Women on top

The other day I was sitting for the edits of my film Jail and suddenly realised that it was kind of a new terrain for me to make an all-male film. Madhur Bhandarkar tells us more...

The other day I was sitting for the edits of my film Jail and suddenly realised that it was kind of a new terrain for me to make an all-male film.

In fact, because most of my films have been women-centric, my set resembled a nari mukti sangathan! The sets of Fashion used to be strewn with women of all forms — the men were actually the minority.

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Now Parliament has its first woman Speaker, Meira Kumar. Not only is she a woman, but that, too, someone from the deprived section of society. It was high time that Parliament saw some real woman power. I was very proud of the fact that the biggest democracy in the world now has a woman Speaker, more so because this historical decision was unanimous, with the support of senior politicians like LK Advani and Sushma Swaraj, a stalwart politician herself.

It is really exhilarating to know that this country has such great woman power, with the likes of Sonia Gandhi and President Pratibha Patil leading it.

Making women-oriented cinema is considered a risky proposition. But I have been of the opinion that women make the greatest cinematic story-telling material. Pick up any classic and you will find that the female characters are the strength of the film.

Though men are known as the stronger sex, in reality, with their inherent patience, tenacity and the power to take a man just the way he is, women are actually the stronger ones. And yet men crib — true, ‘men will be men’!