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Any witch way
A new movie, portraying the leading lady as one with a penchant for witchcraft, is in the eye of the storm
- PUBLISHED: Fri 19 Apr 2013, 11:37 AM UPDATED: Wed 3 Jan 2024, 4:27 PM
ust when alarm bells have been ringing about the reprehensible portrayal of women in Bollywood, a controversy - a valid one! - has been incited by Ek Thi Daayan, co-produced by Ekta Kapoor with Vishal Bharadwaj. The title itself points towards regressive values, 'daayan' being an archaic abuse hurled by vitriolic mother-in-laws at women who are widowed and childless.
In fact, Indian cinema's most vicious mother-in-law, Lalita Pawar, of the 1950s and 60s, would often torment the blameless heroine with the 'daayan' cuss-word.
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In the case of the latest supernatural thriller, the allusion is to a 'witch', who is thirsting for the blood of Emraan Hashmi, who portrays a magician - evidently on the lines of Edward Norton's character in The Illusionist.
Who the witch in question is has been kept hush-hush, what with equal prominence in publicity being accorded to the trio of heroines - Konkona Sen Sharma, Kalki Koechlin and Huma Qureshi. The screenplay has been adapted from a story by Konkona's writer-journalist father Mukul Sharma. So, don't be surprised if Konkona gets the juiciest part among the leading ladies. In any case, she deserves to, since she is a far superior actress than Kalki and Huma put together.
The controversy has an unusual genesis. Ekta Kapoor sought to rope in Ipsita Roy Chakraverti, a wiccan priestess, as part of the film's promotional campaign drive. However, on seeing a preview of Ek Thi Daayan, the wiccan was enraged and, in fact, sent off a petition to the office of the President of India, for the film's immediate ban. She argued that the film showed women in a negative light and could send wrong signals, especially among the unlettered audience.
Chakraverti, who is said to be a family friend of President Pranab Mukherjee, believes that the film will incite violence against women who may be construed as witches.
Following her objections, the Natio-nal Commission for Women in New Delhi called for a screening of the witch flick, to check its content. As for the producers, a policy of 'no comments' was maintained, to prevent the issue from snowballing into a crisis. An insider, though, revealed that the film is quite 'innocuous', despite the brouhaha.
Vishal Bharadwaj, the music composer-plus-director of such well-liked films as Maqbool and Omkara, who has co-produced Ek Thi Daayan, isn't a newcomer to a subject based on the occult. After all, his Makdee, designed for children, presented Shabana Azmi as a nightmare-inducing witch.
Quite clearly though, witchcraft in an adult film has to be treated with a measure of sensitivity and restraint. Ipsita Roy Chakraverti has disagreed with the content vehemently. Ergo another controversy which has parodoxically fuelled the curiosity of the ticket-buying public. Ekta Kapoor's Ragini MMS, which also contained elements of the supernatural, banked more on sleaze than common sense.
At best, the difference between a witch and cackling female ghosts in the horror movies has blurred. The Ramsay Brothers, often, showcased screaming harridans who returned from the dead to wreak vendetta. They still do in the horror franchise continued by Ram Gopal Varma and Vikram Bhatt. The depiction of a living woman endowed with 'special powers' has been tackled occasionally, and with particular relish by the special effects expert-turned-director Wilson Louis. But his witch flicks like Kaalo about a 'desert witch', Mallika and Ho Sakta Hai, remain largely unseen and ignored. Actress Sarika featured in Sacred Evil - A True Story, based on a book by the aggrieved wiccan priestess, but it again went by unnoticed.
In Hollywood, the contentious subject of witchcraft has essentially spawned comedies (Bell Book and Candle, Witches of Eastwick, Practical Magic, I Married a Witch). The few ser-ious studies on women can be counted on one's fingers. Quite easily, the best in the genre have been Ingmar Bergman's Seventh Seal and Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby.
To take on the much-debated and complex issue of witchcraft requires a high degree of maturity and research. Can this be achieved in Bollywood where the accent is on simplistic entertainment? Can a film, emphasising glamour and thrills, avoid condemning women to the stake?
Truly, such questions have to be addressed before belting out any movie which seeks to strike up horror and entertainment.
