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Vani Tripathi
A woman at war
It’s a great feeling to see more and more young women taking
to writing. It gladdens the heart to know that they are writing
just the kind of writing we need in these dark and dismal times.
In the good old days we had just one  formidable
female film writer like Ismat Chugtai. She was much better, even
stronger than some of the male writers who wrote during those times.
But she was a woman after all and the male chauvinistic pigs among
writers tried their worst to see that Ismat Chugtai had no followers,
women writers who could challenge the men when it came to bold,
courageous and committed writing. It was shocking to see no women
film writer coming up for years. To think of it there was no talk
of any major female film writer making any kind of a name as a writer
. . . . .
Only of late, however, we have come up with some women who can write
and write quite well. They were encouraged by the men who were once
packed with complexes when women writers picked up their sharp pens.
Among the female writers who have recently made an impact are writers
like Shama Zaidi, Dr. Achla Nagar, Honey Irani, Kamna Chandra and
her young daughter Tanuja Chandra, (who is also a director) are
trying their best to beat the men at what the men once believed
was their own bastion, their battle-ground on which they fought
and failed most of the times shamelessly but continued fighting
hopeless wars (writing senseless films) but still not many women
picked up their pens to do what they could but did have the enthusiasm
or excitement to do what they could really do.
And now I can suddenly see a whole lot of young women writers up
in arms, ready to take a any challenge as writers and come up trumps.
These new girls I see are young, they are extremely talented, some
who were born talented and others who have mastered the art of writing
in the various courses and colleges of communication, where, thankfully,
they have now started taking interest in promoting cinema more than
the other arts. These girls with all the talent in them are being
taken seriously all over and if this trend continues I am sure we
will soon have a whole lot of young women writers who will do great
good to Hindi cinema. All these girls need are the opportunities
and all the girls need is to grab whatever opportunity comes in
their way. Let me introduce one of the most talented female all-rounders
I have been meeting in recent times, an actress in theatre, television
and cinema and now coming up for alai... as a major writer, coming
up with subjects that have rarely been touched, subjects that have
been considered as threats when they are treated by today’s
women.
Vani left her parents behind in Delhi because she believed the real
place to make it in was Mumbai, "the sapnon ka shahr".
She was determined to face the world on her own terms. She kept
meeting talented people on the strength of her merit as an actress
and gradually made them aware of her multi-faceted talent, which
now includes writing, meaningful, motivated writing.
She decided to take to writing seriously. She tried several kinds
of ideas, most of them ideas which were daring, dynamic and aimed
for the future. She had the confidence to believe in herself and
she proved it by trying her hand at writing stories, screenplays
and specially dialogue and before she could think of anything about
the future she already found her first serious break to write the
dialogue of a film called "Suksham" with Om Puri in the
title role. Life has changed for Vani after she started work on
"Suksham". It is a very different subject and Vani says
it is different because there is no other appropriate word to describe
what she wants to mean by the word different. " I can’t
tell you much about the film but I must say that if I am very proud
about the film it is because of the dialogue I have written in it.
It has been, like I said, a very difficult challenge and I believe
I have made it successfully. The final shape the film has taken
has given me the kind of satisfaction I have not received in all
the countless plays I have done both in Hindi and English and even
some of the major serials and films I have done. Writing is life
I have realised and working hard can bring in more and more talent
from within in the case of a writer. I would be a very happy young
woman if many more women joined me and took up writing as a very
serious profession. It is, I feel one profession which has been
neglected by most of our women which is very sad I have a very strong
feeling that women can make much better writers than men provided
they decide to work hard. They have all the qualities in them I’am
certain. All they need is a little encouragement. And once they
make use of the encouragement , the inspirations, I am sure all
those who crib about bad writing in Hindi films will keep their
mouths shut till the women themselves give them a chance to prove
otherwise.
PS: There is no reason to give up hope, Vani. My daughter, Swati,
has written three major scripts at the age of sixteen and has not
shown them to me. She showed them to Anupam Kher and Anupam asked
me to leave Swati with him since he wanted to have a talk with her
and didn’t want me to interfere . The result was that Swati
came out smiling with Anupam following her and telling me that he
had kept all her three scripts with him because they were "nothing
but the works of a genius". He asked her when she would be
ready to join his company as an assistant and Swati today is known
as one of the more enlightened assistants and writing assistants
in Anupam’s company (Anupam’s judgement). Soon there will
be many more Swatis to come I am sure.
Ali Peter John
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