Building the Narrative

The filmmaker was certain about how she wanted to approach the subject. “From the very beginning, I had decided that I would place women against a black background, to signify that all women are coming from the same place, their caste or economic strata does not matter. As women, we’re all standing together,” she says. She also wanted them to speak directly to the camera. “I wasn’t going to record anyone who wished to be anonymous — not to say that being anonymous is wrong. People often say women don’t come forward, so I made sure these women came forward and shared their experiences,” she says, 32. Her previous outings as a filmmaker have been Pava, The Catalyst and Unearthing The Treasures of Ariyalur, and runs a production company – Lime Soda Films. Sundar has also been active in the theatre scene of Chennai, and is vocal about women issues on the ground and online.

One of the primary issues that are raised in the film is how the definition of workplace and harassers are limited. For instance, women working in schools face harassment by parents of students, but schools find it difficult to penalise them. Rajendran shares how such incidents were commonplace during reporting, to the extent she had them categorised as ‘okay ones’ and ‘bad ones’. A doctor shares how people ogled at a fellow doctor when she was giving a cardiac massage to a dying man. A research associate shares how the definition of workplace in law is limited, as her work takes her to various corners of the country. Activist Divya Bharti brought to the fore how a women manual scavenger is made to do hard labour during night hours and is still paid less than men.

Sundar also speaks to men in the film. Comedians Varun Grover and Sanjay Rajoura, among others, talk about the “bro code”, which doesn’t make them take sexual harassment and misconduct seriously. There are women who narrate tales of trauma dealing with the “due process”. “I was very clear that this is not going to be a sob story. I don’t want women to come and cry in my film. I wanted these women to speak facts, and call out the government, policy makers and legislatures who claim that we’re protected,” she says, adding that dealing with stories on a daily basis triggered her own trauma.

Sundar has also created a unique forum of ‘Women Making Films’ through which she hopes to initiate conversations and promote the work of women filmmakers. “I’ve had so many women tell me if it’s a female cinematographer the light boys behave in a certain manner. The same crew works differently when a man is in charge. I’ve also heard cases where a female director has been exploited in terms of money. Also, I feel, we don’t give opportunities to women filmmakers to falter, only when you falter is when you’ll chisel your skill,” she says.