Rishab Shetty on Women: Rishab Shetty’s Kantara, unleashed in 2022, went on to very much create buzz not only in terms of box office collections. But also carved its stone in the pages of Indian cinema history. It stands in the second position in terms of earnings as a Kannada film after KGF: Chapter 2. It saw runaway rave reviews, and won two coveted National Awards: Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment and Best Actor for Shetty himself. Likewise, the payoffs counted in its laurels managed to come attached with a long thread of criticism concerning its representation of women that sparked hot debates among viewers and critics alike.
While the female characters were sidelined, particularly that of Sapthami Gowda, they were coupled off with passive or objectified roles. Furthermore, Shiva displaying aggressive and often unacceptable behavior towards his love interests triggered the conversation surrounding misogyny in mainstream movies. In a nutshell, critics found that Kantara came across as a male story and, at that, very little accommodation was left for women.
These concerns have reached Rishab Shetty after the release of Kantara Chapter 1. In an exclusive chat, he deflected the view that Kantara is a man’s world. He elaborated that, being a joint energy within the narrative, the character played by Manasi Sudhir, who was cast as Shiva’s mother, remains quite vital to the spiritual and emotional core of the film itself.
He highlighted the centerpiece of the climax, wherein Shiva performs the divine dance ritual. “The daiva nartak could perform the ritual only after taking blessings from his mother,” Shetty said, emphasizing how elemental female strength and energy are to the story.
For Shetty, the portrayal of women through screen time in Kantara is not what is at stake. He equates the divine energy role against that of mother, defining her as an expression in super strength, which he argues blocks women from being on the fringe as far as the film’s spiritual message is concerned.
However, representation debates in cinema will always go on. But Rishab Shetty’s explanations provides a reflection of how he sees Kantara. By placing women in the same footing with divinity and power. One hopes to get audiences to see them as a crucial part of the essence of the film.
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