…not just limited to sexuality
A central concept within feminist theory and pop culture is “the gaze” – the realisation of being seen and interpreted by others, and adjusting one’s conduct accordingly.
Laura Mulvey’s theory of gaze talks about the objectification of women through the male gaze. It is obvious that the cinema has shown gaze in such a way. But as times changed, the male-female gaze began to convey much more emotions and expressions referring to sexual interests and objectification. This and the upcoming blog posts will discuss Portrayal of Female Characters in Anurag Kashyap’s Films (Gulaal, Ugly, Mukkabaaz, Raman Raghav 2.0 and Choked) across various themes.
Thoughts, emotions and perspectives of a character drives the ways of their looking at themselves and other characters. It reflects the characters' personal, social, cultural and political aspects.
Gulaal, a film that shows human complexities in a chaotic political backdrop. While watching this film, it is inevitable that each character conveys various emotions just through their dynamic ways of looking at men. Beginning with Kiran (Ayesha Mohan) an illegitimate child of a royal king. She is seeking for her father’s name and respect for societal acceptance and of course wealth, position and legacy. These factors are a driving force in her way of looking at other characters throughout the narrative. Kiran seems to be benefitting herself from the very beginning. The greed of political position drives her looking manner and gaze in terms of determination, rebellion, manipulation and arrogance throughout the film.
Look of determination and slight fear
Look of arrogance
Look of manipulation
Look of rebellion
In Kiran’s case, the look of rebellion emerged from her realisation at the end of the film. Throughout the film she thinks that her power and control are making things happen in her favour. She then comes to the fact that she was being used by her own brother to make way for himself towards the higher authority. It is true that she had exploited men for political benefits. Her rebellious way of looking suggests that it would not be difficult for her to exploit her brother for gaining higher position.
Anuja (Jesse Randhawa) joins as a professor in Rajpur’s university. She gets ragged by Jarwal and his gang. This incident goes viral across the university. The next day she experiences a look of judgement from people around her in the canteen.
Look of judgement
Anuja’s look towards Dileep indicates empathy, concern and pity.
In Choked, Sarita (Saiyami Kher) is always looked upon by others in various manners. Sushant’s (Roshan Mathew) look towards her is of a husband’s concern. Her refusal and emotionless approach towards him drives his yearning for her. The way he looks upto her indicates an expectation of emotional intimacy and warmth from Sarita. On the other hand, the way in which society looks upon Sarita can be described as a look of surveillance. Or we can say that her neighbours’ point of view is similar to that of CCTV by keeping an eye on almost every personal and social action.
Sushant’s look of yearning
Looking in terms of surveillance
In Raman Raghav 2.0, the look and gaze of Raman (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) and Raghav (Vicky Kaushal) towards women conveys a sense of objectification. Objectification is different in both cases. Raman finds satisfaction in killing women whereas Raghav seems to search for satisfaction through sexual pleasures. Raman looks at women as they are his prey as if he is waiting for the right moment to hunt them down. Raghav is always shown in low angle shots whenever he is with a female character. This indicates his power dominance as he always looks down upon them.
Look resembling to a predator
Look of dominance
In Mukkabaaz, Shravan (Vineet Kumar Singh) and Sunaina (Zoya Hussain) share a moment in their very first eye contact. Both experience love at first sight. Excitement, surprise and a spark is visible in their gaze towards each other. As their relationship grows, their looks convey a sense of respect, understanding and emotional intimacy.
Look of newfound love
After getting married, Sunaina experiences her mother-in-law’s stereotypical point of view. There are preconceived societal perceptions of women to behave in a certain set of manners. This is when she is asked to cover herself with a dupatta while stepping out of the house.
The film Ugly opens with Shalini (Tejaswini Kolhapure) looking at herself in the mirror, reflecting vulnerability about her notions of beauty and state of mind. This frame captures the moment of fragility and self doubt. When the film shows her past life, it shows a difference in the way she looks at herself. She looks confident and portrays self admiration. Hence, she finds it easy to seek attention by seducing someone.
The way she looks at herself
Seductive approach
The way characters in films look at each other speak volumes about their personalities and behaviours. The most effective form of expression is surely conveyed through the eyes, and the looks of various characters discussed above stands true to this fact.
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