![]() ![]() Unfortunately, female leads in many Mahesh Babu films are insignificant to the plot. In the recent V (2020) starring Nani and Sudheer Babu, though Apoorva (Nivetha Thomas) is a crime novelist, she has no prominent role in the film. Rashmika Mandanna in Pushpa: The Rise (2021) & Sarileru Neekevvaru (2020)-her actions make absolutely no change to the plot making her a sexy lamp that’s here to please the male gaze. There are countless Telugu movies that effortlessly fails the Sexy Lamp test. They can be easily replaced by sexy (& warm) lamp, thereby failing the test. It makes us think about the female character’s relevance: is she significant to the plot or just eye candy? For example, Tamil movies, Sarkar (2018), Thupakkai (2012), Billa (2007), Doctor (2021), Sultan (2021), Anbarivu (2022), where the female leads didn’t have any role other than to comfort the male leads in times of distress. The test proposes that when a female character in a film can be replaced with a sexy lamp and the story still works, then the film fails the test. While films with strong female presence like Mandela (2021), O Kadhal Kanmani (2015), Gravity (2013), Arrival (2016), Marriage Story (2019) and even the latest Mouname Paarvaiyaai from the anthology Putham Pudhu Kaalai Vidiyaadhaa (2022) will fail the test because of the plot’s nature, proving that we need something more than the Bechdel Test.Īs film scholars understood the limitations of Bechdel Test: it does not dwell on female characters’ personalities/quality of their conversations it gave rise to parallel tests that offered a range of benchmarks to measure the representation of women/queer on and off the camera: from “Did a woman write or direct the film?” to “Did the crew have 50% women?” Since mentioning all the available tests of the West would be non-viable, I’ll mention a few that are suitable for Indian context. Eeswaran (2021), a film that had strong opinions against aborting an accidental pregnancy and an unnecessary revenge drama between two sisters (aka) female leads-also passes the test. Sathi Leelavathy (1995) a film that normalizes men’s act of infidelity and polygamy passes the best when Priya and Palani talk about shopping. For example, Padayappa (1999) passes this test because, when Vasundhara gives a saree to Neelambari and she says “Thank you.” Singaravelan (1992), a classic example for promoting stalking, passes the test when Sumathi and Thaiyamma have an exchange about night curfew. It is not a sign of ideal equal representation for women. Although this test is an excellent way to measure gender imbalance, it is merely a starting point. Their conversation can be about anything besides a manĪ film is said to have passed the Bechdel Test if the above three rules are satisfied.The film has at least two named female characters.It originated from Allison Bechdel’s comic strip “Dykes to Watch Out For” where two queer characters discuss seeing a film and one person explains that she only goes to a movie if it satisfies the following requirements: The Bechdel Test (1985), or Bechdel-Wallace Test is a criterion used to evaluate any work of fiction (film, novel, play) based on its representation of female characters. ![]()
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