As a film, Maa Inti Bangaram frustrates; as a milestone for Telugu cinema’s female-led stories, it deserves to be celebrated, argues Sreeju Sudhakaran.
Key Points
- Maa Inti Bangaram, starring Samantha Ruth Prabhu, is seen as a significant film for promoting stronger female characters in Telugu cinema, despite its narrative shortcomings.
- The film’s success is particularly noteworthy given the persistent issue of heroines often being relegated to ‘flowerpot’ roles in mainstream Telugu commercial entertainers.
- Director Nandini Reddy’s involvement highlights the importance of female filmmakers in an industry largely dominated by men, offering a more assured feminist voice.
This is not a review of Maa Inti Bangaram.
Sure, I will be sharing what I liked and what I didn’t about the new hit from the Telugu film industry, but this won’t be a review.
Because if I have to review it, then I would have to expand on my disappointment with what a mixed bag of a film Maa Inti Bangaram eventually turns out despite its promising potential, its light-hearted sequences and Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s enjoyable performance.
I would also have to point out that Maa Inti Bangaram gets trapped in the same clichéd space that action-oriented films and shows made by Raj Nidimoru (of Raj & DK fame) currently inhabit: A quirky first half with an interestingly-written lead character harbouring a secret from those around them, whimsical supporting characters, a villain (always played by an excellent actor), who speaks as though he is determined to steal the show, well-choreographed action scenes, and then a sharp swerve into a fairly ordinary action drama with a predictable trajectory.
And I am not even talking about how the film is perfectly comfortable with its heroine embracing the conservative ideals of her husband’s family, with the narrative completely endorsing her decision. Because isn’t living in a large joint family, where women are considered ideal daughters-in-law only if they wake up early, perform puja and cook elaborate feasts for the entire household, every educated, independent woman’s dream?
The Narrative and Character Arc
Of course, there is a reason for Swarna (Samantha Ruth Prabhu) to feel that way. She is an orphan, and by marrying her, her green-flag doctor husband Ani (Diganth Manchale), was ostracised by his upper-caste family, especially his politician father (Anand).
By the way, the father-in-law is shown to be a good and honest man. Though I did like the moment where he stands up for Swarna in the climax when the family begins to turn on her.
Anyway, when the couple arrives for Ani’s sister’s wedding, Swarna sees it as a double opportunity: To mend her husband’s relationship with his family by presenting herself as the ideal daughter-in-law, and in the process, finding the family she herself never had.
Of course, neither the film nor its characters, including her supposedly idealistic husband, ever tell her that she doesn’t need to spend her days in the kitchen to become the perfect daughter-in-law.
Even her best friend Kiranmayi, played by Manjusha Mukkavilli in one of the film’s most lovable supporting performances, is content being the homemaker of her family, proudly flaunting her cooking skills and even lecturing Swarna at one point about the effort that goes into making a good dish.
It is interesting that in her quest to become the ideal daughter-in-law, Swarna forgets she had once escaped being moulded into someone else’s idea of the ideal woman. You see, Swarna was once Jhansi, a member of a Naxal gang led by Karuna (Gulshan Devaiah), who is now in prison and obsessively searching for her.
It is never made entirely clear why he is so fixated on her, but he is, and we are expected to go along with it.
The film is essentially about Swarna trying to ensure that her past as Jhansi never collides with the carefully constructed life she is building in her in-laws’ home.
Strengths and Performances
Dammit!
I told myself I wasn’t going to write this as a review, but that’s exactly what it is becoming.
So before I explain why I think Maa Inti Bangaram is significant for present-day Telugu cinema (the reason why this piece exists), let me get in the stride of this not-a-review and mention what I genuinely liked about the film.
The light-hearted scenes work well, especially anything involving Swarna and Kiranmayi. Their bonhomie is genuinely sweet and spirited.
Swarna’s rivalry with the family’s existing ideal daughter-in-law, Anasuya (Sreemukhi), also has its moments.
The film picks up whenever Swarna becomes the protector of her family, first against her father-in-law’s political rivals and then against her own past when Karuna and his men come calling. The action scenes are deftly choreographed, particularly the forest fight, the car chase and the bus sequence.
Samantha owns the role like a queen, whether she is playing the coy daughter-in-law in the family scenes or dominating her opponents in combat.
Gulshan Devaiah is fantastic as the main antagonist. The sequence where he crashes the wedding and begins to toy with Swarna psychologically is among the film’s most riveting moments in an otherwise weaker second half.
Interestingly, their equation reminded me of another film released this year, The Bluff, where Priyanka Chopra and Karl Urban similarly lock horns.
Why Samantha’s Success Matters
So why is the success of Maa Inti Bangaram important for the Telugu film industry?
Earlier this year, just weeks before this film’s release, we had the high-profile entertainer Peddi, which found itself at the centre of a major controversy. The film was criticised for the perverse way it sexualised its leading lady, Janhvi Kapoor, and for justifying a scene where the hero molests the heroine in the dark in the name of ‘love’.
That controversy reflects the breaking point of what has been a persistent problem in Telugu cinema.
Despite producing some of the costliest films in Indian cinema, the industry still struggles to write compelling female leads in mainstream commercial entertainers.
Sure, there have been exceptions such as Anushka Shetty’s Devasena in Baahubali 2: The Conclusion and Ritu Varma’s Chitra in Pelli Choopulu, but more often than not, heroines remain flowerpots, shrews who need taming, or damsels in distress.
Even Samantha herself has played more than a few such roles in the past.
That is why films like Maa Inti Bangaram, last year’s The Girlfriend, or even Samantha’s earlier hit Oh! Baby matter.
I am not saying all these women-centric films are progressive masterpieces, but they do feel like baby steps for an industry that is still learning to see heroines as more than glamorous additions before the hero heads into his next fight sequence.
Films like Maa Inti Bangaram and Rudramadevi show that women can have just as much fun kicking ass as men.
The Girlfriend, meanwhile, serves as an interesting counterpoint to the blockbuster Arjun Reddy, which is ironic considering the former stars Rashmika Mandanna and the latter her real-life husband, Vijay Deverakonda.
A Step Forward For Telugu Cinema
What makes Maa Inti Bangaram‘s success even more heartening is that it is directed by a woman. B V Nandini Reddy is making herself quite the name in a male-dominated industry while having made notable films within the commercial space like Ala Modalaindi, Jabardasth and Oh! Baby.
The shortage of female filmmakers making mainstream commercial entertainers isn’t just a Telugu cinema problem, but an Indian cinema problem in general, even though directors like Farah Khan, Anjali Menon, Zoya Akhtar, Gauri Shinde and Sudha Kongara have repeatedly demonstrated that women can make commercially accessible films just as confidently as their male counterparts.
So yes, I may not be entirely satisfied with Maa Inti Bangaram as a film, and forgive my male perspective, I also don’t believe it is a truly women-empowering saga and I certainly can’t ignore its caste implications. But if Maa Inti Bangaram inspires other filmmakers to write the heroines as beyond objects of lust and bring down the misogyny being prevalent in commercial cinema, I will take its imperfect success.
Let’s remember that both the critics and fans were in sync in their criticism for Janhvi Kapoor’s objectification in Peddi, and earlier in Devara. Or the age-inappropriate pairings in films like Mr Bachchan, Mass Jathara, Ustaad Bhagat Singh, Daaku Maharaaj, among many, many others.
Audiences are growing mature, and what’s more, Telugu cinema itself is attracting unprecedented international attention thanks to a certain Mr Rajamouli.
Fingers crossed that Nandini Reddy and Samantha build on these baby steps to take giant strides towards bringing a more assured feminist voice into the industry.
And hopefully, the next time Samantha picks up an axe or throws a punch on screen, she won’t also have to prove she can make the perfect chicken curry before earning our applause. ‘Cos non-conformism is also empowering.
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff
