Pink: The inside story
Author- Gautam Chintamani
Publisher- HarperCollins, Rs 299
The film Pink is a result of real-life men and women reflecting on blatant instances of misogyny around them, feeling troubled, and deciding to put their point across in a realistic manner, Gautam Chintamani tells UMANG AGGARWAl
Would it take angered, thoughtful, or even repentant fathers and grandfathers of young Indian women for our society to be friendlier towards its womenIJ As Gautam Chintamani, the author of Pink: The Inside Story, puts it, “I am not saying it is the ideal way…but for some reason, when a man talks about misogyny, the other men understand it faster. More so when the man is someone like Amitabh Bachchan.”
The book brings forward the anguish of Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury at his tired daughter being told to ‘sit properly’ in her own house and the sense of responsibility that hits Amitabh Bachchan– as a senior actor as well as a grandfather — when he looks at gender violence in the society.
In a conversation with us, Chintamani says, “I like to see things in a socio-political context, and try to place something like popular Hindi films in the milieu.” He later adds, “The book is about the making of Pink and why it is an important film. But there is a parallel narrative in the book that addresses misogyny. Today, these things can be stopped and rectified. Hindi films are to a great extent responsible for saying that misogyny is Ok and brushing aside the idea of consent.”
In the prologue to his book, he relates a 2015 incident where an Indian man who was held for stalking women in Australia got away when his lawyer argued that it was a part of his ‘cultural background’ as Bollywood movies make stalking and obsessing over women, seem normal. The need for a cultural overhaul is seen as the root of all the factors that contributed to the making of the movie.
Telling us what made him want to write this book, he says, “When I saw the film Pink…it’s a commercial film in the broad terms of speaking because of the names involved in the film. Few years ago, this film would have been branded as an arthouse film, or an independent film. Within the realm of popular Hindi films, or commercial films, or Bollywood as we know, if a narrative comes about which tries to address something that is as real as misogyny or consent in our society, and does not take any shortcuts vis-a-vis the characters or the settings... in a very short period of time, it becomes a yardstick by which the future films which take a socio-political stand will be measured. It is remarkable for a commercial Hindi film to do that. So, that intrigued me.”
The use of cinematic tools in this book also impressed the author. He shares, “When my wife and I were watching this film, I got a call as one of my write-ups needed to be reworked. So, I took it to the lobby of the cinema hall and missed about the first 10-15 minutes of the film. When I came back, I asked my wife what had happened (in the movie). And she said, “I can’t tell you, because I don’t know.” I thought maybe she is angry with me or something. Usually in Hindi films, you can add 2 and 2. But here, I was finding it difficult to get a sense of what was happening. And I realized that that was one of the narrative ploys used by the filmmaker — the incident which happens, you don’t see it. You know as much as most of the characters in the films do.”
Talking about the factors that possibly allowed space for Pink as a commercial film, he says, “Swimming against the tide happens very often in Hindi films. Almost every decade in the last 100 years of Hindi films, you would see a movie that does not follow the norm. Today, there are numerous platforms for the audience to interact with the filmmakers. In Pink’s case, it was never intended to be a movie that would go out to make a political statement. I believe the stars just aligned for Pink.” He adds that the ‘idea’ had been in the Director’s head because of two experiences that had stayed with him. One was a conversation with female friend from college about ‘consent’. And another was an infuriating incident where the residents of a society in Kolkata thought it was obvious to assume that a woman is a prostitute if she likes to drink and has male friends come over.
The book also mentions that when Chowdhury, who had been working on this idea since 2009, met Shoojit Sircar, he was the one to suggest Delhi as the setting because it is more hostile towards women than Kolkata.
Amitabh Bachchan has written the foreword to the book. A section of viewers had an issue with the senior male actor being the ‘main lead’ in a movie that is essentially about women. The author says, “For me, he is representative of almost 40-50 years of Hindi cinema. He has been a fantastic bridge between many decades of cinema, many actors…many schools of thought. He has worked with almost half the history of Indian films. For him to act in a film like this...I thought it would be very interesting to see what he has to say about Pink.”
He says that even though Pink is often branded as a feminist film, “Everybody involved in the making of the film was very clear that it is not a feminist film. It is about three characters — they could be men, women, whoever it is who get into a situation and another character who helps them get out of it. In fact, the “Na sirf ek shabd nahin hai” dialogue was not in the original script. “
To sum up the impact that this movie can have on our society and its representation in our movies, he says, “A commercial movie doing something like this, kind of becomes a mirror for the others.You may not have 50,000 Pinks coming out. But you definitely have 20 more Judwa 2s being planned. There is still a market for that. But each time aJudwa2 is made now…I am not deriding Judwa2, there is a market for that too. But every time a movie that is so blatantly sexist comes out, there will be a reminder that we do have a market for a Pink. And that it can be a success now.”