Engazing with empathy through the female gaze
Lost Ladies) has got me thinking once again about Salaar, Animal, Pushpa, the KGF franchise and their ilk. Kiran Rao's sophomore directorial venture was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2023 and will be in Indian theatres in March. For those who have watched it, it may seem blasphemous to mention Rao's quiet study of human nature in the same breath as these other films with their loud, celebratory parades of aggressive masculinity that are all the rage at the Indian box-office these days. But hear me out.
Two brides in rural north India who accidentally swap places after their respective weddings are the central figures in LL. Both are lost, not merely in the physical sense after this inadvertent switch, but also in terms of larger existential questions. As their grooms search for them, the women end up finding themselves.
A lot has been written over the years about the male gaze in cinema. This is not a term to be used literally. 'The male gaze' is not merely 'the gaze of a man'. It is the gaze of a man who lacks empathy. It is a gaze that may appear to serve the cause of patriarchy and its collaborations with other forms of supremacism, but in fact does a disservice to women and men.
Likewise, 'the female gaze' is not merely 'the gaze of a woman'. It is the gaze of a woman who possesses empathy. LL is a wonderful illustration of this empathy informing the cinematic treatment of women and men characters, and benefitting both.
Rao's film is based on a story by Biplab Goswami, with a
