My son told me about this test which is a measure of women’s equivalent participation in anything, especially performing arts such as motion pictures. Bechdel test states 3 basic rules ( this is from Google) :
at least two women are featured, (2) that these women talk to each other, and (3) that they discuss something other than a man.
Unless these 3 basic rules feature in pictures, they cannot be hyped as fair productions. Although this is about pictures, we can use the ground rule for works of fictions/books as well. I used to have this problem about Indian pictures or even fictions I read. Its the male mind that is imagining the scenarios, penning the dialogues, directing the screenplay, editing and finishing and turning out the sum total output. What is the woman’s role in all this? Mere acting skills? Who can imagine the woman’s mind with its complexities. But in Tamil cinema, the thespian screenplay-dialogue writer and director K Balachander had done such a fabulous job. I have done a blog post on him in Tamil. In particular I am in amazement still of the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship in the picture ‘Avargal’ produced in the late ’70s. KB was way ahead of his times especially given the plot setting in India. Those were the times we were ultra conservative. Divorces were unheard of. The heroine Sujatha is a divorcee. The mother-in-law comes to her door disguised as a maid servant, cook, and nanny all rolled into one to take care of her infant. That mother-in-law character is one in a million. You have to watch the picture for full import. I can quote more instances from KB.
So very few pictures from India can pass the Bechdel test. Avargal, the black & white Tamil picture from the 70s passes the Bechdel test with flying colours.
vijiravindran's 