DC To Maa Inti Bangaaram: Why You Don't Need An 'Alpha Woman' To Win At Box Office

As the world gears up for the Kannada-English bilingual Toxic, by far the most expensive Indian movie ever directed by a woman, the question is: what did the Rs 25-crore Telugu-language actioner Maa Inti Bangaaram do that the 100-crore female-led spy thriller Alpha couldn't?

What, one might ask, is the connection between the Samantha Ruth Prabhu-fronted Maa Inti Bangaaram and the Yash-driven Toxic? For one, the former, like the latter, has been helmed by a woman, BV Nandini Reddy.

Will the upcoming gangster saga, avowedly A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups, seek to flip the gender balance of the action genre like Maa Inti Bangaaram did?

Highly unlikely. When you have a humongous budget riding on a movie produced by and starring a male superstar, the chances of the director being allowed the liberty to play around with the rules are minimal.

What Geetu Mohandas has done is unprecedented. She has graduated from the micro-budget Liar's Dice to a Rs 1,000-crore tentpole, a leap that few filmmakers in the history of Indian cinema have made. Expecting anything beyond that from the movie would be a bit much.

The cast of Toxic has Nayanthara, Kiara Advani, Huma Qureshi, Rukmini Vasanth and Tara Sutaria. Would it indeed be too much to expect at least one of them, if not more, to get a piece of the action?

Several Southern actresses have done just that in recent months with significant success in relatively more modest films. That stands in sharp contrast to the fate that befell Alia Bhatt and Sharvari in the seventh YRF spy universe entry, Alpha.

The Bollywood dud, released on July 3, put paid to any plans that the production banner might have had of giving their female super soldier-protagonist a longer run under the sun.

The story has been markedly different for at least three South films (other than Maa Inti Bangaaram) released within a month before or after Alpha - Blast and DC: The Bloody Valentine (both Tamil) and Thudakkam (Malayalam).

These thoroughly entertaining action films centred on badass women who, when the chips are down, go hell for leather kept the cash registers busy and gave the usually male-dominated southern movie industries reason for a reset. What they have shown is that you do not have to be an Alpha woman to have your way.

In addition to it being a predictable spy movie knock-off, the primary problem with YRF's Alpha was that it could not shake off Hindi cinema's obsession with the Line of Control and Pakistan. It was about a childhood stolen, a family torn apart and a sister lost and found, but it could not steer clear of a dull Bollywood template.

The films from the south faced no such peril. They couched simple social messaging and family-centric stories in uncluttered plots that swivelled around a good-versus-evil pivot sans any agenda. They located their action in the realities of the world of ordinary people.

DC: The Bloody Valentine, director Arun Matheswaran's fourth film and filmmaker Lokesh Kanagaraj's acting debut, is a dazzling piece of cinema. It reimagines Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's Devdas as a stylised, high-octane gangster movie in which the male protagonist is matched move for move, and step for step, by an action avatar of Chandramukhi, played by Wamiqa Gabbi.

The film has another star that propels it forward - the background score by Anirudh Ravichander. It is out of this world. So is the way the director mounts the action sequences with which the music is enmeshed.

What defines DC more than anything else is the battered but sassy character of Chandra, one half of the film's abbreviated title. She is a victim of serial abuse in a brothel where she is trapped for many years. But once she breaks free, she quickly takes wings.

In one sequence, the police capture and torture Devadas. His gang members advise caution and self-preservation. Chandra puts her foot down. I am not leaving without Das, she says and barges into the police station and rescues the captive.

Have we ever seen a heroine save the hero quite in this manner in an Indian film? Chandra, a woman who strikes back, is a sari-clad action star. She is her own beast. She does not mimic the men.

That is precisely what the female protagonist of Maa Inti Bangaaram - a trained assassin draped in six yards of silk - is. The lady, all demure and clueless to begin with, does all she can to fit into a traditional joint family that has congregated for a wedding.

Samantha Ruth Prabhu's Swarna, a woman with a double life, takes it upon herself to protect her doctor-husband's family when her past catches up with her and threatens to destroy her new life.

She can handle guns like a pro but Swarna's weapons of choice are skimmers and ladles that come in handy when quick action is the need of the hour.

Between faking her culinary skills with the help of an old friend from her orphanage days and trying to match a skilled-at-household-chores sister-in-law, the lady has much to deal with outside her home.

Maa Inti Bangaaram amassed Rs 125 crore. It is easy to see why. It is a thrilling ride peppered with humour. It encourages the audience to willingly suspend disbelief while going along with the consistently relatable flow of the story of an irrepressible woman.

Blast, released in the last week of May, also found takers for its no-holds-barred take on a karate coach, his wife and his combative daughter (both of whom are just as skilled as the man at hand-to-hand combat).

The family is drawn into an all-out war with a ruthless corporate syndicate that wants to flatten a tribal village and mine for black opal in a pristine forest. Starring Arjun Sarja, Abhirami and Preity Mukundhan and directed by debutant Subash K Raj, the Tamil film pulls out the stops as it underscores corporate crime and its nexus with politicians and the underworld.

The protagonists of Blast are middle-class folks. Pushed to the wall, they hit back with all their might, the collective weight of which is considerable and fuels an action-packed, faced-paced spectacle.

Star daughter Vismaya Mohanlal's launch vehicle, Thudakkam, is undermined a tad by its bland plot and a female lead who isn't a finished article. But she makes up for it with her exceptional martial arts chops.

The Jude Anthany Joseph-directed movie is set in a man's world in which a predatory stalker - he delivers only one line in the entire film - unleashes silent terror.

Vismaya plays Meenu, daughter of a wheelchair-using village officer. She goes missing. The film addresses the lack of safety for women in a land where girls are conditioned to cower and seek cover while boys get away with the worst forms of boorishness.

A secret skill that the heroine possesses makes her more than a match for the bad guy when push comes to shove. She gives as good as she gets. Though not a blockbuster, Thudakkam has broken even in its second week and is well on its way to being a minor hit.

Also Read | DC Review: Lokesh Kanagaraj And Anirudh Power A Stylishly Reimagined Devdas Gangster Drama