriarchy it still confines itself to the line question that is comfortable to the male gaze. Bulbbul merely skims the surface of patriarchy, doesn't question. It is high time we separate women empowerment from Kali/Durga, a goddess no matter how powerful still is subservient to a male God. 

Honestly speaking, Child marriage and enforced widowhood are subjects that keep cropping up every now and then, and talking only about this only shows the narrow scope of Savarna Feminism. That they cannot move beyond these subjects is appalling. I understand that the setting is almost a century ago, but that need not stop us from seeing beyond just these subjects. And I have serious problems with gruesome portrayals of rape, by focussing only on the physical it doesn't allow us to connect with the character and see beyond the physical bruises that have been inflicted on them. Outlander actually does a good job in this, we see the trauma that the on screen characters go through, we feel their pain, and as they try to heal we too feel that sense of healing with them. While watching Bulbbul, I just shut my eyes and ears when Mahendar mounts on Bulbbul and begins to rape her. the whole thing was so gory and triggering emotionally. The movie indirectly strengthens the trope of capital punishment for rape and sexual abuse totally neglecting the damage done to the victims of sexual abuse and rape. the healing process of healing could have been inculcated in this same story and same setting. 

So often pop culture only focuses on revenge for a woman who is wronged, that again is a very masculine concept of justice, which actually does nobody any good. It is about time we try to take a second look at these issues and explore what else can be done. 

And what is with Bollywood constantly pitting women against each other? Binodini and Bulbbul are both victims of patriarchy, in such an atmosphere of suffocation, would it have not made their lives a little easier had they been empathetic to each other? In an age where there have been conscious attempts being made to foster female friendships, this movie takes another step back, what women of this day need to see is not how women have been antagonistic to each other, rather how they have strived to forge a friendship despite the hardships they encounter and support each other. 

I think the more I think about the movie the problems I seem to have with it.