the new generation of female stars refuses to play meek and nice whether its swara bhasker writing about vaginas or parvathy taking on misogyny in malayalam cinema theyre speaking up and howswara bhasker could not have imagined the chaos she would unleash with her critique of sanjay leela bhansalis padmaavat it was her use of the word vagina rather than her argument about jauhar that got her critics all hot and bothered trolled maligned misunderstood and patronised bhasker stays cool and stands her ground if people dont agree with me its alright its a democratic country she has saidswara is not your garden variety movie star the daughter of a film studies professor she is avowedly progressive schooled in feminist politics but she is one of a generation of female actors who are done with being sugar and spice and everything nice they dont want to just to be constructs of other peoples desires or cultivate a starry mystique they speak up for what they believe their positions are not timed to a movie release or even to polish their personal brandsthink of renuka shahane whose clear and free voice was a discovery to many fans or raveena tandon who isnt afraid to offend anyone deepika padukone who holds her space with dignity or kangana ranaut who refuses to be squashed look beyond bollywood and there are mainstream malayali actors like manju warrier and parvathy who are upturning the sexist norms of their industry parvathy hit the headlines when she questioned veteran star mammootty for misogynist lines in a movie when he as a loutish police officer tells his female boss this i will fk you so hard that you will find it difficult to walk i will hurt you so badly that your menstrual cycle will go for a toss she was attacked for being a chit of a girl who dared to speak as a peer to a pillar of the establishment she remains unfazed by the rape and death threats literally giving the finger to her abusers on twitterit is this new cohort of articulate women that is making up for the movie industrys sorry record of appeasing power for decades now our biggest filmmakers and actors have meekly given in to street bullies sought patronage and protection from politicians rather than stating their own beliefs or even sticking up for each otherwe often complain about the wussiness of our stars but the movie business only reflects the larger ethos in the 1940s and 50s its spirit was consciously progressive as were its actors writers and directors in the confusing contradictory 70s and 80s there was a parallel strand of arty activisty public figures and the last couple of decades have reflected the cheerfully soldout riskaverse logic of our times by and large we do get the celebrities we deserveso what has changed and why are these women now speaking up with such force and clarity because sometimes a threshold is reached