Era of Anti-Heroines

Art is to explore and expound the embedded mines of unattractive realities and not conform to ideological assumptions

- ADITYA GOLE

Yes, I partnered with Chavan because I enjoyed it. It was exciting. I felt like I was alive again," blurted out Sheila, the feisty queenpin of Dabba Cartel. There wasn't a speck of remorse in her eyes. Instead, it was an assertive refrain. Shabana Azmi's Sheila does not bat an eyelid in sealing deals with molly peddlers or captaining an all-women team of diffident homemaker, gutsy housemaid, dippy mid-level property broker and grumbling former corporate bigwig. The 'Narcos Thane' rookies are key cogs in the rising cartel of anti-heroines in the Indian film stable. While individualistic consumption patterns emerge through streaming platforms, the female protagonists are redrawn with definitive grey strokes, broad and bold.

The exasperatingly monochromatic binary of virtuous, unravished damsels or scheming malevolent dames is stepping aside for characters which are pragmatically woke, sex-positive, opinionated and unapologetic. They are flawed, complicated, profane and selfish, as the habitual human arc is. They are not impermeable black-and-white, but permeable grey. The Lady Macbeth-esque Tabu in Andhadhun comes close to a lethal fusion of sexually aggressive and emotionally sufficient woman who murders her husband and does not dither in eliminating witnesses. The storyline neither has an overbearing urge to justify Tabu's nasty act and portray her as a virtuous killer nor does it impose moral slaps. As is Rosamund Pike's Amy in Gone Girl.