A few good women

Illustration/Uday Mohite

Set in the jungles of Madhya Pradesh, Sherni (Tigress) by Amit Masurkar is a strong, feminist thriller that observes the destructive impact of toxic masculinity in the environment versus development debate. Patriarchy suppresses women per se, but if a woman does a good job, it shows up the bad/useless/insecure guys for what they are, so she will have hell to pay. We see this everywhere. The film dropped on Amazon Prime Video on Friday.

Vidya Balan is a Bollywood game changer as Vidya Vincent, a committed Divisional Forest Officer posted in Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh, committed to saving both tigers and humans in the man-versus-tiger conflict zones. She is overlooked and elbowed out by various macho, corrupt and cowardly men in different positions of power - her cowardly boss Bansal (Brijendra Kala), the macho tiger killer Pintu Bhaiya (Sharat Saxena), her suave forest officer superior, the political goons. Sherni goes further from where Masurkar's Newton, also set in central Indian jungles at election time, left off. It features two shernis: Balan herself is a sherni, trying to save the four-legged sherni. Both shernis go about their work silently, avoid showdowns, and rarely need to roar, yet their very nature puts them in danger of losing the battle. We see the quiet majesty of both. Most of the men, whose jobs are primarily to save the tiger, quickly do the opposite: kill the tiger, here T12, at the behest of political goons at election time, after the tiger kills humans. The woman is the nurturer, taking the long term view, keen to save the lives of both tigers and humans. Both shernis become targets of toxic patriarchy.

Masurkar - and screenplay writer Aastha Tiku in a marvellous debut - daringly break the Bollywood template on multiple counts. It is rare in Bollywood to have a strong woman-oriented story, where the film is driven by her viewpoint. Second, Balan doesn't care how she looks; she is busy resolving larger conflicts concerning man and nature and the planet, rather than romancing some twerp with biceps attached. Third, when did you last see a Malayali woman as the heroine of a Hindi film? Fourth, the film is set in a cosmopolitan, secular, feminist space, as the Malayali Vincent is married to the apparently north Indian Pawan, and it flips the tradition of the woman following her man on his job transfers: Vincent is posted in the jungle and her husband persuades her to keep her job. Lastly, it is no accident that the only local man who is determined to save the tiger, a scientifically-oriented college professor, is a Muslim, Hassan Noorani (Vijay Raaz, brilliant). All of these lift the film into a realm beyond Bollywood. 'Spoiler alert: there is a powerful metaphor towards the climax, when Vincent sits, bowed but unbeaten, at the edge of the massive copper mine crater, that the tiger cubs are unable to cross to reach the national park. It is also a crater in her life and career that she is unable to cross, when she is shunted to a distant, low key posting. 'Spoiler ends.

Masurkar's direction is assured when addressing complex material involving multiple issues. Balan is terrific as an officer who understands she can only fight patriarchy by quietly doing her job as best as she can. The ensemble cast is superb, including Kala, Saxena, Raaz, Neeraj Kabi, Sampa Mandal as Jyoti, a feisty indigenous woman panchayat member who backs Vincent, and non-actors. Tiku's screenplay is richly textured with research - including details of camera traps, watering holes, tiger feeding patterns, and the inner workings of bureaucracy, and also delightful, as when Vincent asks for whisky when offered kala khatta. The climax is something of a let-down: but that's how real life is. Rakesh Haridas' cinematography, Anish John's sound design and music by Benedict Taylor and Naren Chandavarkar, strongly evoke both the beauty and dangers of the jungle, and there's a superb song Bandar Baant, with music by the Bandish Projekt and lyrics by Hussain Haidry. Dipika Kalra's editing could have been tighter, as similar conflicts are repeated. The film is produced by T-Series, Abundantia Entertainment and Masurkar. The women crew includes screenplay writer Tiku, editor Kalra, production designer Devika Dave and co-producer Shikhaa Sharma. Bravo, Masurkar!

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist. Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com