THE THINKING CAP - Inspiring Women series- II

Continuing on our series on 'Inspiring Women', The Thinking Cap presents a woman who’s been making hard-hitting films, despite all the odds.

This post is by Ullash Kumar, a Tribal Rights activist and Wildlife lover who is inspired by Nature. He is a freelance journalist who writes on Environment, Development and South Indian Cinema. He is also a documentary film maker who has worked with names like K P Sasi, Sarat Chandran, Suresh Heblikar and many others. He blogs on what he calls ‘a mixed Masala’ of topics here. 

LEENA- MY INSPIRATION, MY LIFE

I always knew Leena Manimekalai as a filmmaker. I had seen only one film of hers before seeing the preview of Sengadal. I never knew her in person. I never imagined even in my wildest dreams that I would become a friend of this firebrand lady who is full of life. She is everything. Leena is active in so many fields from poetry to theater to film making. She is determined to make a change in the lives of many.

As a filmmaker she touches upon subjects of deep sensitivity, a poet who writes without any hindrance about the truth within. She loves to address issues that are hardly touched by mainstream media or writers. She is a charged up activist who is on a mission of exposing the cruelties and injustices done to a large section of the powerless population.

Born in a family fully immersed in Left Politics she had a good understanding of politics at a very young age. Her grandfather and father were part of the ‘Communist Party of India’ and its cultural front ‘Kalai Ilakkiya Perumandram’. Leena grew up listening to passionate discussions and reading Gorky, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky among other authors. Tarkovesky’s films, a mixture of nostalgia and mirror work intrigued her, prompted her to explore the canvas of cinema.

She grew up in a atmosphere electrified with social change and activism. She was a young journalist and wrote in Childrens magazines like Gokulam and Poonthalir.

Her defining moment of her childhood came when she was thirteen years old. She won a painting contest conducted by the Young Pioneers Association and was selected as one of the three students to attend an International Camp in USSR. It changed her life. She always used to imagine what was the point of everything she learnt as a child. Leena went on to firmly entrench herself in the world of films, literature and activism.

Leena’s journey hasn’t been easy. She says, ‘every women’s life similar in someway'. Leena feels it is a man’s world. ‘Women are all made to feel guilty for no reasons though they are desperate to achieve something’, she adds. For example, her mother and other women in her family are educated but they are still confined to the kitchens. They don’t make it beyond that. All their knowledge is concentrated on marriage and raising a family.

Leena wished to write, create and travel. For Leena, Cinema is a brilliant form of literary expression. She is an activist by heart, through and through. She has principles of her own. She has created her own democratic space within a system. She gets exhausted fighting, but never loses hope, she is a fighter for life.

Leena writes to intervene, create a dialogue and she has clear thoughts and views about why she has to shock the senses. When women write about their body, it blasts the institutions like religions, caste, state and language itself that she sees as tools in the hands of chauvinistic powers.

I still remember the last scene from her film Sengadal where she beautifully presents the lives of a poor fishing community. You can see it in her eyes that she was touched by the lives of the people that she has showcased. I got up from the preview with tears in my eyes. I could see her loyalty to the cause she believed in. I was touched.

Today this very feature film ‘Sengadal’ has been denied censorship by the Censorboard. Fighting to get Censorship for ‘Sengadal’ and trying to get it into theatres is what is taking our energy these days.

It’s Leena’s dedication and multifaceted personality that inspires me everyday. I have decided to work and travel with her for the rest of her ventures if she decides to involve me. Hats off to a brilliant human being and a good friend.

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Team First Feather – Leena truly is an inspiration to budding women filmmakers out there. And she is an example of gunning for your dreams, no matter what! According to us, she’s put not just one but many, many feathers in her cap.

What about you the women who you think have already put that first feather in their caps?

Send your thoughts in around 500- 1000 words to firstfeather.consultants(@)gmail.com and we'll feature you on the blog!

The deadline for our Inspiring Women series – is March 21st. So make sure that your thoughts reach us by then!

Oh and also 35 of the best entries from the overall submissions to the blog on different topics will be selected and compiled into an e-book to be released in April 2012.

We can see you whipping out those thinking caps!