The Importance Of Manmarziyan

Anurag Kashyaps new film is a landmark in Hindi cinema because it does what Bollywood has rarely done in its long history of dealing with infidelity allow the woman the freedom to explore her desires unapologetically, on her terms

- Maithili Rao

The boring old triangle has been sexed up for the millennials. By who else but Anurag Kashyap in his recalibrated avatar of a teller of new-age romances? With the expected edge, and mature with loads of authenticity: setting, raw humour, earthy language, finely observed manners and persuasive body language homegrown from the soil. He has created a kickass heroine who does what she wants and doesn’t apologise for her choices, all in the heartland of Punjabiyat with a nod to Amrita Pritam in the credits. The reinvented Kashyap makes the iconoclastic woman acceptable. On her terms, breaking from a cliché-ridden Bollywood tradition that marked a woman with sindur once she was married and denied sexual choice even when the first love came back into her life.

No respectable woman could rock the sanctity of marriage. Kashyap validates marriage, but on the woman’s terms. It is like tasting the forbidden fruit and keeping it too. All this without strident feminist preaching and by creating a woman we can understand and feel for. He also breaks the mould of the love triangle that had calcified over the decades. Manmarziyan sets off an interesting speculation: Do filmmakers who had hitherto gloried in the violent excesses of unbridled machismo make persuasive feminists? Well, the story, screenplay and dialogue are by a woman, Kanika Dhillon. Kashyap brings his signature style – toned down to suit the content – as he had in Mukkabaaz.

Kashyap seems to reserve visceral spurts of violence for the noir niche of Netflix.