Bulbbul: The Witch Womanhood needs

Yesterday evening, all of us were fumbling through Netflix when we accidentally landed on the Anushka Sharma produced movie ‘Bulbul’ which is written and directed by a newbie Anvita Dutt. Though the first impression of the movie seemed like it was kind of Bengali folklore and my family outrightly rejected the idea of watching it. With a little coaxing, they all agreed to give it a shot. My son walked away within 10 minutes quoting it’s too slow, but I and my daughter developed an interest and watched it with a keen eye. The movie blew me away to such an extent that to get it out my system I had to write about it. Not many movies had this kind of impact on me though I am a complete movie buff and watch at least two movies every weekend since the time COVID 19 pushed us indoors.

Bulbul transported us to another time zone, into the lives of women in British India and the rules set by patriarchy for them. In that era, women were easily used against each other by these archaic households, eventually spreading the myth that a woman is a woman’s worst enemy. Whereas, the fact is that in a patriarchal system to seek the blessings of the head of the household was nothing but survival instinct of each dependent woman, ultimately pitting them against each other with men watching from the corner of their eyes to what we call the eventual saas-bahu saga. The same thing happens with Binodini, the over-zealous sister-in-law, who instead of sympathizing with Bulbul for sharing the bonds of pain, starts competing with her to get the attention of the family patriarch. Later Satya brings her back to the Haveli to keep an eye on Bulbul, in an attempt, to mar Bulbul’s free spirit. Even, during Bulbul’s ultimate torment, Binodini advises her to keep quiet murmuring, ‘Badi haveliyo ke bade raaz hote hai’ despite the pang she felt deep within. The womenfolk despite being the victims themselves were brainwashed into believing that family honour is above all, especially above them.

Bulbul brings alive the misery of all the women of not just her times, but from all the times and spaces into her and, transforms herself into the witch (or goddess) who rises from the darker spaces and takes the form of the messiah of the fair gender. After being abused by all the men in her life, starting probably from her guardian who marries her off at a young age with a much older man, to a husband who wants to control her in every possible way, to a mentally ill brother-in-law who treats her like a mere doll, to an erstwhile childhood mate Satya who also couldn’t handle her independence and enigma and ends up writing a letter to her elder brother seeking permission to send her back to her paternal home as a means of punishment. Each one of them abuses her in different ways with the only exception being Dr. Sudip who metaphorically surrenders to her feet and does not judge her even when she displays her free spirit by sharing a smoke with him.

The movie represents the centuries of subjugation meted out to the women by the menfolk and how one woman who raises her voices is easily transformed into a witch by popular folklore to ensure that this imagery is fed into the young minds of the new generations, ensuring that no girl dares to cross the laxman-rekha drawn by men and the cycle of suppression goes on unhindered.

We definitely, need more Bulbuls, aka witches in the popular literature and even in reality to ensure that crime against women whether by the public, or families, or relatives, or anyone else is curbed from the very core and no one dares to put shackles around the free-spirited women and dare not add to already piling numbers of Nirbhayas in this world.