| WOMEN
OF ACTION! |
| By
Arun |
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Women
have been mostly kept away from action
– in cinema that is. It is rarer
than ‘once in a blue moon’
that we get to see an actress involved
in action sequences on screen. So, when
it does happen, there is no effort wasted
to get it noticed. Most people want to
know how good (or bad) the lady faired
while walking into a predominantly male
dominion. And, surprisingly, most of who
have attempted it have come off pretty
well. When Sneha decided to do Bhavani
IPS, it was more than just a surprise.
The lady who had not even raised her voice
in almost a decade of cinema, playing
a cop was a bit hard to digest. But, it
was no surprise that the film found its
way into theaters on the weekend preceding
Women’s Day and one believes that
it was no mere coincidence. |
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Sneha’s willingness to go all the way with the
action part of the film is indeed commendable. But,
the film itself was a disappointing sojourn for all
those who watched it. The only thing about the film
that made it any different from all those ‘cop
masalas’ over the decades is the fact that a
woman was playing the lead. Except that, there was
nothing at all which would distinguish the film from
anything else of the same breed. The same old clichés
about the police officer’s family (sister to
be precise) being the target of the villain’s
machinations, the revenge game etc. were all part
of this movie, that was trying to pass off as a ‘different
attempt’ under the cloak of Sneha’s presence
in the lead role. But, the cloak also carried with
it a dagger of all the clichés associated with
police dramas of Tamil cinema. Now, this is not being
spoken in the context of the Women’s day; but
the rarest of rare occurrences of an actress doing
on screen action certainly deserves a script that
is at least marginally less cliché-ridden.
On that note, let us take a look at some of the action
oriented roles played by actresses that come to mind.
By default, Vyjayanthi IPS will be avoided from this
discussion because it has been extensively talked
about in the run up to the release of Bhavani IPS.
Some have even ventured far enough to call Bhavani
IPS as inspired or modeled upon Vyjayanthi IPS.
Hollywood has been consistent in its inclusion of
women in all action movies. But, most of the time
it is the slowest and loudest member of a group who
often lands the rest into trouble. The instances where
the ladies have actually got to be part of the main
action are few. Angelina Jolie has had the luck to
run into such roles more than once. But, looking at
her performances, it is more than just luck that got
her those roles; she definitely showed the guts that
was required for high adrenaline action; matching
Bradd Pitt step for step in Mr.& Mrs. Smith. Even
the 2010 release SALT was testimony to the fact that
she was willing to go any length to get an action
sequence right. In fact, SALT was one of the few movies
from last year which was praised for retaining raw
intensity in its action sequences even in the animation/graphics
era. Talking of raw and intense action sequences,
one is reminded of Demi Moore’s commando act
in GI Jane, which is as raw and intense as it can
get with women handling action. Some might even like
to point to Kill Bill and Resident Evil movies to
show what the meaning of intensity is.
One is also not forgetting the cheesy/funky action
offered in Charlie’s Angels or the acrobatic
acts of Catherine Zeta Jones in Entrapment. Back home,
one still remembers a few tough scenes done by Rekha
in Khoon Bhari Maang which were reprised by Radhika
in Tamil.
Given the right kind of support from the script, the
event of an actress taking over action from actors
can be interesting. But, just replacing actors with
actresses does not make clichés pardonable
or enjoyable. |
