July 12, 2017
National Award winning actress Konkona
Sen Sharma says historically, regardless of class, religion and region,
women were always treated as property.
In the forthcoming film "Lipstick Under My Burkha", she will be seen
playing a pivotal role.
The film had a tough time in getting its certification. Asked about the
power of cinema, Konkona told IANS here: "I believe that any good idea
can change the world. Now all films are not meant to be thought
provoking, but some of them are, surely."
"There are films that can generate powerful ideas, which can propel us
to think differently. This film is one of such... that addresses women
across religion and different age groups and their desire. So yes, I
think this is an important film."
Konkona is playing a Muslim housewife, Shirin Aslam, who is deprived of
basic freedom of choice of a woman in a patriarchal society.
"Shirin is in 30s with three kids and not living a good married life.
She has to wear the burkha every time she steps out of her house. She
doesn't know much about feminism and patriarchal society like the way
we know.
"But she is trying to find little loopholes within her limitation to
achieve a little air of freedom that we, modern urban women, take for
granted. The amount of ingenuity and enthusiasm that she has to put...
to get that, breaks my heart."
She added: "Historically, regardless of class, religion and region,
women are always treated as property. Today, for people like us, we are
enjoying a lot of freedom but 100 years ago, it was not easy even for
us.
"But strong minded women before our generation fought the struggle,
they protested and there was a feminist movement that enabled us to
lead our lives the way we want to, today."
The story of Alankrita Shrivastava directorial revolves around four
women from different socio-cultural backgrounds belonging to different
age groups and dealing with different sets of desire for their
liberation.
According to Konkona, the best part of the film is that it captures
different phases of women's lives.
She said: "The question is how do we see women? When it comes to on
screen, we hardly see any representation of elderly women ... say after
their 30s. So does that mean we do not want to know about women once
they cross their 30s, have children and husband?"
"This film addresses them all...it's so tabooed to talk about elderly
women's sexuality, but why?"
Therefore, the actress believes that after watching the film, the
audience will get a wider perspective about women and "next time, the
CBFC will not behave so stupidly".