A Potpourri of Vestiges Review
By Murtaza Ali Khan
Author-director
Aditya Kriplani’s Tikli and Laxmi Bomb, which recently won the Best Film Award
for Gender Equality at the UK Asian Film Festival, follows the lives of two
prostitutes, Laxmi and Putul, living in Mumbai. It earlier won the Best Film
Award at the 2018 Berlin Independent Film Festival. The film offers a riveting
treatise on the lives of sex workers and it does so without ever trying to judge them. Perhaps, it’s helped
by the film’s all-women technical crew. The film reminds one of Shohini Ghosh’s
documentary film Tales of the Night Fairies (2002), which endeavors to
highlight the struggles and aspirations of the women of DMSC—a collective of
thousands of sex workers in West Bengal. It offers a unique feminist
perspective on the issues of sex trade and trafficking. And just like Ghosh’s
documentary, Tikli and Laxmi Bomb too endeavors to highlight the struggles and
aspirations of sex workers. And it does so smartly and without ever being
scared, just like its two protagonists.
By Murtaza Ali Khan
Featured in IMDb Critic Reviews
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| Vibhawari Deshpande as Laxmi and Chitrangada Chakraborty as Putul in Tikli and Laxmi Bomb |
Prostitution
is often described as the oldest profession in the world. But the society has
always looked at prostitutes with contempt. A number of social reformers in the
past have emphasized upon the need to rehabilitate prostitutes. But, in the
recent times, many champions of women rights have questioned this condescending
notion. For, to talk about the rehabilitation of prostitutes is to look down
upon their profession. And if we do see prostitution as a profession then
unless it is forced on those practicing it what gives us the right to talk
about their rehabilitation?
Over
the years, several filmmakers around the world have had a lot to say about
society’s ostracism of sex workers. Certainly, one can learn a lot about the
society’s outlook towards sex workers over the decades from their
representation in cinema. But one must also understand that filmmakers, just
like other artists and thinkers, while being reflective of the times they live
in must also endeavor to influence the general opinion about an issue. In other
words, a movie about an important social issue shouldn’t merely present a
dramatization of facts and reality but should also offer the filmmaker’s unique
perspective. After all, films are not merely documents and can offer so much
more.
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| Giulietta Masina as Cabiria in Fellini's Nights of Cabiria |
In
the 1957 Oscar-winning film Nights of Cabiria, Italian filmmaker Federico
Fellini tells the story of Cabiria—a prostitute living in Rome who endlessly
searches for true love. Those around her treat her with contempt but Cabiria is
incorruptible; she possesses a heart of gold. The film’s depiction of Cabiria
not only elevates her to a position of dignity but also acknowledges her as a
woman with agency, capable of taking the fight to a morally corrupt society.
The
same year Indian filmmaker Guru Dutt made Pyaasa which tells the story of a
lovelorn and jobless poet who eventually settles with a prostitute named
Gulabo. In Gulabo we see an intelligent, sensitive and kind hearted woman, not
unlike Cabiria.
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| Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy |
English
filmmaker John Schlesinger’s 1969 Oscar-winning American film Midnight Cowboy
revolves around a young Texan man who travels to New York City with the hope of
becoming a prostitute. The film’s bleak outlook towards life in a
quintessentially urban American setup is a powerful reminder of the all-pervasive
moral decadence with the so called outcasts holding up a mirror to the society.
Midnight Cowboy also successfully subverts the general notions of gender
associated with prostitution as a profession.
The
1981 Muzaffar Ali-directed Indian film Umrao Jaan may have been seen by many as
an ode to Lucknow’s tawaif culture but it achieves so much more than merely
worshipping a relic of a lost tradition. The film revolves around a girl named
Amiran who is sold into prostitution. Amiran is trained to captivate men and
grows up as Umrao Jaan. Forbidden to ever fall in love, she lives by her own
rules, never afraid of taking the fight to those who oppose her. In Umrao Jaan,
Muzaffar Ali, unlike many Indian films about sex workers, daringly chooses a
realistic climax that doesn’t end in Amiran’s rehabilitation. The film couldn’t
have been further away from the foolhardy romanticism of Indian mainstream
films such as the many adaptations of Devdas or the idealism of Shakti
Samanta’s Amar Prem (1972).
