Paroma( Bengali) and Stri (Telugu)

Paroma released in 1985 and Stri released in 1995. Paroma is a Bengali movie and Stri is a Telugu movie. Both movies won the national award for best feature film in their respective language. Paroma portrays the story of Paroma, a docile married Bengali woman whose world is confined to the house she was married into and her work is to keep the house going. Everything she does is in sync with everyone's routine because she's the one looking after the people in the house so that they keep doing what they're supposed to do. Her life takes a turn when she falls in love with a much younger man named Rahul. This docile housewife gets involved in an extra marital affair which overturns the routine she followed for so long. It also takes her on a journey of self discovery which results in her wanting to work outside of home and earn her own money.

Stri, on the other hand,  is the story of Rangi. She's not married. She doesn't have children and an ailing mother-in-law to look after. She doesn't belong to the 'respectable' middle class whose honour she has to protect. She doesn't have a car waiting for her at the door to take her wherever she likes to go. She is a poor wretched woman who does boat journeys to travel across the Godavari. She's self-reliant in the sense that she feeds herself by earning her own money. And, she also feeds the man she calls 'my man'. This man is a toxic manipulator and a thief. He once set fire to the hut Rangi was sleeping in after a fight with Rangi. But Rangi forgave him for that. She says that she loves him. That he's just like a child and she feels protective of him. Later, the viewer comes to know that this was also the man who raped her. It was after the rape that she started calling him her man and lived with him thereafter. This man has liaisons with other women but Rangi is okay with it  because he comes back to her. It's apparent that he comes back to her only because she is manipulated easily but Rangi fails to see this. 

Stri is visually richer than Paroma.The shots of the Godavari and boats ferrying passengers and night scenes when Rangi and everyone else are on the boat are picturesque. The movie looks beautiful. But it surely  doesn't feel beautiful. In Paroma, Paroma has been liberated. She tells the doctor, who asks her to join therapy to get out of the guilt she must be feeling, that she is not feeling any guilt. She shocks everyone because she has stopped conforming to the standards of a good housewife. She isn't even waiting for her lover Rahul. She's free. She just wants to get a job. In Stri, Rangi doesn't even acknowledge the harm done to her. She's even ready to bear the punishment that the writer on the boat warns her of. The movie ends and we don't know what happens to the dreamy her.

When I compare these women, I am not judging the women and their choices. My focus moves to the visions of the directors. A woman director, Aparna Sen, shows the story of a woman who finds her true self at the end. On the other hand, two men show us the story of a woman who sacrifices everything she has for the man she 'loves' even when she's not married to him; the fact that she's not married to him has been highlighted in the movie. They choose to call this movie Stri, not Rangi. If Paroma's story is named Paroma, why is Rangi's story named Stri? Why did these men try attributing the characteristics that Rangi possesses to her womanhood?  This question itself is an explanation to how I felt after watching this movie.