Sex, city & the need to break free

Nonika Singh

Reaching out for the stars… We all try to grab that fistful of stardust. Only in Dolly Kitty Aur Who Chamakte Sitare, Alankrita Shrivastava gives it a new spin and reminds us – all that glitters is not starry enough. Yet, we, especially the fair sex, are entitled to our share of happiness. The gutsy writer-director, who served us the brave and bold Lipstick Under My Burkha a few years ago, once again foregrounds woman’s sexuality and takes us on roads less travelled – where women demand their piece of flesh, literally and metaphorically.

In a country where men are obsessed with sex and women talk about it in hushed whispers, she makes the distinction firm and square. If Lipstick… profiled four women, here the story primarily rests with Dolly and Kitty who happen to be cousins. To begin with, Dolly, a working wife with two sons, comes across as a shallow somewhat unlikable person pretending to be someone she is not. But that is only the surface. Scratch it and beneath lies a dis-satisfied woman trying to navigate her way through her unfulfilled life.

Kitty is well actually Kajal( Bhumi Pednekar). Kitty is a pseudonym she acquires in a call centre where she seduces men over the phone. Two films prior to this, Tumhari Sullu and Dream Girl too went down the same road (companionship over the phone), but only skirted with the issue and never looked at the seamier side of what those calls in the night can lead to. Alankrita takes the bull by the horns and brings to you phone sex unflinching and un-squirming, making you squirm alright. Men have needs and these can be satiated. But what about women, are they only meant to be objects of desire? The dual standards are known to all by now and women’s sexuality is no longer so deeply buried a secret, thanks to filmmakers like Alankrita and others before her.

Apart from the issue at hand, she also weaves in an interesting story and characters. Dolly has many shades. Konkana Sen Sharma’s portrayal of this woman, whom you begin to like and empathise with, brings those inflections to fore with a skill-set that has just the right degree of emotional heft. Just as Small-town girl Kajal begins to find her feet in a new place, Bhumi playing her too grows on you.

Of course, Alankrita is not viewing them through rose-tinted glasses. Set in Noida where young girls like Kajal land in pursuit of a new world, both the setting and the young women who inhabit it are unerringly close to reality.

Depicted in a non-judgemental fashion, Alankrita doesn’t try to cover them in unnecessary glory either. In the middle of sex, one of them demands an I-phone from her boyfriend! Another one is an escort girl and there is a hint of a surrogate mother too. There is an alternate sexuality angle too besides a host of other cultural-political concerns.

However, before you think the director bites more than what can be chewed, she does wrap it all very well. Surely, some things like the liaison with the delivery boy are written on the wall from the moment he makes an appearance. But there are surprise elements as well, in the way Vikrant Massey’s character unfolds. The acts of vandalism, the public shaming of couples and destruction of works of art created by women centring around sexuality may seem political, but perhaps come from a personal space too.

In case, you have forgotten, Alankrita had a long run-in with former censor board chief, the sanskari Pahlaj Nihalani, before her earlier film could find a theatrical release. This time airing on Netflix, she needn’t fear the scissors or the hand of censors. Of course, like her previous film, though packed with sex-rated scenes, the idea is not to titillate, only to make a point, forceful at that. As it says, “Kuch raaste galat nahi alag hote hain…”

Giving stars to a film that challenges the very notion of star-rating is a tough call! There is such a clever metaphor in chamakte sitare… Wish we could match it. Since we can’t, we go with the simpler way out – a three-star rating!