MANY WOMEN DON'T HAVE GUTS TO ESCAPE THEIR

SITUATION They can't take even the smallest step. The mental abuse is so insidious that sometimes they don’t even realise it’s happening.

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The strains of Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman’s Tere Mere Sapne from Guide ring in your ear, as you wait for Renuka Shahane to answer her phone.

The ringtone is a pleasant start to the conversation, which starts with a cheerful voice, sprinkled with a lot of laughter. But Renuka has a lot of say, and she does that with her latest directorial called Loop Line, or Dhhaavpatti. The Marathi animated film is under 10 minutes, and tells a story we are familiar with. We see a housewife, who goes through an unending day of drudgery and boring housework with no appreciation from her emotionally-abusive husband. But every once in a while, she takes a break by escaping into her imagination. This is not Renuka’s life, but many women have lived it at some point. “I was thinking of those women who live claustrophobic lives and yet, find an outlet,” Perhaps they imagine a different life or imagine themselves in pleasant situations.”

Loop Line is about the emotional abuse women face in their domestic lives. Why did you choose to explore this subject?

Whenever I think of novels or films written with women-centric characters, whatever the problematic areas are in that woman's life, there is some sort of step that the woman takes at the end, which is a sort of resolution or it gives hope for something better in her life. Like, she suddenly finds her voice or does something different to solve the issue, big or small. But a lot of women, especially housewives, don't have the guts or the ability to go away from the situation they are in.