Women get labelled, men don't: Meghna

new delhi: rewa (tabu) and sia (sushmita sen) are best of friends. so much so that when one learns she can't bear a child, the other offers to play surrogate mother. with dramatic consequences, as one can see in filhaal. the debut film of meghna gulzar, the latest addition to the minuscule numbers of women calling for 'action!', proves the rule that a filmmaker, if she's a woman, focuses only on her own kind.''i was taken by the story because of tremendous possibilities it offers in probing relationships — between man and woman as also between two women,'' explains meghna. while the drama in most films is provided by love or terminal disease, filhaal unspools around surrogate motherhood. ''it's true women director tend to have women as the protagonist. this is because of the ease with which they can identify with the central character,'' she says. a look at the ouevre of kalpana lajmi (daman, rudali), aparna sen (36 chowringhee lane, paroma, sati, paromitar ek din), hema malini (dil ashna hai), deepa mehta (fire, earth) and kavita lankesh (deviri) would confirm this. be they for english, hindi, bengali or kannada audiences, these directors have found strength in the predicament of aging widows and young daughters-in-law, single motherhood or moral courage of 'immoral' women. ''these are subjects which don't fit into the box office calculations of mainstream cinema,'' meghna points out. ''perhaps that is why we see so few women directors in the so-called commercial set up,'' she reasons. ''you also have meera nair (monsoon wedding, salaam bombay), sai paranjpye (katha, chasme buddoor, sparsh) and tanuja chandra (dushman, sangharsh), making films which have men holding the action together,'' kalpana lajmi points out. here too, the women are not cardboard cutouts. on the other hand, there are directors like mahesh manjrekar (astitva), bhandarkar (chandni bar), rajkumar santoshi (lajja, damini), rituparno ghosh (bariwali, dahan), amol palekar (kairee, daera), shyam benegal (zubeida, mammo, bhumika) and gulzar (aandhi, mausam, mere apne). ''men are equally taken up with women oriented subjects because it offers greater emotional depth and so many dimensions,'' adds the director who cut her teeth making documentaries on security agencies and domestic helps. ''but men don't get labelled, while women do.'' that's why meghna will ensure her next film is not woman-oriented. ''that will give me a chance to cast the hero first,'' she says, touching on the core reason for the dearth of women oriented mainstream films. ''in hindi films, while there are so many heroes whose name would sell a film, there's only one madhuri, rekha or raakhi, jaya, nutan or nargis who can carry off a film.'' meghna knows that. and she's not daunted. the daughter of raakhi and gulzar isn't afraid of rewa, sia or any other woman.