On this episode of 'The Way We Were', Reema looks back on 2024 - the year of gentlewomen. The triumphs of Payal Kapadia and Kiran Rao created space for cinema without male aggression.
'Laapataa Ladies' garnered a record 13.8 million views on Netflix and toppled 'Animal' in viewership ratings on Netflix, and blockbusters like 'Stree 2' and 'Kalki ' had women at the heart of their narratives.
What set 'All We Imagine as Light' and 'Laapata Ladies' apart was an emphasis on kindness and humanism at a time when performative cruelty and violence run rampant in cinema, OTT shows and politics around the world.
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13: Ep 013 - Does America hate women?
The misogyny that you once saw in crime shows, oozing from the rancid mouths of criminals, is now loud and proud. Post the US elections, two men walked onto a Texas university campus with signs that read: "Women are property".
They did so because they felt empowered by the triumph of a candidate who has been accused of sexual assault; a candidate who went on to be elected twice over to the highest seat of power in the US.
So, the question is how did we get here?
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12: Ep 012 - Blurred Lines: Indian Cinema and the Underworld
The recent incidents involving a self styled mobster and Salman Khan are indicative of just how easy it is to target the industry - sometimes for money and sometimes for notoriety that is mistaken as fame.
One thing, however, is very clear.
The line between good and evil has been blurred decisively, on the screen and off it.
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11: Ep 011 - The Writers Who Gave Hindi Cinema its Soul
The three-part documentary, 'Angry Young Men- The Salim Javed Story' (Amazon Prime Video) affords us an intimate glimpse into the homes and family dynamics, of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, positioning them as the only definitive voices of Hindi cinema.
But let's not forget the other writers who came before them. Writers like Rajinder Singh Bedi, Abrar Alvi, Khwaja Ahmed Abbas and Rahi Masoom Raza who not only enriched Hindi cinema but also gave us a nuanced vocabulary to discuss love, loss, injustice and human values.
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10: Ep 010 - Women deserve better. In life and in fiction.
The message is clear - women are disposable; even in fiction.
Most crime shows open with the dead body of a woman. Extending that list are hugely popular shows on serial killers who target women. There are multiple documentaries and shows, for example, on Ted Bundy. Everyone remembers him. Nobody remembers his victims.
Rarely though, some films and shows get it right. Dijo Jose Antony's 2022 film "Jana Gana Mana" delves into not just a gender crime but the reasons behind it. And, the 2019 Netflix drama "Unbelievable" got women right, too. One of its most insightful lines was “Rape has three crime scenes. The body of the victim. The body of the rapist. And the place where the crime actually happens.”
The series also adds another crime scene to the list without naming it - the mind of the victim. Against which, a cruel warfare is waged by a brutal, desensitised justice system. On this episode of 'The Way We Were', we explore.
TW: This episode contains references to rape and sexual violence against women.
Listener discretion is advised.
'The Way We Were' connects the dots between the past and the present to reveal that cinema, popular culture, all forms of artistic expression, politics, and music are purveyors of ideas and impulses that reveal to us what we most need to learn about ourselves. The podcast revisits films, songs, watershed moments in art, culture, society and politics to show how a thread of continuity runs through them all and connects them inextricably to each other.
Rich with nostalgia, trivia, lived anecdotes, and the larger meaning of events that are making news and impacting the zeitgeist, 'The Way We Were,' is about the pixels that make the big picture, exclusively on The Podcaster.
Ireland