BOMBAY TIMES (April 26, 2018)

Sudhir Mishra finds women, who are afraid of defying conventions and breaking stereotypes, boring. Which is why, you will never find such characters in his films. On the contrary, the women in Mishra’s films are as aggressive as the men, if not more. With his latest feature, Daas Dev, which offers a contemporary and political twist on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Devdas, he presents Paro and Chandramukhi in an all-new light. They come with more than 50 shades of grey.

Mishra says, “When a woman stands on her own, when she stands up for herself or when she becomes a little competitive or aggressive she’s instantly labelled bad. Bad is used as a cliché. The film industry works with these tropes.” The feisty women in his film are hungry for power and cannot be tamed. “The women of Daas Dev are badass,” he says. The maverick filmmaker presents his views on the two complex and layered women who make the word ‘bad’ seem all too cool.

‘PARO IS NEITHER COY NOR HELPLESS’
Paro for me is not the Paro of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novel. So I apologise for not allowing her to be trapped behind a big gate inside her husband’s house. My Paro is a modern, spunky, interesting woman who fights with the weapons she has and in the end confronts Dev. Paro hails from a family which is associated with Dev’s family in the political arena, but lower in rank. The young couple gets embroiled in the dynastic ambitions of their family and in this situation Paro rises to the occasion.

Paro is neither coy nor helpless. She knows her mind better than her heart. This makes her vulnerable and she is almost not aware of it. This is also what makes Paro of Daas Dev so endearing. You almost want to hold her and tell her that it will all be fine.

‘CHANDNI STRADDLES BETWEEN POWER AND LONGING’
Some might call Chandni a woman with questionable ethics, but in my version she is as close to Chandramukhi as she can get in this day and age. A money handler, fixer, manipulator, she is the one who services the political forces of our time. However, she has the essence of Chandramukhi and also the same blind spot, the same fatal flaw — her love for Dev. However, this does not prevent her from looking out for her own interests while confronting Dev’s weaknesses and aiding him to rise above himself.

The ease with which Chandni straddles between power politics and longing for Dev is magic. She is like the light at the end of the dark tunnel which Dev could have.