Devasena : The Warrior Princess

We have all seen and loved Bahubali, The Beginning, and Bahubali, The Conclusion. It was a gargantuan project and the director, and the entire team is to be lauded for their dedication, their hard work and the near-perfection they achieved which is a first for Indian Cinema.  (Sorry I say near-perfection because I am obsessed with perfection, which is sometimes not a nice thing because I myself am so imperfect). What is even greater is that it was achieved by a regional film industry and not Bollywood, which is supposedly the biggest film industry in India. And I always feel proud to tell people that I am from that region where Bahubali was originally created, the Telugu speaking states.

Apart from the amazing performances from all its actors, their costumes, the way all the actors looked, the laudable VFX and compelling story-telling and screenplay, Bahubali was also admired for its strong female characters. Sivagami, the queen regent, ruled the kingdom of Mahishmati single-handedly with her righteousness. She was known for her excellent decision-making skills and was loved, trusted and respected by her people and subjects equally. This strong character has also got her origin story in the form of ‘The Rise of Sivagami’ which is the first part of a series of books called ‘Bahubali: Before the Beginning’ by Anand Neelakantan. (Off point, here’s what I thought of the book, it was my review on Goodreads –

The plot's all over the place. Would have been better if the author hadn't tried to pull a GRRM. I found many equivalents of ASOIAF characters in this book.
Bijjala - Joffery reincarnate
Kattappa - Ned Stark? With his sense of duty
Sivagami - Jon Snow, the favourite
Gundu Ramu - Samwell Tarly
There was also a dwarf who was into alcohol, whores, and sarcasm.
Don't think I will be returning to Anand Neelkantan's Mahishmati.)

Then there was also Avantika and not to forget another strong and important female character, Devasena, who defied Sivagami herself many times and was admired for her strong personality, bravery, and fighting skills which equaled and were greater than many warrior men.

And this article is entirely dedicated to Devasena, one of my favorite characters, who I realized recently on watching the movie again, is just another man in a woman’s body. Now, being a woman and clearly a feminist, who proved she could do very well what any man can do, you would expect her to not make certain comments which are condescending towards women. For instance, in her entry scene, she fights off bandits and then notices Bahubali and Kattappa and chides them for hiding amongst women when there was a fight going on.

In the second instance, she asks Bahubali to join her to kill some wild boars and when Kattappa tells her Bahubali can’t do it, she says, “Vantintlo koorchunte em vastundi?” which translates to he is not going to learn anything by sitting in the kitchen. Which is again, a term generally used to refer to women. They are weak, so they sit in the kitchen and work. Being a woman, and a highly evolved human being, (which is clearly depicted as a part of her personality throughout the film) I would expect her to respect what a woman does in the kitchen because it is not easy work and definitely not something weak people can do.

In another instance, when Sivagami’s marriage proposal reaches her and she denies it with a very arrogant reply, she asks Sivagami to deck her son up in jewelry and send him to her. This from my interpretation means your son is so weak that you should dress him up like a woman and send him over to me, so I can protect, and take good care of him. If you have noticed, Devasena is always decked in jewelry and she clearly didn’t consider herself weak.

These comments had me a little disappointed in the film. Looking and behaving like a woman is a sign of weakness and hearing these comments from another woman is the last thing you would expect. I might have just magnified things a little too much and people might put this whole thing off as another rant from another “pseudo-feminist”, but it just goes on to show how certain stereotypes are so deep-rooted in our society that people are now insensitive.

Does a strong female personality just mean a woman who behaves just like any other man? Something to think about.