Sen's Sensibility: The rebellious act of sticking around
Parvathy Thiruvothu told me just days back. The actor-activist was recalling those who cautioned her at the start of her career that a woman artiste has a limited 'shelf life'. You cannot last beyond a decade, after which you will be relegated to playing sister, aunt, and mother, they warned her. 'It's now been over 18 years since I entered films,' she added. 'My survival is my answer to those who said [that].'
It is a happy coincidence that I ended 2024 on a stage conversing with Parvathy on the theme, 'She Is Writing History,' at the Wayanad Literature Festival, and I began 2025 watching a documentary on Aparna Sen, actor, director, magazine editor, activist, and all-round exemplar in the matter of both survival and history-making. Suman Ghosh's Parama: A Journey with Aparna Sen was released in theatres in Kolkata early this month after a positive reception on the festival circuit last year.
The juxtaposition of these two women's stories in my mind took me back to my childhood when I first watched Sen's directorial debut, 36 Chowringhee Lane. Many years would pass before it occurred to me that until then I had not sampled the work of an Indian woman director. When 36 Chowringhee Lane was released in 1981, Sen was a rarity. The scenario has improved somewhat, but not dramatically so. Women directors are still not common.
Sen wears her achievements and struggles lightly in Ghosh's documentary. That there were struggles is clear from remarks by her and other interviewees — marriages that ended, a difficult
