A trailer has landed for Alankrita Shrivastava’s “Lipstick Under My Burkha,” and the film is not shying away from the controversies that have followed it. Instead, the marketing team for the feminist comedy is reveling in all of the headlines the film has caused. The spot for the Indian film kicks off with some choice press coverage about the scandals surrounding the ensemble project, including “India Censor Denies Release of ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’; Cites ‘Lady-Oriented Story.’”
The trailer deals very directly with the sexism the protagonists experience on a daily basis. “You’re the woman. Don’t try to wear the pants,” one character is told. Another is confronted by a man who tries to humiliate her for owning “dirty books” and “obscene clothes.” “Don’t you have any shame?” he yells. “You’re old as hell.”
Try as they might, the women have difficulty fulfilling their sexual appetites when they’re met with so much resistance from conservative social norms — and men intent on controlling them.
As the film’s synopsis reads, “Rehana is the titular burkha wearer who sings at open mics in defiance of her father’s warnings; Shirin is a superstar saleswoman, but must keep this triumph a secret from her faithless husband; Leela is trying to juggle a Muslim lover, a Hindu fiancé, and her dream career as a bridal consultant; and Auntie Usha secretly reads racy novels and lusts after her swimming instructor.” Two of the leads are Hindi and the other two are Muslim, but “all their stories come together” in the face of oppression.
Originally barred from screening in India because of its “sexual scenes, abusive words, [and] audio pornography,” “Lipstick Under My Burkha” centers on four very different women (Konkona Sensharma, Ratna Pathak Shah, Aahana Kumra, and Plabita Borthakur) establishing their own personal and sexual autonomy.
When the Censor Board deemed “Lipstick” inappropriate for theaters, Shrivastava — who also co-wrote the film — told us that the film’s “feminist pulse” is what caused offense. “The film explores the lives of women in a way that has perhaps not been done before in India,” she observed. “And confronting those stories and that perspective has somehow rattled [the Board]. The Censor Board, it seems, is more comfortable dealing with popular mainstream cinema. Cinema that is more often than not created through a male gaze, where women are objectified and play very peripheral roles. But more than anything the Board is not used to dealing with films where women want to have agency over their own bodies and their own desires.”
India’s Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) eventually overruled the Censor Board’s initial decision to block the film’s release. With some voluntary edits, it was determined that “Lipstick” will play in India under an “A,” or adults certificate, the equivalent to the MPAA’s NC-17 rating.
“Lipstick Under My Burkha” has screened at fests around the world and took home the Audience Award at the Glasgow Film Festival. It has also received the Oxfam Award for Best Film on Gender Equality at the Mumbai Film Festival and the Spirit of Asia Prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival. “Lipstick” hits theaters in India July 21. No word on a U.S. release date.
