This story is from May 24, 2016

Award-winning film turns spotlight on women wage workers

Award-winning film turns spotlight on women wage workers
CHENNAI: This year's national award for the Best Film On Social Issues was bagged by Chennai groomed Meena Longjam for her film, 'Autodriver', about the struggles of a female auto driver in Imphal. With a touch of romance, pathos and tragedy, the documentary follows the life of Laibi, a mother of two teenage boys. A brick-kiln worker, who earned Rs 60 for hauling 1,000 bricks a day, Laibi turned to auto driving when she realised she needed to boost her income if she wanted to meet the medical expenses of her ailing husband and the educational needs of her sons.

Chennai's visible female autodriving force was what led Meena to think of the paucity of women drivers in Imphal. “Despite Manipur having a history of strong women in politics, education and sports -the likes of Mary Kom, Irom Chanu Sharmila, you don't see too many blue-collar women workers,“ says Meena Longjam, who has spent the better part of her growing years in Chennai, studying at SRM University and Madras Christian College.
A single mother of two, Meena herself had to overcome adversity , financial constraints and social inhibitions before she finished her PhD and her film; a time of life when she says she was best able to identify with the struggles of her protagonist Laibi. But her struggles, she says, is nothing compared to that faced by daily wagers like Laibi. “Imagine you earn only `200 a day . And even that you can earn only if the political parties, warring factions don't call out a bandh or blockade that day .Manipur is home to some 30 and above different ethnic tribals, and in my film I am trying to show how the right to earn is Manipur's biggest democratic challenge,“ says Meena.
Her shooting difficulties were heightened by the economic blockade in Imphal, when the number of days affected by the strikes increased to 165 days in 2014 from 103 days in 2013. It was soon after a strike that Meena spotted a short woman dressed in khaki with a handkerchief masking her face, haggling with customers. “I first wondered if she was a labourer, but then saw her zooming past me with eight passengers precariously clinging onto her auto. I was totally captivated. I decided then I was making a movie on her,“ she says.
Though the shoot took her crew only four months, Meena had to follow her subject for almost two and a half years before Laibi was comfortable with the idea of being filmed.Even as Laibi traversed a few hundred miles every week, Meena also had to do the same as she tried to do background research for her film and PhD. “I hit a low point in my life, when I couldn't even get a place to stay. I was sore with the weight of all my responsibilities -clouded with fears of whether I was doing the best by my kids -almost at the point of giving up. But I trudged on,“ says Meena, a fan of filmmaker Aribam Syam Sharma.
Meena, who is a big fan of masala dosa and sambar vada, says Chennai is her second home and was happy when her film, which has had multiple screenings in Imphal, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Kochi, other cities and Kathmandu in Nepal, was shown in Chennai in November during the IndiEarth XChange 2015 Film Festival.
author
About the Author
Rachel Chitra

Rachel Chitra writes for the business section of The Times of India. She has been tracking the banking and insurance sector for nearly five years.

End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA