Kill Bill is a story of a woman's mother's revenge. But is it really? Her life is overshadowed by the omnipotent and omnipresent Bill. So much so that she doesn't even get a name till the second part of the movie while Bill remains ominously in the very title of the film. Bill made Beatrix Kiddo: he made her an assassin, he made her a favourite, he made her a mother and he eventually made her vengeful. To exact her revenge Beatrix again travels the same path once shown by Bill, to match his skills, to ultimately kill him, which is again mirroring the vindictive nature of Bill himself.
Only time Beatrix shows her agency is when she chooses to be a mother instead of a killer. Before getting into the ideology of the choice, can we ask why she had to hide her pregnancy from Bill? Was she raped? Was she forced to abort any earlier pregnancy? Well, it is open to interpretation.
And now for some heavier questions. Does choosing to be a mother really give her agency? Is it really going beyond the social construct? Doesn't it actually reinforce validation of the idea of choosing child and marriage over professional life? Like millions of women, still now, do all over the world. Like millions of people believe that these are mutually exclusive, even today?
Beatrix kills Bill. It is not the revenge itself but the 'why' and 'how' of it that is unsettling. Bride doesn't even know about her kid being alive. If she had known, would she have done things differently? But with her kid dead, Beatrix plunges into her old life, polishes her skills and kills Bill. A wounded tigress, a bereaved mother, walking the path of her abusers to win but following their rules, holding on to the honour of her profession. Let's assume that it was the only way she knew and leave it at that for now.
Let's talk about the popular trope of powerful females in cinema, in general. Revenge theme portrays a typical powerful female characterisation which shows the phoenix that rise from the ashes of violence, mostly sexual violence. It shows how she takes her revenge in the man's world by almost becoming the thing that derailed her in the first place. It is like she had the fire in her which was dormant till the necessity arose. In that sense, doesn't the abuser become the sculptor of those heroines? Doesn't that really show the abuser as a lapidarist who forge the women to reach their full potential? Doesn't it keep their narratives centered around the abuse and fulfillment is only achieved once and for all by proving themselves powerful to their abusers? From Kill Bill to Mardaani, aren’t we just listening to the same tune over and over again?
Why does it have to be an abuse, violent abuse that wakes a woman? Why does it has to be a sexual abuse that makes a woman rise up? Why does a woman need to conform to the masculine idea of powerful to fulfill her destiny? Why revenge becomes her destiny? Why being a victim or a survivor (when you mean the same thing) becomes the center of her life.
Gunjan Saxsena saves her tormentor the first chance she gets. She is equally encouraged and discouraged by her family. She didn't need to be violently or sexually violated to become powerful. She faced misogyny and sexism every step of the way. She didn't have to become a victim turned abuser to assert herself. When she was ridiculed for being physically weak, she didn't have to train under an abusive, mythical master to match her abusers. On the contrary she asserts that she requires skill, not brutal force, to do her job. She just stood her ground, did her best and worked at her own pace to achieve her destiny. Her journey is not surreal, magical or in any way superlative. Her rise is not meteoric and her dreams are ordinary (or that's how it should be). She plays by the rules but doesn't conform. She finds her unique ways to deal with her problems and by doing so she refuses to accept the standards set by her tormentors as norms. Gunjan Saxsena is a success story and that is why it became a subject for a film. Yes, it is a story of hope and wish fulfilment but she didn't have to be extraordinary to reach where she wanted to be. She remained consistent and persistent in her path. She doesn't have superpowers like Captain Marvel. She is not larger than life like Beatrix Kiddo. She didn't require to be smoking hot or androgynous to be noticed. She's just a child with a dream who somehow manages to hold onto it.
As I mentioned before, as a victim, Beatrix Kiddo taught me to wiggle my big toe. But as a survivor, Gunjan Saxsena inspires me to hold on, for yet another day, for yet another hope. So she is more important now. The film is more important now. More than Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. Because it inspired me to write this (inspired to write in general) Because it shows that I don't have to become the thing I hate to prove a point. Because it showed me that my life doesn't need to be limited by what happened to me. I know, your feminism is better than my feminism but I loved the film.
PS.: Don't come to me with stories of 'real' Gunjan Saxsena. I'm talking about the film, which is primarily a work of fiction.
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