Secret Superstar: A mother-daughter masterpiece
It’s hard to produce a simple film well nowadays. And yet I saw a lovely production of simplicity that was also great. The characters made the film great – a girl with a brilliant talent that she is forced to hide, her beloved mother living in constant fear of her abusive father, and a boy who lives just to hear her sing. Simple but brilliant filmmaking weaves all these plot details into a rich tapestry of tears, laughs, and hopeful messages that will bring a smile to anyone’s face.
“Secret Superstar'' is a Bollywood film produced by none other than the king of parallel, unconventional cinema – Aamir Khan. He plays a supportive role as an arrogant, shallow celebrity singer who overcomes his selfishness to help Insia – the young heroine who not only has a beautiful voice but plays the guitar and writes wistful songs that reveal an imaginative mind living in the small village of Baroda. This gem of the film contains Aamir Khan's touch of sincerity and self-awareness about many themes. The first theme is domestic abuse. The film doesn’t spare any ugliness of the nervous trepidations and mannerisms of Insia’s mother trying to hide the reality of her situation from the discerning gaze of her angry daughter. In one simple but powerful scene, we see Insia returning from a school trip only to notice her mother wearing sunglasses and hiding a nasty bruise on her eye. When she asks what happened, her mother attempts to use her natural lightness to lie by saying she fell and that “she’s [was] very stupid”. Insia, obviously seeing through this, angrily remarks that her mother is correct in saying she’s foolish. The film introduces Insia who watches her mother removing her glasses and sighing in painful sadness. Her expression of half fear and half shame at severely shouting at her injured mother is brilliantly and quietly captured in a way only an immensely talented actress, Zaira Wasim can do. It’s a pity that such an actress has retired and no longer works in films!
The second theme presents itself as girlhood and adolescence. Zaira Wasim masterfully plays the different shades of Insia – a bursting, angsty young girl with her head in the clouds as she conjures up tunes and lyrics seemingly out of thin air. The film presents the different aspects of Insia’s character – her absent-mindedness and oblivious to anything in the world around her when she’s thinking of a song, her stubbornness as she, again and again, tries to convince her mother to run away, her anger combined with the abject terror of her father. Then we see her slowly warming up to a funny boy Chintan who’s besotted with her and her rough and tough exterior that hides her fear that her dream of being a successful singer will never come true. Her mood swings are fun to watch and feel extremely relatable due to their authenticity. The heart-wrenching and mesmerizing soundtrack comprised mainly of songs Insia herself writes in the film that reflect her feelings heightens the authenticity of the delivery of her experience. Insia isn’t perfectly brilliant, but rather a real, flawed girl with great talent. And the brilliance of the film lies in its acknowledgment of both the ordinary and extraordinary dimensions of her. When she does a traditional Muslim Burka as a suggestion of her mother so that she can post YouTube videos of her music online without her father recognizing her, the very act makes a statement about womanhood in India in exciting ways. Lastly, the film is about feminism.
Quietly, and slowly, the film builds on the idea of respect for women and the need for it in traditionally backward Indian societies. When Insia’s father attempts to arrange a marriage for Insia before she finishes school similar to everyone in small towns of India, she protests and urges her mother to run away with her with an inspiring amount of conviction that is very empowering. The writer’s choice to include the controversial clothing Burkha that is associated with contexts that restrict women’s freedoms as an enabler of Insia achieving her dreams is also an outrageous stroke of genius; It paints a practical way in which women can protect their anonymity and remain safe while still engaging in radical acts of defiance.
All these elements of the film are tied together lovingly by the mother-daughter bond that shines throughout. It’s in every smile and joke Insia and her mom share as they watch the Indian Idol or music awards on television every night. It’s in every fight Insia has with her mother as she takes out her frustration with their circumstances, and it’s in the small ways she apologizes when she realizes the sacrifices her mother makes for her every day. In a touching moment when Insia is angry that her mother is not leaving her father even after she’s shown her a way in which she could do so, she learns from her grandmother how her father and his family wanted to kill her in the womb (sadly a common occurrence in many traditional households in India still that abort a female child). But her mother ran away and gave birth to her. Insia’s anger dissipates, and she stops criticizing her mother so much. Eventually, her mother does leave her father with Insia’s support, and they get a happy ending. But what’s truly spectacular about the film is the genuine, flawed mother-daughter relationship presenting its ups and downs intensified. Insia’s mother is her best friend and her number one fan from day one, and their day-to-day fights never detract from the love the two actresses show with great accuracy.
Now as I watch the film again here at the university, far away from my mom, I miss her more than ever. It’s the sort of film that makes you have an intense emotional reaction, a happy-sad concoction of different energies and impressions. Isn’t that what great filmmaking is?