A Class Apart. Review on Five Best Woman Directors of Indian Cinema

They ventured into a world, which was dominated by men… yet they left their unmistakable mark with the style, grace and the way they dealt with the topics… often social or controversial. The following is my salutation to the women directors in Hindi cinema.

Aparna Sen

Probably the best known woman director in Indian cinema, Aparna Sen has left hr mark both in Hindi as well as Bengali movies. She entered the scene with a spectacular debut with 36 Chowrangi Lane, a movie which she wrote also. This movie won The Grand Prix at the Manila International Film Festival and the National Award for Best Direction in India. Subsequently, she went on to make award winning movies such as Sati, Parama and Yugant. Her most recent film – Mr. And Mrs. Iyerhad sent ripples through the critics.

Apart from being a director, she has also acted in and written several movies. She has been awarded with Padma Shree awards and Satyajit Ray Award for Life Time Achievement. She is still active and still making great movies. Her current projects are 15 Park Avenue(Shabana Aazmi, Konkana Sena and Rahul Bose) and Gulel (Ajay devgan, Susmita Sen and Konkana Sen).

Deepa Mehta

Long before she created the massive controversy withFire, Deepa Mehta made her directoral debut in 1991 with Sam and Me….. a story of the unlikely deep bonding among two men from two different societies.

She came to be known in India with Fire, which was the first bold Indian film, where the love and affection among two people from the same sex was portrayed…. This sensitive topic was handled with utmost care. Then she followed it up with 1947 – Earth… as startling narration of partition ridden subcontinent, which was highly acclaimed. After controversy stopped the making of “Water”, she tried her hand in comedy with Bollywood-Hollywood. She has written, directed and produced several TV series also.

Meera Nair

The movie that created the biggest success story on the Crossover Films was probably Monsoon Wedding. Meera Nair had hit bull’s eye with the movie and had started a whole new genre.

And how can one forget the only second entry from India to Oscars with Salaam Bombay? The slums of Dharavi were magnificently portrayed in this “once in a life time” movie.

If Monsoon Wedding was the height of crossover comedy movie and Salaam Bombay was the extreme in class, then she also touched the extreme of passion and sex, without any filthy projection with Kamasutra.

The class of lady is spoken by the variety of subjects that she has handled with equal ease.

Sai Paranjpe

This lady had got into the act of movie making, when a very few ventured into it. From art movies to subtle comedies, she was relatively narrow in the range of movies, but made the best of the films in that range.

Her notable films include Sparsh, Katha, Disha and the unforgettable comedy – Chashme Baddoor. Also, her tele serial – Adosh Padosh was quite popular those days. She is also well known for her children’s’ movies such as Jadoo Ka Sankh and Sikandar.

Gurinder Chadha

I know I know…. She is neither an Indian by Birth (Kenya) nor by her residence (England)… but, she has made several movies based on India, NRIs and the Indian culture.

She hit the limelight with Bhaji on the Beach and went on to make light comedy movies with stress on various races, not necessarily on India. Her most famous movie in India has been Bend it like Beckham and very recently Bride and Prejudice.

There have been many who have shown glimpses of being excellent directors, but have some more distance to cover before being counted with the greats. They include Honey Irani, Prema Karanth, Pooja Bhatt, Revathy, Sumitra Bhave etc.

All that I would like to say here is, the industry has opened up more for the women directors than in the past, but still we need to see more women directors in the coming times.