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| Rekha in Muzaffar Ali's Umrao Jaan |
Indian
filmmaker Shyam Benegal’s 1983 film Mandi, based on a short story by Pakistani
writer Ghulam Abbas, highlights the hypocrisies of a corrupt patriarchal
society that looks down upon prostitutes in the name of morality. The same men
who visit a brothel to fulfill their physical needs in darkness of the night
speak of relocating it in broad daylight.
The
2004 Hindi film Chameli explores the possibility of a platonic friendship
between a widower and a street-smart prostitute. The film at first plays to the
stereotypes associated with the role of a prostitute in the society but
ultimately succeeds in transcending them.
Srijit
Mukherji’s 2015 Bengali film Rajkahini revolves around a brothel which the
authorities want to relocate. The film is set in 1948 in the backdrop of the
India’s independence from the British rule. When all efforts to relocate the
brothel fail, the authorities hire a group of mercenaries to kill the
prostitutes in cold blood. The film’s greatest strength is how it offers an
insightful take on the lives of the prostitutes without ever attempting to judge
them. Rajkahini was later remade in Hindi as Begum Jaan, starring the renowned
Indian actress Vidya Balan.
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| Elisabeth Shue and Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas |
Mainstream
American films over the years such as Klute (1971), Pretty Woman (1990), and
Leaving Las Vegas (1995) have also endeavored to break the stereotypes
associated with the lives of sex workers, reminding us that the sex workers at
the end of the day are humans just like everybody else. But if we talk about
the American independent cinema then an important film that comes to mind is
Sean Baker’s Tangerine (2015). Shot entirely using iPhones, Tangerine revolves
around a transgender sex-worker. Early in the film it is revealed that while
she was serving a 28-day prison sentence her boyfriend was cheating her with a
cisgender woman. Tangerine dares to go beyond the binaries and succeeds in
presenting a haunting take on sex-trade subcultures prevalent in present-day
urban American society.
Coming
back to Tikli and Laxmi Bomb, it is a film of rare sensitivity. Indian cinema
has found a new champion of women rights in Aditya Kripalani. He is currently
working on his second film Totta Patakha Item Maal which intends to explore the
different dimensions of gender equality in greater depth. Here is a filmmaker
who is not afraid of going the extra mile for the sake of realism and yet his
cinema employs some of the most popular tropes of melodrama, resulting in a
heady cocktail of realism and melodrama that is enough to cast a lasting spell
on the viewer. Whether the use of jump cuts or the handheld camera every frame
of the film oozes with cinephilia. It is difficult to think of another film
that presents such a riveting treatise on the lives of sex workers without
alienating them or demeaning their profession. The brilliant performances of
the film's two leads, Vibhawari Deshpande as Laxmi and Chitrangada Chakraborty
as Putul aka Tikli, is the film’s major highlight.
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| A Still from Aditya Kriplani's Tikli and Laxmi Bomb |
Even
today in many countries around the world the legislation revolving around
prostitution is usually based on the assumption that sex workers are victims
who need rehabilitation and protection from pimps and brothel owners. Also,
there is widespread ignorance regarding male and transgender sex workers in the
country. It is of paramount importance that politicians and activists starting
thinking beyond primitive solutions like rehabilitation and actually fought for
securing their legal rights and social inclusion. Perhaps, the first step is to
distinguish between coerced prostitution and consensual sex work. As filmmakers
continue to make movies about prostitution, it is important that they broke
free of the gender binary and represented sex workers as human beings and not
as specimens. Therefore, Tikli and Laxmi Bomb, just like the other films
mentioned above, serve as important reference points.
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