Alankrita Srivastava and her depiction of women

Having watched Lipstick Under my Burkha, Dolly Kitty our Woh Chamakte Sitare and now Bombay Begums, I see a pattern in Srivastava's depiction of women and the feminist ideology at work behind this characterisation. Interestingly enough, she has captured women from various social strata and painted a colourful portrait of their struggles, ambitions, and love lives. What strikes me is the agency which these women characters exert in the scheme of things. All of them are extremely bold, sassy, individualistic and determined to make a difference, no matter how small.

I find her depiction of women very inspiring and yet am a little perplexed at how she conflates the sexual energy of these characters with sexual transgression. Sometimes, it becomes a little awkward to watch these onscreen characters violate the norms with such abandon and confidence. This is where I feel she isn't in sync with the average Indian woman. How many of us are capable of this kind of transgression? It's almost like a love letter to women whose other-worldly characteristics make them heroic, but somehow at the end of the day, you end up admiring them more than identifying with them.

I love her works and was just wondering whether any of you felt the same way i.e. she creates more for the sake of shock value than nuance? Radical feminism aside, these characters are home-breakers with sketchy moral principles, some are addicts, some are rebels, some are non-conformists with big dreams, but none of them are the average Indian woman who is trying to balance between family, dreams, and love. Do you think this is a deliberate strategy? I have no problems with this at all, as I think the characters are actually props for espousing her radical feminism, more than flesh-and-blood depictions of real women, who are slightly more complex than what she is portraying.

Do you guys agree?

I don't her depiction of men in her world. All men are not jerks.

I'm not familiar with this person or their work but the way I see, the idea of Indian 'content' creators of an empowered, independent women is one in which they openly enjoy their sexuality (much more like indulging in promiscuity) and drinking alcohol. No offence, but in my opinion that is not the definition of a strong woman.

These are choices an individual of any sex makes.

Strength is much more about being selfish about one's own needs yet trying to strike a balance between one's own happiness and that of their family.

Originally posted by: mintyblue

I find her depiction of women very inspiring and yet am a little perplexed at how she conflates the sexual energy of these characters with sexual transgression. Sometimes, it becomes a little awkward to watch these onscreen characters violate the norms with such abandon and confidence. This is where I feel she isn't in sync with the average Indian woman. How many of us are capable of this kind of transgression? It's almost like a love letter to women whose other-worldly characteristics make them heroic, but somehow at the end of the day, you end up admiring them more than identifying with them.

That's the whole point. I don't think she's trying to be "in sync" with the average Indian woman, she's not trying to appeal to the everyday woman - we've seen all that before.

Alankrita Srivastav is breaking the mould. She's a magician, a pioneer. What she's presenting to us IS a very real reality for thousands upon thousands of Indian women, not to mention South Asians in general (all genders). As a gay man I can identify a lot with her "other worldly" characters - the "rule breakers" of society.

Bombay Begums has got people talking about female sexuality and agency and the freedom to be and do so.

I love the fact that she's helping normalise female sexuality on screen(!!!) Not to mention, lesbian love/sex.

And to top it all off, she's doing this all without using the easy way out by showing women as "good" deep down. We're not told to think that these women are just victims of their socio-political environments, they are GREY because they are GREY. That's a very bold statement.

Give this woman a Lifetime Achievement Award already ❤️

Not a fan of alankrita or her female characters

None of them are aspirational

None of them are even relatable

Some of them are downright immoral and get a sad little back story about having an impotent husband, having “needs” outside of marriage , being suppressed etc whatever to justify cheating

Just like People weren’t ok with normalising unequal relationships in kabir sigh, I’m not ok with normalising cheating and being irresponsible in a relationship

Half the times I don’t even know why she shows certain characters sleeping with each other when it adds nothing to the story ...like literally nothing

Most of the times it just feels Like she’s unnessarily ghusaoing intimate/ uncomfortable scenes to make the content/ character seem “bold”

Someone like an anurag kashyap , sriram raghavan , anand Rai, Gauri shinde, do a better job at writing “flawed females”

her female characters show <10% of indian women

I find deepika's piku more relatable , i think all urban indian women can relate to her. Confident and independent women.

I hated preeti from kabir singh but i feel majority of indian women are like this especially from small towns/villages or living in joint families where all their decisions are taken by the men.

one more example is rani from queen, she is the 'good girl' in indian context who went bold after heartbreak.

I don't like her movies,its nothing special or extraordinary