Manisha Koirala and Sushmita Sen in the first Hindi female buddy movie, Paisa Vasool (2003).
The title of the film is taken from Bollywood filmi slang, "Paisa Vasool" which means "money's worth", or "every cent's worth", meaning the movie was worth every penny of the ticket. It is synonymous with masala entertainers where the movie goer demands an absolute bang for their buck, or in this case every paisa.
I just watched Srinivas Bhashyam's written and directed, Paisa Vasool the movie, and was absolutely entertained. The film was, smart, witty, hip, and unusual. Above all the film is a buddy movie, and what makes it so unique is it is a female buddy movie. Upon release, the film flopped in India and bombed in the overseas. Which lead me to wonder, is India ready for a woman's buddy movie? One where the two female leads are the heroes, initiate all the action, and save the day in the end? Is Bollywood ready for Manisha Koirala and Sushmita Sen as Heroes? Well apparently not. The film was also panned by the critics. In many ways this film reminded me of Priyadarshan classic screwball comedy, Hera Pheri (2000), and through out the film I thought how this film could easily have been an Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty starrer, and if it had been it may have been a hit with the audience? Yet here were portrayed two strong female leads, abet bumbling and at time silly, which is a formula for the screwball buddy film. Together they concoct an outlandish plan to blackmail some gangsters out a large sum of money in order to save their house and the events around this friendship and blackmail plot make up the basis of the film.
There have been a number of films made on this type of story line, but I can't say it has ever been done before in an Indian film with woman playing the leads. And I think that for this, and this reason in itself the film should be watched and seen. Because Paisa Vasool is an masala action comedy made with a woman gaze and should be appreciated in that light. The action, suspense,and violence of Paisa Vasool, had a delicate "woman's touch", from the opening robbery which reminds one of a purse snatching, to the final bloody showdown which has the feel of a mice scared girl swatting a rodent with a broom. Sound absurd for a Bollywood action movie? Well it all came off as highly entertaining, smart, and witty to me.
Manisha Koirala and her feminist crusade
Manisha Koirala was one of the producers of Paisa Vasool, in the past few years she has ventured away from the traditional Bollywood masala fare to explore different avenues of the female centered film as it is expressed in Hindi Popular films. Her last six films have all been fairly unusual and controversial roles, from the scandal ridden Ek Chhoti si Love Story (2002), the sensational, Escape from Taliban (2003) to the female revenge drama, Market (2003) followed by the female hero buddy movie Paisa Vasool, the film we have been talking about here. My personal take is that Manisha Koirala is on a feminist crusade of sorts, one that the Indian movie watching public is just not ready for... yet. It is interesting to note that all of the above mentioned films have been panned by the critics and were all major box office flops. They are all interesting films though, with Market in particular entertaining and compelling to watch. They remind of the fine and unusual films of the 1970s where an unusual social theme interwoven with a filmi formula of say 'revenge drama' could carry the plot of an Amitabh or Dharmendra starrer.
Yet these films are about woman, starring woman, made for the most part with a woman's gaze. (save for Ek Chhoti si Love Story which was made with a dirty old man's gaze. Manisha did go into the film with the idea that it would be filmed from the woman's point of view and not from a voyeuristic man's vision which is how it turned out.) Not only do these recent films made by Manisha have contemporary female themes, but they are also being made form the female point of view. I feel that this concept has been totally overlooked by the wholly male Hindi film critics who have reviewed these films. Sure the action and suspense of Paisa Vasool and Escape From Taliban is different from most Bollywood films, but that's the point. It has been in an way, 'feminized'. It is softer, more situation oriented, personalized yet very Bollywood all the same. This may not make sense at all, all this talk of "the female gaze", but its appropriate all the same. In this day and age where the audience is screaming out for new types of Bollywood films, yet are very cemented to the usual fare and so resistant to change, where do we go from here? Manisha is searching (if at yet not wholly successful) for some answers. Her and my challenge to you is, are you?
