A Women’s Day for Malayalam cinema

Vidhu first woman to win top honour

March 07, 2017 08:02 pm | Updated March 08, 2017 09:22 am IST - KOZHIKODE

30tvmp vidhu vincent

30tvmp vidhu vincent

If you visit the set of a Malayalam film, you would find very few women there: almost all the directors, cinematographers and their assistants would be men. A woman’s job in our cinema, you might feel, is just to look pretty and act.

Yes, an Anjali Menon has directed one of the biggest money-spinners in Malayalam cinema of recent time ( Bangalore Days ) and a Sreebala K. Menon got superstar like Dileep to star in her maiden film Love 24 x 7 , but they are the exceptions. The fact is there are too few women in our films.

In such a scenario, what Vidhu Vincent achieved on Tuesday is remarkable. She won the State Film Award for the Best Director and her directorial debut Manhole claiming the honour for the best film. It is for the first time in the history of the State Film Awards, which dates back to 1969, that a woman has been chosen as the best director.

Quite fittingly, the awards were announced on the eve of International Women’s Day. “I felt I probably had a chance for winning the State Award – for the best debutant director; I never imagined that I would get this honour,” Vidhu told The Hindu here on Tuesday. “If this award encourages more women to work behind the camera in Malayalam cinema, I would be happy.”

Difficult for women

She said it was difficult for women to find work in Malayalam cinema as a technician. “Ours is a deeply patriarchal society and cinema is no exception,” she said. Manhole had also fetched Vidhu the FIPRESCI award for the best Malayalam film at the International Film Festival of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram three months ago.

“I have been a regular viewer at the IFFK for the last two decades,” said the journalist-turned-director. “It is watching all those great international films I watched there that I learnt about cinema. But I feel the best recognition for Manhole came at the State Budget when Finance Minister Thomas Isaac referred to it and allocated ₹10 crore for the automation of manual scavenging.”

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