Shefali Shah and Neeraj Ghaywan show how patriarchy plays out in the kitchen

As a child filmmaker Neeraj Ghaywan was spoiled rotten The youngest after three sisters he was everyones favourite and his mother would never tire of reminding him Then he grew up and something within him snapped My sisters would keep telling my nephews of how I was pampered And thats when I realised that this excessive affection had nothing to do with me being cute It was because I held the privilege of being the only male child in the family he recalls adding I told them to stop narrating the stories They were embarrassing Somehow he says his mother too had internalised patriarchy without consciously meaning toShefali Shah and Neeraj Ghaywan PicNimesh DaveIn light of his recent 1440minute short film Juice Ghaywans appraisal of his own childhood doesnt come as a surprise The film which stars Shefali Shah in the lead takes us into a middleclass Indian home where a small dinner party is on The men appear to have made themselves comfortable in the drawing room engaging in wasted conversations around politics and office gossip while the wives squeeze into a poorlyventilated kitchen furiously chopping and frying to ensure those discussions never run out of fuel And even as they work themselves to the bone all these ladies crave is a fan but they cant have one or can they The last scene is a vision of subtlety but it hits the right notes enough to have drawn over 13 million views since it released on YouTube a week ago Ghaywans layered depiction of a regular homemaker and Shahs haunting performance of the same stays with you long after the film is overA still from the filmNow sitting in Shahs Andheri West office on a warm weekday afternoon the two artistes are glad that they were able to convey their intent through this short project The idea was to have conversations even if it meant talking about kitchen aesthetics Have you realised that most Indian kitchens dont have fans and its not because nobody thought about it but because our women are not important to us says the director of the awardwinning film Masaan Shah agrees In a house plan the kitchen is given the least space It feeds and nurtures so many people but its a gas chamber she says What worked for the duo is that they are ardent admirers of each others work We belong to what you may call mutual admiration society Shah jokes I was floored by Shefalis performances in both Satya and most recently Dil Dhadakne Do I thought if she did this movie she would bring a certain kind of championship and credibility to the film says GhaywanBut I would have done the film irrespective because I was really waiting to work with him says Shah And when he showed me the script it was so powerful nuanced and then of course my role as Manju More than a protagonist I see her as a voice for a lot of women Its an important film but I dont want to undermine it by adding adjectives to it Ghaywan suddenly remembers an incident from the shoot and cuts her in In the last scene all I told her was Shefali you are not just representing a character but many women It hit her so much that in every take shed start cryingIt moved me she says hellipbecause this is what happens in every second household and you see it at so many levels It may have started with my grandmother and mother and may pass on to my sons if I dont raise them right Strangely sometimes it is the women who hammer it in saying to the girls this is your job cooking and not the mansThat brings us to question as to whether Ghaywan had deliberately thought of making a feminist film I am not here to talk about how women should be above men Id like to know why is that even a debate he says Shah points out that the idea of feminism carries an aggressive context But this is not about oneupmanship Its about equality of class gender race religion and caste Thats a basic right no Here Ghaywan mentions how he is in fact putoff by the recent spate of womencentric films which he claims do little but pander to a formula that clicks at the box officeIn most of them the women are either portrayed as super strong and aggressive or vulnerable Thats one path to follow and then theres another path where you show a woman who is going through issues but you dont make it seem apparent Thats what I wanted to do with Juice Even Manju for that matter is not flawlessOne of the most moving comments Ghaywan recounts receiving recently was on Facebook He passes on his cellphone to show us a message written by a teenager to his mum after he watched the film and in which Ghaywan was tagged Mum did you ever feel that way when working in the kitchen he writes I am sorry if you did His mum responded to it saying Mera bachcha I am at least glad you realised Shah begins tearing up as soon as she reads it I think weve done our bitCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news current affairs from Mumbai local news crime news and breaking headlines here