Let’s talk about sex, baby: Lipstick Under My Burkha and AIB video A Woman’s Besties, sexuality from a woman’s point-of-view, on film!

It is weird that the sexuality of a woman or her right to consent is only talked about or depicted when she has been raped, abused, eve-teased or forced into a relationship. A look at women's sexuality in films, and censorship.

Written by: Shweta Parande

Updated: June 5, 2017, 7:30 PM IST

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https://www.india.com/viral/lets-talk-about-sex-baby-lipstick-under-my-burkha-and-aib-video-a-womans-besties-sexuality-from-a-womans-point-of-view-opinion-1886460/ Copy

Much has been said and written about producer Prakash Jha’s film Lipstick Under My Burkha that received a no-go from the Indian censor board, headed by Bollywood filmmaker Pahlaj Nihalani. Lipstick Under My Burkha is a film that looks at sexuality from a woman’s point-of-view, that is her sexuality. It not just looks at it, it celebrates it and hence the trailer / film is a relish to watch for most women. (Except the great-grandmas who will be scandalised but secretly smiling nevertheless.) The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) refused to certify Lipstick Under My Burkha, stating that the film’s “story is lady-oriented, their fantasy about life”. The CBFC letter to Prakash Jha further said, “There are continuous sexual scenes, abusive words, audio pornography and a bit sensitive touch about one particular section of society, hence film refused.” This happened after Lipstick Under My Burkha, starring Konkona Sen Sharma and Ratna Pathak Shah, was screened at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2016 and much appreciated! Indians on Twitter reacted with shock at the CBFC’s refusal to certify the film. (Update: Lipstick Under My Burkha will release in India on July 28, 2017, to be presented by Ekta Kapoor.)

Prakash Jha and director Alankrita Shrivastava were equally shocked. Shrivastava had made her debut with another “lady-oriented” film, Turning 30, in 2011. Starring Gul Panag, Turning 30 was about a woman’s so-called struggle and realisation that she had now entered her dreaded thirties and how her life changes after that. Luckily for Shrivastava, right after the CBFC decision, Lipstick Under My Burkha won the audience award at the Glasgow Film Festival 2017. It had earlier been honoured with the Spirit of Asia prize in Tokyo. The film’s team had shared on Facebook, “We’re on a roll! Lipstick Under My Burkha just won the ‘Spirit of Asia’ award at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Thank you Tokyo, for showering us with so much love!” But we guess the film is far from getting a certificate from CBFC and the makers have been asked to appeal against the board’s decision. (Just after I wrote this opinion piece, came the news that CBFC has refused certification for another movie! It is a Malayalam film called Ka Bodyscapes and CBFC feels it is “glorifying the subject of gay and homosexual relationship”.)

Shrivastava told in an interview to The Hollywood Reporter about Indian films vis-a-vis Lipstick Under My Burkha, “In most films that come out of India, a woman will never articulate her own desire, she will always be acted upon rather than proactively act. There’s a character in the film who is in her 50s and has a sexual awakening, feelings and desires. The board felt uncomfortable about this. The truth is, in Indian films, we don’t talk about these things, everything is so unsaid. We have double meanings in song lyrics which are very derogatory to women, and for no particular reason a camera will pan up and down a woman’s body. But we need to have other narratives.” But it is these very Indian film buffs from the mass audience that have supported the filmmaker and want a theatrical release for Lipstick Under My Burkha, and the director is happy with the response of fans.

Around the same time that the Lipstick Under My Burkha controversy happened, India’s favourite comedy group the All India Bakchod (AIB) released a video titled AIB: A Woman’s Besties. Directed by one of AIB’s main performers, Tanmay Bhat, A Woman’s Besties is a funny take on what happens when a woman faces a pregnancy scare – that is, what happens in her mind. So we have a group of girls, a woman’s besties, who may be voices in a woman’s head. And they have been creatively named after a woman’s body parts that are important for the sexual function. You clearly cannot watch this video with your parents or brother! But definitely with your group of girl besties, ‘cos it talks about sex, baby! And unabashedly. So, sex between a man and a woman (or any other kind) actually happens, you know! Mr Pahlaj Nihalani probably doesn’t know that (smirk), and so is shocked to see how Lipstick Under My Burkha is all about female desire!

Lipstick Under My Burkha is NOT about Muslim or burqa-wearing women. It is not only about them or the ones who are forced to wear a ghoonghat or veil in Hindu households. It is about all kinds of women and their sexual desires. Whether it is a young girl, a married woman with kids or a 50-year-old who has always been referred to as an aunty or bua or mausi past her prime, and never thought that desire can be and is for women and men of all ages (as long as it is consensual and not involving minors!).

In that sense, Lipstick Under My Burkha can be compared to films like Deepa Mehta’s Fire (1996) that portrayed lesbianism born out of loneliness of perfectly heterosexual women, or Nadine Labaki’s Caramel that subtly showcased the various kinds of relationships that women working in a beauty parlour in Beirut were a part of, including with a married man and a woman customer. The film is about other things women, too. As the censor board says: “Lady-oriented”.

Watch Caramel trailer here.

The AIB video shows a young, possibly single woman who after her pregnancy test is negative, goes on to meet her boyfriend for more sex. And why not? As long as she is safe. But the names of the females is probably what will make the guys watch the video! The good part is, unlike our movies that have a theatrical release, these viral videos by Being Indian, AIB, The Viral Fever, Girliyapa and the like, as well as some new age web series by Yash Raj Films, etc., openly talk about anything related to sexuality – male and female condoms, orgasms, porn, menstruation, masturbation, the size of the penis, the first time, and so on. Hopefully, these won’t come under some censorship under some bizarre cyber law, when rampant and violent pornography is available for free online in India.

Watch AIB: A Woman’s Desire here!

It is equally weird that a woman’s sexuality or her right to consent can only be talked about or depicted when she has been raped, abused, eve-teased or forced into a relationship, be it in Mirch Masala (1989), Angry Indian Goddesses (2015 India), Parched (2016 India), Lajja (2001) or any film depicting those crimes. Otherwise, it is like the entire world is from a man’s point-of-view, always and forever. That explains Pahlaj Nihalani’s reluctance to accept Lipstick Under My Burkha. He comes from and is used to that old school of filmmaking, where eve-teasing, rape scenes and item songs were a given in Bollywood.

Or even when a sex scene from a woman’s point-of-view was shown, it was actually to satisfy the male voyeur. This was also seen recently in Abdellatif Kechiche’s award-winning Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013) where the full-blown lesbian sex scene between lead actors Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux was not required in the film at all (I feel) – it could have been simply a sensual kiss showcased well. But Kechiche thought otherwise and played to the male fantasies, even though the female actors were not comfortable (they said so at the 66th Cannes Film Festival where the film went on to win the Palme d’Or, the highest prize at the prestigious festival).

Watch Blue is the Warmest Colour trailer here.

Lipstick Under My Burkha, too, if it were a film about women’s sexuality the way a man thinks about it, the censor board would have approved it with simply an A-certificate, like in the case of Shilpa Shukla-starrer B.A. Pass (2012). It’s a man’s world, after all.