Imagine a guy telling a story about the problems women face.
Do you think he will do justice to the story? Will he be able to convey to the audience how women sometimes talk with their eyes when they feel uncomfortable? How they ask each other to check their stains during periods? How they slightly adjust their scarves when someone’s look makes them uncomfortable?
Women can tell them how they feel, but it is a challenge to show it on screen, in subtle glances and raised eyebrows.
This is exactly where Lijin Jose’s ‘Her’ fell short.
Her is the tale of five women on their unique journeys. It talks about empowerment and explores love, complex relationships, and sexual desires.
While the concept of the film is out of the box and a first for the Malayalam film industry, it fell short because of its lack of female outlook. It felt as though it was being told from a different perspective, not from a woman’s perspective.
The film casts five powerful women from the Malayalam film industry, and the film works only because of their brilliant performances.
The storytelling didn’t do justice to the story.
Her had the potential to do better with a female director who could have captured the female gaze perfectly. Stories of women are better told by women who have lived those tales in reality.
The reason a lot of female stories seem unreal is because there is a male behind the camera or the pen who writes about them. Women shown from a man’s perspective are different from those shown from a woman’s.
Women need to come out and tell their stories, own their stories and only then can there be justice done to female characters on the screen.