In Sherna Dastur바카라s documentary Manjuben, Truck Driver (2002), the protagonist Manjuben is a picture of hard work, self-sufficiency and a strong drive to be rich so she can call the shots in her professional relations with men. Manjuben says that she had once owned as many as eight heavy-duty, long-distance trucks, which carried several types of cargo from Musa or Vadodara in Gujarat to Delhi and other destinations in north India. She would drive her truck in the day and at night for long stretches, accompanied by an experienced, elderly man who would take over when she needed to take a nap. She says she has, of her own choice, reduced the scope of her business, currently content with just one truck that needs to be repaired once in a while. In the film, the way she gives orders to male mechanics to attend to the vehicle before she heads to a nearby salon to get a face massage speaks volumes about how she has decided to assert her rights to an unconventional, independent existence in a patriarchal society that shows little or no signs of change.
Manjuben wears 바카라men바카라s clothes바카라바카라a loose-fitting, full-sleeved bush-shirt, comfortable trousers and leather chappals. She sports a tilak on her forehead, her hair is cropped short and she wears a kara in the manner that many Sikh truck drivers do. She consumes gutka with a flourish. When she stops at wayside dhabas for tea and snacks, she is quite at ease with the men she comes across there. Much of the 바카라action바카라 in the film takes place on the highway, which is understandable since the film traces the trajectory of a unique truck-owner-cum-driver. Shot largely in the cinema verite style, crammed with details바카라both verbal and visual바카라the National Institute of Design-trained Dastur바카라s road movie is as much about a lone woman바카라s struggle to succeed in a man바카라s world as it is about a society in, arguably, slow transition. It is being forced to come to terms with a strong individual who couldn바카라t care less about her 바카라rebellious바카라 looks, clothes, language and mannerisms바카라in short, her entire persona.
Manjuben바카라s looks are androgynous. She takes care to look that way and she enjoys that particular look; showing her contempt for a lascivious male-dominated society. Her spare time is spent with her girlfriends, the different 바카라bens바카라, with whom she goes out on long drives and gets herself photographed at small studios. She tells the camera that she was in her teens when she was married off against her wishes. Although she filed for a divorce and got it soon, she remains respectful to her family elders, and to her gods on whose goodwill she has to depend for her safety on the road. Accidents can happen any time and the roads she drives are often littered with the remains of trucks that had met with one. Manjuben is both serious and jokey when she declares herself to be 바카라half-man, half-woman바카라. There is a homoerotic edge to her life and her lifestyle which Dastur, quite insightfully, does not enter. Yet, she leaves a space for the viewer to explore it. This space is created by using a couple of snapshots showing Manujuben with her 바카라intimate friends바카라.
Manjuben is a priceless piece of subversion that the 바카라manly바카라 world of Gujarat (read India) is badly in need of, perhaps more today than at any other point of time. Hers is a personal story that couldn바카라t have been more public. Through the style, the form, the aesthetics and the hidden politics that the film explores, the director places the story of a woman who shatters stereotypes centre stage. She is self-employed and answerable to no one but herself.
Dastur바카라s film can be read as a sharp retort to the stranglehold of medieval orthodoxy on present-day 바카라Bharat바카라. It is a powerful anti-thesis to the manner in which the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) would like the 바카라virtuous바카라 Bharatiya nari to conduct herself바카라as a person willingly submitting herself to her god-like husband (pati-devata), within the strict confines of the home; overjoyed to be the bearer of many sons and a daughter or two; and devoted keeper of the domestic front.
Who can tell if Manjuben is in the habit of voting saffron, but even if she does, it can be said that, unwittingly, she is a naysayer to the regressive politics that claims 바카라below the navel, all women are unclean바카라. Manu the sage would have certainly come down heavily on this feisty citizen of Gujarat, caught for the past several decades in the grip of frenzied hostility to Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis, the poor and the homeless, and in the context of Dastur바카라s film, to any woman with a mind of her own. Viewers do not have to strain themselves or be remarkably acute to realise that Dastur is a craftswoman of conviction. Her film is a believable portrait of a 바카라highway woman바카라, constantly on the move, tirelessly working to build a bank account and thereby an identity all her own. Cruel as it may sound, a woman (wherever she happens to live), without an income of her own, is destined to remain a dependent.
Viewers who are impressed by Manjuben, Truck Driver (2002) in its totality cannot be blamed if they feel that Dastur has created a somewhat 바카라safe portrait바카라 of a unique woman, professionally speaking. Practically every person in the film appears to be somewhat in awe of Manjuben. It would have contributed to the richness and density of Manjuben바카라s story if at least one or two critical voices had been included. Surely the kind of life Manjuben leads, at both the personal and the public level, is bound to arouse dislike, jealousy, or even contempt in some women; and in many men, fear. The inclusion of contrarian voices would have added meat to the argument that what our society needs is more, not less, daredevil characters like Manjuben. Only then can it evolve into a more wholesome entity. At the end of the day, it is difficult to believe that everything is hunky-dory in Manjuben바카라s life. Glimpses of bumps on the road would have added more layers of meaning to her precarious daily journey. One is not referring so much to the physical dangers, but the possibilities of emotional distress born of long-held prejudices about a woman바카라s role in society, or about the nature of female sexuality, as hinted in the film.
(Views expressed are personal)
Vidyarthy Chatterjee is a Kolkata-based writer and critic on cinema, society & politics.
This article is a part of Outlook's March 11, 2025 Women's Day special issue 'Women at Work', which explores the experiences of women in roles traditionally occupied by men. It appeared in print as 'Fast & Furious바카라.
