Women’s contained fury

In a delicious coup of globalisation Indian filmmaker Rebana Liz Johnrsquos feature documentary Ladies Only has won the Compass Perspektive Award for the Best German Film in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino Perspectives on German Cinema section of the Berlin Film Festival It is a wonderfully stylish insightful blackandwhite film 79 min on women in the ladiesrsquo compartment of Mumbai local trains discussing their men lives ambitions and freedomsand what makes them angry men men and men John is one of eight South Asians including six Indians who won prizes at the Berlin Film Festival for films and projectsBorn in Mumbai John 35 shuttles between this city and Cologne in Germany the film is her final project for a Masterrsquos in film and media art at the Kunsthochschule fuumlr Medien Koumlln Academy of Media Arts Cologne which has produced this film her debut feature The film is also funded by the Film und Medien Stiftung NRW Germany and backed by Johnrsquos own Camera Mischief FilmsAn alumnus of the Srishti Institute of Art Design and Technology Bangalore John has made several shorts including The Fortunate Son Pasts Paths and Ships Outside my Window The last was at festivals worldwide while Ladies Only was also at the Busan Film Festival Korea The crowded ladiesrsquo compartment of Mumbai locals as well as the Ladiesrsquo Special with the entire train reserved for women at peak hours have been popular subjects for previous documentaries including Nidhi Tulirsquos Ladies Special YouTube and Dorothee Wennerrsquos The Ladiesrsquo Special each engaging and insightful in its own wayldquoIn our culture the husband eats drinks and goes to bedrdquo says a woman commuter in Ladies Only John often goads the commuters with feminist thoughts and poems and when she asks the commuter if this experience makes her angry the latter replies ldquoIt wonrsquot improve him so why waste energyrdquo Another says she teaches her son 10 to fill water and fetch veggies ldquoHe canrsquot depend on women his wife may be working and earn more than him so the housework canrsquot be only hersrdquo Powerful words of wisdom that unheeded will cause Indiarsquos divorce rate to skyrocket None of the interviewees is identified by name except in the end creditsMy favourite commuter is a feisty woman who sits on the floor of the train in ultracool shades and suffers an alcoholic husband and four children including a violent son who demands money by breaking down the door or kicking the fridge ldquoKaamdhandha bachche wohi bevda aadmihellip aurat logon ka wohi gaana bajta hai nardquo Work kids the same drunken husbandhellip itrsquos always the same song for women right she says adding homespun philosophy ldquoMaybe I did something wrong in my past life to get pain and sadness in this one So the next life will be happy no problemrdquo She smiles brightlyJohn speaks to a range of lively womenmdasha labourer a lsquopunkrsquo woman with seven face piercings a policewoman A weight lifter who lifts 210 kg at squats at the national level when her controlfreak brother hit her while trying to stop her from going to the gym or getting phone calls from boys she thrashed him back so hard he started crying A photographer who was earlier prevented from being a cricketer A middleaged woman who was prevented from going to school as a child weeps at the memory before John a stranger There is feminist lyricism as John asks the women to read aloud the late feminist Kamla Bhasinrsquos powerful protest poems Azadi Freedom and Umadti Ladkiyaan Rising Girls and a young girl in a burqa who does so also articulates the freedoms for which she yearns Therersquos plenty of train regulars including a transgender who poses with mudras and vendors of chikoos gajras and hair clipsJohnrsquos lsquowritingrsquo direction and editing is polished Milann Tress Johnrsquos patient unobtrusive cinematography yields many moments of depth and wit Ankita Purkayastha and Navya Sahrsquos sound recording is excellent An allwoman crew disarms the protagonists into opening up bindaas in this allwoman space The womenrsquos comments are devastating critiques of men and reflect the state of manwoman relationships worldwide kabhi khushi kabhi gham but almost always an unequal uneasy truce Tim Elzerrsquos sound design is superb with engaging music by Jin Jim and others and therersquos a bravura sequence of kinetic energy as the train rhythmically gathers speed intercut with fabulous music John has also put together a slim book Documentary Process A Case Study based on this film I hope the film is shown widely and provokes guided discussions on the pathetically unequal state of manwoman relationships and our legacy for future generationsMeenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival National Awardwinning critic curator to festivals worldwide and journalistReach her at meenakshisheddemiddaycom