Searching- a marvellous movie with good gender balance

Searching, a thriller that keeps you hooked to your seat staring at screen throughout the movie brings to us lot of suspense, mystery, crime and drama with human emotions at the heart of a brilliantly conceptualised story.
John Cho as David Kim plays the lead role as a single father whose teenage daughter Margot goes missing one night.
What sets this movie apart is the unique style of story telling with almost every shot playing on a computer screen, and phone - facetime video and yet it is all so real that viewers can completely relate to it.
The story is about father daughter relationship, in which the father who initially thinks he knew everything about his daughter gradually realises that he knew little. Margot, his daughter who misses her mother a lot, always pretends to be happy while talking to his dad. But when she goes missing, and his dad starts finding more about her social life, he finds out that she was very lonely in her life with no friends. She finds happiness on social media and photography. Like Black Mirror television series, this movie also brings to fore the dark side of web and social media. David, is determined to find his daughter and does not give up even after he is told his daughter might have run away. In an extremely thrilling turn of events, he manages to trace Margot and is able to reach a spot where her car is found. It is established that Margot has died and memorial service is planned, but David still continues to search and finally succeeds to find his daughter.
Debra Messing as detective Rosemary, plays a remarkably convincing role that makes the viewers believe in her professionalism as a detective. Both the main characters played by John Cho and Debra are very strong, although Cho steals the show.

The movie has a good gender balance in terms of roles, emotions, knowledge and skills. Almost 50% of the cast is female.

Mulk: A great tale, breaking gender stereotypes in a subtle way- a must Watch!

Mulk, a Bollywood movie that primarily focuses on the issue of terrorism being associated with people following one particular religion, change in relationship and hatred between two groups spiked by an incident, and the existing cauldron of perceptions and prejudice based on little understanding of facts is also a movie that touches on issues of gender in a very subtle manner.

The first half of the movie, is slow paced melodrama in which Murad Ali Mohammed (Rishi Kapoor) is the centre of the plot. He performs his role with great distinction as head of the family taking decisions, directing people, scolding, laughing and celebrating with family. In the first half we also see the arrival of Aarti Mohammed (Taapsee Pannu), daughter in law of Murad Ali. In brief conversations with her mother in law, she comes across as a wonderful, responsible and caring person, at the same time strongly taking a stand and voicing her opinion when it concerns decisions about her pregnancy or her relationship with her spouse.  The movie does not make any attempt to make a fuss around it, which is great. It gives a message, that this is not something unique to be discussed, rather, this is a norm,… this is how it should be.

The movie takes a turn when bomb blasts shake the city and Shahid (Prateik Babbar), nephew of Murad Mohammed is the prime suspect who is later shot to death by police. The family is shocked as they had no clue about Shahid being involved in such planning. The family condemns and his mother refuses to accept his body for buriel (again a strong voice, a decision declared by Chhoti Tabassum played by Prachi Pandya), but that does not save them from hatred of neighbors. The viewers get to see some brutal realities of growing hatred and polarization along with the fear psychosis. It does not end at hatred from neighbours, rather the family is dragged to court with the accusation of being an ally to Shahid in planning and executing the blasts.

Aarti (also a lawyer by profession), fights the case to defend her innocent family. She brilliantly performs her role, her expressions showing the struggle of staying professional while being extremely disturbed and emotional by the state of her family. Strong courtroom performance. The last part of movie breaks the male dominance- men doing most of the talking in movies trend,  with Aarti stealing the show.

Strength: It's almost there. Out of 8 main cast characters, 3 are women, each with a strong voice and opinion.  

INCREDIBLES 2- A good take on Gender Issues

Incredibles 2 has a good share of gender issues highlighted in a subtle manner. The movie touches on the issue of male ego and husbands’ inability to accept wives excelling and performing better than their spouse in both career and home front. When Helen (Elastigirl) is offered a job to fight crimes and regain respect for super heroes, she is initially hesitant. The movie shows how women believe that they are indispensable to the family and that the men at home cannot fulfil their responsibilities. Bob while offering to take care of home and encouraging Helen to take the job offer, finds it difficult to believe that she has been chosen over him. He manages to keep calm and act happy but is shown fretting while he is alone. His frustration and fatigue increase when he is not even able to manage home initially. He is however shown making genuine efforts to learn and take care of home responsibilities well, and after a few stumbles here and there he does succeed. He addresses Violet’s social needs as an adolescent, Dash’s homework struggles, and little Jack jack’s constant need for attention.

The movie also fights some of the gender stereotypes. After we saw Shuri, the tech & brain behind Wakanda’s progress in Black Panther, Incredibles-2 brings us Evelyn Deavor playing the strong evil mastermind with tech and brain on a mission to discredit all super heroes.
Overall, it is a good movie with pleasant surprises on the balanced take on certain issues.

Downside: Out of 23 main cast characters in the movie, only 7 are female.