Latest news with #WomeninCinemaCollective
The Hindu
26-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Feminist Forum urges M.A. Baby to withdraw remark supporting Dileep film
The Kerala Feminist Forum has demanded that CPI(M) general secretary M.A. Baby withdraw his statement in support of the Dileep-starrer Prince and Family. Mr. Baby had reportedly praised the movie, calling it a watchable family flick with a social message. In a statement issued on Monday (May 26), the forum said that the women in Kerala and the feminist organisations in the State were alarmed at the remark in support of Mr. Dileep, an accused in the actor assault case. The final hearing in the case is still going on in the trial court. The forum's functionaries said that at a time when the activities of organisations such as the Women in Cinema Collective and the Hema Committee report had made notable impacts on society, it was condemnable that the national leader of the ruling party in Kerala was coming out in support of Mr. Dileep. They claimed that it was akin to extending support to the accused in the sexual assault case. The forum demanded that Mr. Baby withdraw his statement, or else street protests would be organised to uphold the rights of women. The signatories include activists K. Ajitha, V.P. Zuhara, Aleyamma Vijayan and A.K. Jayasree.
Hindustan Times
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Dileep remarks on lack of ‘freedom' to speak his mind for 8 years: ‘One day God will give me the opportunity'
Actor Dileep, whose film Prince and Family was released in theatres last week, indirectly spoke about the 2017 abduction and sexual assault case of a prominent female actor at the success meet. An OnManorama report states that the actor remarked on the lack of 'freedom' to speak his mind for eight years now, after being named in the case. (Also Read: Kerala Film Body gives Shine Tom Chacko final chance to correct his behaviour after Vincy Aloshious' allegations) Dileep thanked director-writer Sachy for giving him a hit with Ramleela in 2017 during trying times. He compared the success of Prince and Family to Ramleela and talked of how the filmmaker helped keep his career afloat amid controversies. He reportedly said at the event, 'For the past eight years, I have only spoken about my films. I don't have the freedom to speak about anything else. But one day, God will give me the opportunity to speak. I will wait for that day and remain quiet till then.' He also reportedly urged people to show support for the film, as many have tried to 'pull him down' in the last few years. In 2017, a prominent Malayalam female actor was kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a gang of men in a moving car as she was returning home from a shoot. A few months later, the investigating team arrested Dileep after the main accused claimed the assault was ordered by the actor. He secured bail after spending 83 days in jail. The case partly contributed to the Women in Cinema Collective and the formation of the Hema Committee, and the subsequent report that exposed abuse in Mollywood. In April this year, the Kerala High Court turned down a petition by Dileep for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the case as it found no merit.
Business Mayor
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Mayor
Change of script in God's own country, and she's liking It
That statement might confuse North Indian readers who have grown to admire Malayalam cinema's persistent exposes of patriarchy and have been asking why present-day Hindi cinema fails to replicate the thoughtfulness and acute observation powers of Uyare, Sara's, The Great Indian Kitchen, Ullozhukku, and similarly insightful contemporary Malayalam films. Bear with me. Feminichi Fathima is set in a Muslim home where the wife is burdened by her joyless, despotic, fanatical husband's diktats. Appuram deals with a non-conformist nuclear Hindu household that has broken away from an upper-caste extended family, which disapproves of a woman's decision to marry a man of her choice and considers menstruating women impure. Victoria's eponymous Christian heroine navigates her job at a beauty parlour with clients from varied socio-economic backgrounds, while at home, her father reacts violently to her inter-community romance. These are entertaining films that examine patriarchy with the depth and fearlessness Malayalam cinema is known for. This is the great irony of the Malayalam film industry: when it dives into gender-related issues, it does so better than any other film industry in the rest of India, and takes up subjects that most filmmakers elsewhere in the country either have not noticed, or are too afraid to touch. Yet – and this is a big 'yet' – the percentage of Malayalam films with female protagonists is abysmally small. The number of female directors is even smaller. In fact, the empathy pervading the best of Malayalam cinema tends to overshadow the sad reality that the worst of Malayalam cinema lionises masculinist toxicity as unabashedly as commercial cinema of all Indian languages. Film industries tend to be microcosms of the societies from which they emerge. The Malayalam film industry, thus, reflects the state in which it is based: Kerala, respected for decades for its consistently high literacy rate, progressive government-run social welfare programmes, laudable sex ratio, and other impressive statistics matching the most developed countries in the world, yet also a deeply patriarchal this land of contradictions, the pushback against patriarchy is as strong as patriarchy itself. Most significantly, the one-of-its-kind Women in Cinema Collective has been campaigning for equality in the Malayalam industry since 2017, while women of India's remaining film industries have largely been bullied into silence after the MeToo wave of 2018. The skewed gender ratio in Kerala's filmmaking business has slightly improved too, with the likes of Sophia Paul, Sandra Thomas, Rima Kallingal, writer-director Anjali Menon, and a handful of others emerging as producers in the past decade or so. The past five years have also witnessed a steady stream of noteworthy new female directors. They include Ratheena PT, who helmed the excellent Puzhu starring Mammootty and Parvathy Thiruvothu; Indhu VS, who made the poetic 19(1)(a) with Nithya Menen and Vijay Sethupathi; and Kunjila Mascillamani, whose Asanghadithar was the standout short in the anthology Freedom Fight, in addition to Indu Lakshmi and Sivaranjani. Malayalam cinema is still a long way from a day when women routinely headline Empuraan-sized extravaganzas. But it's clear that change, even if minimal, is afoot in God's Own Country.
The Hindu
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Rima Kallingal on winning the best actor award at the Kerala Film Critics Awards, acting in an Anjali Menon film and being a dancer
Gratitude. Rima Kallingal sums it up with one word when I ask her what she is feeling. Winning the Kerala Film Critics Awards for the Best Actor, praise for her Sree Kanya in the segment Backstage, directed by Anjali Menon, part of the coming of age anthology Yuva Sapno Ka Safar and the astounding response to her latest dance production Nayika, a tribute to Malayalam cinema's women actors of the past 100 years, Rima says: 'I feel a surge of gratitude and happiness as an artist! ' We are sitting in her apartment in Panampilly Nagar, Kochi, which wears a dash of whimsy and has dance-related stuff strewn all over. She has just opened the new space for her dance school, Mamangam, which she founded in 2014. It is the material from there, related events and her impending trip to the US (for a month-long series of stage shows), she explains, accompanied by her trademark full-throated laugh. Sharing the best actor award 'I had forgotten about it when the announcements [Kerala Film Critics Awards] came, I was scrolling to see which film it was for. We were filming in Varkala last March. ' Although Rima is seen far and between onscreen, the work that she has been doing is interesting, in her own words. 'Getting a best actor award for a film like Theatre — A Myth of Reality alongside mainstream films for which Tovino [Thomas] and Nazriya [Nazim] got awards is saying something about films and where Malayalam cinema is.' Backstage, which recently dropped on the Waves app, is the story of estrangement and reconciliation of two dancer friends, Gowri (Padmapriya) and Rima's Sree Kanya. The nuanced telling of a story that only Anjali can, and abhinaya-laced performances by the two actors is a refreshing and evocative take on layered female friendships. Rima calls getting to work with Anjali a dream come true. Rima, 41, says the film's set was a 'safe space' where more than 60 percent of the people on the set were women. 'When we were shooting the climax, when the two friends talked to resolve the estrangement, every woman there had tears in her eyes. That is the thing about female friendship; they are more nuanced — we ask, we tell everything, we want to know…. We all have that one friend with whom we are or may have been estranged! It was so relatable.' Her last commercial release was Neelavelicham (2023). She was curious about how the audience would react to Backstage, which is a small slice of life presented in 40-odd minutes. The happiness shows, Rima is glowing because of it. With good reason — she has carved a space for herself despite hostility and ridicule for her political stance as a feminist or as a member of the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC). When I ask her of the lost opportunities (in films) because of her politics and how she feels about it, she says, 'Yes, it affected me career-wise. There was a time when I was not happy about having to pay the price for my beliefs; today I am happy to. I did not want to change my stand to get work, I don't want to. I am sure about it. If, as an artist, my work derives from the space and time I live in, how can I deny what is happening?' The message being sent, with the way the actors who spoke up against the status quo were penalised, is that to succeed they have to keep quiet. She confesses to feeling feminist fatigue with constantly trying to change the way people think. 'Now I am like if someone absolutely wants to be a misogynist, so be it. I can't be constantly arguing and trying to change them.' For the love of dance Her focus currently is dance, she is open to work that is exciting enough. 'Filmmakers who approach me, come with offers that need me like Theatre — The Myth of Reality.' Talking about women in Malayalam cinema, the conversation segues to Nayika. Her face lights up when she speaks about her tribute in dance to the 'nayikas' of the past and present. The one-hour show, choreographed to some of Malayalam cinemas classic, well-loved songs featuring the women actors, has been staged in Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. She is taking it to the US now. 'I have split Nayika into four eras which span from the black and white to the present. It starts with a homage to PK Rosie, the first of us. It is a sobering reminder of how she was treated, discriminated against for her caste. The songs we have picked induce such a rush of nostalgia…and that resonated with the audiences too,' says Rima. The last song is Bougainvillea's 'Stuthi…' 'and I had to add 'Chillane…' [22 Female Kottayam] because it is from my film and also because the song still has such a feel!' she says laughing. Neythe at ITFOK The contemporary dance production, Neythe — Dance of the Weaves (2023), was Mamangam's first dance production. It holds a special space in her heart. One of the high points was it being staged at the International Theatre Festival of Kerala in Thrissur earlier this year. 'We have watched films at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) sitting on the stairs and floor. Imagine watching a dance production like that? We had people watching Neythe like that. It was such a great feeling. There were those who wondered about an actor bringing a 'dance' to ITFOK but Neythe is physical theatre. And the response to the two shows was validation. It formed a core memory for me.' Although she had carried the idea of Nayika for a while, it was a conversation about how a more relatable dance production would work with audiences, post-Neythe, which is inspired by handloom weaving. That is how she decided to work on Nayika. The research, she admits, was intense. 'I did not want it to be just another dance show with film songs. I wanted it to be more than that, I have tried my best to ensure that nobody is left out.' The scope of what she has done is huge, encapsulating a journey of a century into 60 minutes was not easy. 'I am not done with Nayika, I want to bring in more layers,' she says. Pulling out her phone she shows videos and photographs of Nayika. It is evident that she and her team have pulled out all stops, creatively. Nayika is a spectacle in the truest sense of the term. She credits her team at Mamangam for what she has been able to achieve. 'They inspire me to go after what I want. I could not have done it without them. I have never liked to dance solo, I have always wanted to dance as a team. People like Aloshy and Greeshma (dancers with Mamangam) who look at dance seriously, as a career. That is what they do. When I started dancing, I was unsure, but now there is a space for dance and those who want to make it a career.' Five choreographers, each a specialist in their genre such as folk, classical, hip hop, pop etc worked on the Nayika production which will have 16 dancers. Being a dancer, acting in films that she wants to be a part of and winning awards while at it…Rima Kallingal is in a happy space and she is grateful for it.
