Anurag Kashyap turns 44: Why the Dev.D director is a fantastic writer of women

So much has been written and said about Anurag Kashyap in print, and so much analysis, navel-gazing and criticism his films have had to face, that it is a task to figure out an angle from which Anurag's work can be seen in a fresh light. Whether his work deserves that kind of rigorous attention is another story, but it is a fact that his films have changed the cinematic landscape of contemporary Bollywood. The ethos of his scripts and films, as well as his low-budget, DIY approach to filmmaking, has captured the attention of billions of aspiring filmmakers and film enthusiasts in the country. So, he is definitely someone worth writing a lot about. But what do you write about a man about whom everything has been written?

Well, what about Anurag Kashyap's women?

ALSO READ: Gangs of Wasseypur to Raman Raghav 2.0, understanding Anurag Kashyap's heroes

ALSO READ: With Bombay Velvet, Anurag did not fail Ranbir, he failed himself

In the centre of all of Anurag's films (barring That Girl in Yellow Boots) is a man or a group of men. It's a man-eat-man world, and the angst and torment of man is what gets primary focus in his films. There is a reason, more often than not, that Anurag's oeuvre is compared to Scorsese's.

But even within these, well, 'masculine' films by Anurag, are women characters who are, perhaps, more feminist than the karate-trained princesses of so-called 'women-centric' films Bollywood churns out whenever a starlet needs a 'serious' makeover.

Well, what is feminism? Apologies for trying to mansplain but let's consider feminism as women's emancipation. As such, an emancipated woman has the liberty to 'choose' right? Time and again, in Anurag's films, women, regardless of having to bear the brunt of a sexist, patriarchal atmosphere, transcend their 'destiny' by outsmarting the men, humbling them, or even killing them. In Anurag's films, there are no wish-fulfilling moments of women walking out to face the day with post-empowerment glow on their faces and Amit Trivedi's strings swelling in the background. Anurag's women reach their ends through chal-chatoor, intimidation, and politics, just like the film's men; in a way, both Anurag's men and women, inhabit the same hopeless noir universe, and thus end up being mirror images of each other.

Perhaps, the most common element in all of Anurag Kashyap's women is how they refuse to put up with men's bullshit. How they react to it, however, varies from character to character.

Anjali in No Smoking won't put up with K's smoking (and his arrogance) and asks for a divorce. Paro in Dev.D will not stand being humiliated and she goes as far as to reject the love of her life Dev and chooses to marry a 40-year-old divorcee. She knows that she doesn't deserve such treatment and she chooses her own happiness about which she has no qualms. Similarly, Durga won't put up with the pariah status that Sardar Khan has unofficially bestowed upon her in Gangs of Wasseypur. At one point, she decides to stop being just a fuck for Sardar and goes ahead with a devious plan to claim stake in Wasseypur's future, which she believes is her right.

Sometimes, Anurag's women are stuck in an in-between, a kind of limbo, where just by virtue of being themselves, on a day-to-day basis, and by doing little, insignificant things, they assert their right to be respected.

Smrutika in the recently released Raman Raghav 2.0 is one such character. Her boyfriend slaps her around, shouts at her, and fucks her without a condom, which has resulted in three abortions. But Smrutika still chooses to be with him and Anurag does not show any reason for it. There's no scene of Smrutika getting enchanted by her boyfriend Raghav's heroism, kindness, or machismo. Smrutika chooses to be in an abusive relationship because she wants to. And in one telling scene, when Raghav is intimidating Smrutika with his gun in a post-coital moment, Smrutika ignores him to answer her phone, and then at the end of the call, asks him, "So, you were saying?"

While, people can debate endlessly on whether Smrutika is a 'strong woman character', without a doubt, she is, definitely, a well-written one.

You can find shades of Smrutika in Chanda from Dev.D, Anuja from Gulaal, Ruth from That Girl in Yellow Boots and Rosie from Bombay Velvet; four women who knowingly love a conflicted, temperamental, volatile man, because...there is no because. They just want to.

And it is spectacular to see both Chanda and Ruth who are trying to live lives in a man's world by doing what is seen as dishonourable by society, but never for a second, do they consider their work dishonourable. Like Camus said, as if their very existence is an act of rebellion.

However, the most mercurial and fierce of all of Anurag's women, including Nagma, is Gulaal's Kiran. Kiran is the ultimate hawk. She is politically ambitious, she is merciless, she is vengeful, and she will use everything she has as a woman in her disposal to get what she wants. If in her way, her lover comes under the train, so be it. It's such an indulgent but wonderful exercise to imagine what would happen if Kiran was dropped into the world of Wasseypur. Woh toh bina kehe sabki le leti.

( The writer tweets as @devarsighosh )