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"What happened to traditional women?" some people ask, wistful for the image of mothers and grandmothers who were obedient wives, doting mothers, and tireless homemakers. But all I hear in that question is a harrowing history of women who endured decades of emotional and physical abuse, who lacked the financial autonomy to leave, and who were never granted the dignity of choice.
Marriage, for many women, has always been a one-sided contract. Even in unions born of love, the love eventually itself becomes the leash — a convenient excuse for women to carry the burden of unpaid domestic labour while being denied respect, rest, or even recognition. This love, often romanticised in poetry and cinema, is converted into duty. We have seen our mothers and grandmothers single handedly run a household and being rewarded with jokes about nagging wives; "the missus” who doesn’t know how to have fun.
Renuka Shahane’s 'Loop Line', a Marathi animated short, dares to dwell on this insidious violence. Set in the claustrophobic repetition of Mumbai’s local trains and domestic rituals, the film follows a middle-aged housewife caught in the monotonous rhythm of tea, tiffins, laundry, and the service of her husband. Her marriage is riddled by the dull ache of being ignored, belittled, and taken for granted.
In the brief moments she steals for herself, the woman dreams of freedom. These daydreams — rich in colour and tenderness, and the soft gaze of a loving man in a retro song on TV — are her only rebellion. One night when her husband storms in with a gang of drunk friends. They fill the home with their laughter and loud misogyny that is piercing and way too familiar. Men have often occupied spaces with a sense of entitlement that, in many ways, feels suffocating for women.
When the husband yells at the wife to make them some snacks in the short film, she is seen making fritters out of her own brain for their pleasure. The graphic imagery becomes a metaphor for the way a woman's identity and personhood is eaten away in spaces that subjugate her.
Crafted by Paperboat Design Studios and animated under the guidance of Mahendra Kawale, Loop Line marries form and feeling in a way few animated films do. Mitalee Jagtap Varadkar delivers a hauntingly restrained performance, while Anand Alkunte embodies the entitlement that passes as normal in most Indian homes. The film’s score by Mangesh Dhakde and layered sound design by Anmol Bhave deepen its sense of suffocation, while Shailesh Ambre’s art direction gives even the rooms of their house an oppressive weight.
Having screened at prestigious festivals like MONSTRA (Lisbon), and Thessaloniki, Loop Line has been lauded with awards at both the Tasveer Film Festival and the Mumbai Short Film Festival for its storytelling, animation, themes, and will also be screened at The New York Indian Film Festival on June 21.
The short film's knockout gut punch comes from its unforgiving depiction of homes that we tragically think are 'normal'. Even if we instinctively root for her, there is no explosive moment of rebellion for the wife in the film. You want to believe that maybe her daydreams of walking away, of being free will lead somewhere; that she’ll do something to break the loop.
But she doesn’t. And I can't help but wonder, even with all the sympathy we have for her, we will still probably end up blaming her for not leaving. There is just no winning for a woman in her position. And so she goes on, disappearing further and further into her own life, living the same day again; riding out the clock.
Follow Renuka here and watch the trailer for the short film below:
