Women treated as property: Konkona Sen

National award-winning actress Konkona Sen Sharma says historically, regardless of class, religion and region, women always treated as property. In her forthcoming film ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’, she will be seen in a pivotal role.

The film had a tough time in getting its certification. Asked about the power of cinema, Konkona said "I believe that any good idea can change the world. Now all films are not meant to be thought provoking, but some of them are, surely."

"There are films that can generate powerful ideas, which can propel us to think differently. This film is one of such... that addresses women across religion and different age groups and their desire. So yes, I think this is an important film."

Konkona is playing a Muslim housewife, Shirin Aslam, who is deprived of basic freedom of choice of a woman in a patriarchal society. "Shirin is in 30s with three kids and not living a good married life. She has to wear the burkha every time she steps out of her house. She doesn't know much about feminism and patriarchal society like the way we know.

"But she is trying to find little loopholes within her limitation to achieve a little air of freedom that we, modern urban women, take for granted. The amount of ingenuity and enthusiasm that she has to put... to get that, breaks my heart."

She added: "Historically, regardless of class, religion and region, women are always treated as property. Today, for people like us, we are enjoying a lot of freedom but 100 years ago, it was not easy even for us.

"But strong minded women before our generation fought the struggle, they protested and there was a feminist movement that enabled us to lead our lives the way we want to, today."

The story of Alankrita Shrivastava directorial revolves around four women from different socio-cultural backgrounds belonging to different age groups and dealing with different sets of desire for their liberation.

According to Konkona, the best part of the film is that it captures different phases of women's lives. She said: "The question is how do we see women? When it comes to on screen, we hardly see any representation of elderly women ... say after their 30s. So does that mean we do not want to know about women once they cross their 30s, have children and husband?"

"This film addresses them all...it's so tabooed to talk about elderly women's sexuality, but why?" Therefore, the actress believes that after watching the film, the audience will get a wider perspective about women and "next time, the CBFC will not behave so stupidly".