From playing lesbian to a rape victim, how Nandita Das portrays the average woman like none other

I read Bapsi Sidhwa's Ice Candyman (1991) when I was in the first year of my college. I still remember the sensation when I read the book- I felt real, physical fear. I knew what was going to happen to ayah. I knew the violence that would be all over the next few pages. I wanted to turn the page and yet I could not go on.

When I finished the book, I realised I have seen this in a movie. After thinking a little, I remembered the name of the movie- 1947 Earth. It had Aamir Khan, Rahul Khanna and Nandita Das. Nandita Das played the role of the ayah. Ever since I started reading the novel, she has been ayah for me-the sensuous, beautiful and dusky ayah.

Fire is about the passion and comfort shared by two sisters-in-law

Yes, dusky. And proud.

Nandita has never shied away from calling a spade a spade and her politics of working with gender empowerment can be seen in her work, the kind of films she has done. On her birthday, I will discuss three of my favourites - Fire (1996), 1947 Earth (1998) and Bawandar (2000)

1. Fire

Nandita has always portayed strong female characters

Fire. Aag. Desire. Fire has always been associated with passion, be it sexual or towards one's conviction. Deepa Mehta's Fire was both. Dismissed by a lot of people as 'that lesbian movie', Fire is about finding a word for the term 'lesbian-a term denied in the languages spoken by many of us.

Fire is not about two women having sex, no. The movie is about finding comfort, companionship and respect- all the things we look for in our life partner; correction-male life partner. There is no imagining of a woman as a potential partner because we have never been taught that sexual love can be free from binaries.

Fire felt identifiable- after all; the women were not rich women experimenting with their sexual needs in a foreign location. They were simple middle class women, married, devoted and leaving out chillies to dry in the terrace and washing clothes.

Nandita's character Sita, slaps her husband in response to his slap. That slap is a high point in the movie- it is a refusal to accept that a husband is entitled to have, through marriage. And not just that, Sita gives courage to Radha to walk out to find her 'ocean' her pleasure, something that had been turned into a barren place because her husband had decided it that way.

2. 1947 Earth

1947 Earth had NA[ndita play a victim of the parition of India

1947 was a painful year for both India and Pakistan, and more painful for a character whose innocent statement leads to the brutal gang rape of her beautiful ayah, Shanta. Shanta was played by Nandita Das. Nandita's Shanta will want you to help her, stop what you know is coming. After all, have we not all heard of the stories of rape and loot at the time of partition.

When she falls in love, you feel like singing with her.

And when you know, she will be raped, because of her religion, you feel as helpless as Lenny, the child. And as guilty.

3. Bawandar

Bawandar's Sanwari is based on the brutal gang rape of Bhanwari Devi of Rajasthan

Nandita's Sanwari is the reel life Bhanwari Devi, who has brutally gang raped by four men of the Gujjar community for protesting against child marriages in Rajasthan. Sanwari as the real life hero is believable and she raises your hackles. Her eyes have such a hypnotic effect that you will listen and will want to fight alongside her.

Nandita's acting feels natural because she looks very natural too. She is not fair, like a small percentage of our population. Her dusky skin tone, her smile or anger, is an expression of her own real life politics. Yes, all the three movies are disturbing in certain ways. They are disturbing because they force you to watch them even as you want to turn your eyes away. You will think about the characters and the movies long after you have finished watching them, Nandita ensures that.

In a country obsessed with fair skin, it is not easy to be a celebrity saying she is fine with her dusky colour. In a country where women are treated worse than animals, acting in movies that talk about things no one wants to watch or know, is a difficult task.

But that is Nandita for you-fearless and uncompromising like the characters she plays. From Sita to Shanta to Sanwari, she portrays an average woman, the woman in the villages and small towns, for whom life is hard, even as they laugh or fight through it.

These women are punished when they raise voices- beaten up, raped and silenced. But somehow, they still try to live, and they live through Nandita's acting, long after the screen has gone black and you are trying to process what you just watched.