When Mani Ratnam was served food and Suhasini wasn’t — since she’s a woman!

“Now, the domination of heroes has greatly increased to the extent that their fans fight among themselves, unmindful of the talented heroines. We are worried that there is just glamour,” she added.

Actors like Aishwarya Rajesh give hope that it is not just glamour, Suhasini said.

Referring to Aishwarya’s lead role in the Tamil version of The Great Indian Kitchen, the senior artist said, “There are still actors who could outperform us and give better films than what we did. She has been doing good films and The Great Indian Kitchen is a good choice.”

Only men understand women

Talking about the film, Suhasini said: “It is a relevant film. I have the opinion that only men can understand women well. The reason why I am a big heroine in Telugu is because of a director called Krantikumar. There was nobody like him, or director K Balachander, who understood women.

Suhasini feels men should view the society from a different perspective. (Supplied)

“The Great Indian Kitchen (which was originally made in Malayalam) is based on director Jeo Baby’s observation of an Indian housewife. We are very proud that director Kannan, who comes from our school, has remade this film in Tamil.

“Jeevitha, during her speech here, said that this film is a little controversial because there are people who say that ‘will they expect so much from a woman these days? Without understanding her needs and feelings, will they treat her almost like a slave? This is not true. Times have changed.”

“This opinion is not being expressed here alone but this was also expressed when we were judging the film in Kerala when I was the chairperson of the state awards jury.

“One director came up to me and said, ‘Hasini, this is not what women do these days. I have two daughters myself. They will not do this. This cannot be accepted.’ I had to fight hard to give this film the Best Film award.”

“I was the jury chairperson but I was the only woman on the panel. All other nine members were men. But I made sure that this film won the Best Film award,” Suhasini said.

“I did so because this is the correct point of view. This is a point of view that is bound to change society to an extent. That is what we want,” she added.

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The second sex

Suhasini went on to narrate an example from her life.

“When we got married, I was more successful than my husband Mani Ratnam. He had just ₹15,000 in his bank account. I had acted in over 90 films. Of course, his Nayagan and Agni Nakshatram had been released but he had directed only five or six films in all. Ours was an arranged marriage and one of his friends had invited us to a feast.”

“We went to their home. Our host’s wife was a professional. She was well-educated. I was served juice. There was a room near the kitchen that had a dining table. I was made to sit there and I was talking with our hostess and her mother-in-law.”

“When food was brought to the dining table, I got up to eat but they asked me to sit. Food was served to everybody else but was not served to the bride,” Suhasini explained.

“I was in a state of shock. I was born in a village and have two sisters and my mother never used to differentiate between men and women. She would never say women can’t eat first.

“My husband, who has been eating at that house since his childhood, was served food, while I was made to wait for 45 minutes!” she spoke about the bride’s predicament.

“After all the men had their food, the women asked me whether we could eat in that room itself. These women were more educated and wealthier than me. We, ladies, had food separately. That was when I thought that times would never change, no matter how much we change.”

Curd rice for women

Suhasini narrated another incident from her life. This time it happened at her home.

“We were a joint family but Mani’s brother moved out and only Mani, me, and our son were left in the house. There used to be an elderly woman, with whom I used to cook.”

“So, one day, I told her, ‘Come, let us make something interesting today. I will help you cook.’ My maid turned around and asked, ‘Why ma’am? Sir is not in town. There is no need to cook,” Suhasini narrated.

“I said, ‘What? Don’t we have to cook if sir isn’t there in town?’ She said, ‘You and I are women, we can have curd rice and go to bed.”

Suhasini said the maid demolished her in one minute. “What she meant was, ‘you are a woman, why are you asking for delicious food?’ I thought about it and felt that this was something that had been thrust upon women for centuries.”

Continuing, she said, “However, there is hope and it is from another man: An engineer called Ramakrishnan. During the past 12 years, Ramakrishnan has been conducting experiments to find out how the time that women spend in the kitchen can be reduced.

“He has started a method called OPOS which stands for ‘One Pot, One Shot’. It is when I look at people like Jeo Baby and Ramakrishnan that I have hope. Only when people like these men start viewing society from a different perspective will the time come when my cook tells me, ‘Let us make biryani and eat.'”

“I have a desire,” Suhasini said. “When my son’s friend gets married, I must serve payasam first to his bride when they come to our home for a feast. Or better still, I would want Mani Ratnam to serve it to her. Such things will happen only when these kinds of films are made.”