Narrative of movies need to change in favour of women, says actor Parvathy

Narrative of movies need to change in favor of women to draw the fairer sex to theatres, actor Parvathy said.

Speaking at an open house organised as part of the ongoing IFFK here, the Qarib Qarib Single star said women have to be financially independent first and the narrative of movies should change in their favour to ensure that more female audience come to theatres.'Women in Cinema,' the subject at the open forum, brought new perspectives on the role of women in the 90-year-long history of Malayalam Cinema.

Sharing her traumatic personal experience, Parvathy said she was engaged in an abusive relationship in her younger days even after she was physically hurt because of the wrong perception of relationships she had from Malayalam films of that time."We grew up watching the hero, who receives applause in the theatres when he slaps a woman on screen.. There aren't many movies which explores the sexuality of women in Malayalam Cinema till now.. It is through books that I gained the right perspective," she said.

The actor, who won the Golden Peacock award at the IFFI 2017 for her performance in Malayalam film 'Take Off' on the struggles of Kerala nurses in war torn Iraq also added that our film industry was a 'failure' in depicting characters without emphasising their gender.The forum also discussed the recent sexual attack on a prominent malayalam actress and the formation of Mollywood's first women's collective.

The panelists were actress Parvathi and Rima Kallingal, cinematographers Fowzia Fatima and Maheen, Directors Vidhu Vincent, Geethu Mohandas, and Suma Jose and film critic Deedi Damodaran.Cinematographer Maheen Mirza felt the grammar of current cinema was "extremely misogynistic," but its language was slowly changing.Director-Actor Geethu Mohandas said she had the privilege of working with some male directors who consider everyone as equal.

The formation of Women's Collective in Cinema (WCC) happened at a time of extreme need.A few of us came together the next day after we heard about the tragic experience one of us had to go through.Cinematographer Fowziya Fatima shared her bitter experience in shooting item numbers for movies.She said showing nudity on screen is ok if it is aesthetically needed, but women shouldn't be just flesh-oriented performers.