Konkona Sen Sharma is an Indian actress and director, renowned for her terrific artistic capabilities and for shaping female characters in the Indian film industry. Born to filmmaker Aparna Sen and science journalist Mukul Sharma in 1979, Konkona was exposed to an environment of art, cinema, and culture through her family from a young age. Despite not having an academic background in the performing arts, the 45-year-old actress can imbibe any character with authenticity. By predominantly collaborating with female directors like Zoya Akhtar, Meghna Gulzar, and Alankrita Srivastava, who deviate from the male gaze, Konkona has balanced mainstream and parallel cinema through her filmography.
Feminism and sisterhood
Konkona’s venture into Bollywood started with films depicting female solidarity and sisterhood. In the 2002 film, Titli, directed by Rituparno Ghosh, Konkona played the titular character while Aparna Sen reprised her real-life role as her mother. The film, however, refrains from focusing on the love interest as the primary plot point, rather, it depicts the evolution of the mother-daughter relationship.
Konkona, as a then 23-year-old, effortlessly imbibes the body language and expressions of a teenager- the wide-eyed obsession that Titli has with her crush, the awe that she possesses for her mother while yearning to be like her, the rage and frustration that she feels at her mother for being her “rival,” the betrayal that she experiences as she questions if her mother ever loved her father and her eventual reconciliation with the identity of her mother beyond motherhood.
Feminine solidarity became a recurrent theme in the subsequent characters played by Konkona. In the 2005 film, 15 Park Avenue, directed by Aparna Sen, Konkona played Mithi, a woman with schizophrenia, while Shabana Azmi portrayed Anu, her elder sister and primary caregiver. Anu is incredibly protective of her sister, putting her life on hold and compromising her aspirations to care for Mithi. Even as Mithi’s repeated accusations, shaped by paranoia and delusions, frustrate her, Anu’s support and commitment to Mithi’s well-being remain unwavering. Mithi, too, resorts to Anu as a protective figure, despite her qualms with her sister for not believing her truth.
In Alankrita Srivastava’s directorials, Lipstick Under My Burkha and Dolly, Kitty, Aur Who Chamakte Sitare, Konkona plays Shireen Aslam and Dolly, respectively. Both characters are trapped in unhappy marriages and find solidarity with the women in their lives. Srivastava’s films and the solidarity between these women align with bell hooks’ conceptualisation of feminism and sisterhood, emerging from shared experiences of injustice and co-creating an inclusive space that challenges society’s hierarchical structures.
Women and betrayal in love
In the mid-2000s, Konkona chose roles that dealt with betrayal in love, earning widespread critical acclaim for Omkara and Dosar, both released in 2006. In Omkara, she plays Indu, married to Langda Tyagi who manipulates her to navigate a power-hungry male-dominated world. Despite limited screen time, Konkona brilliantly portrays Indu’s multidimensionality: her warmth, loyalty, and eventual feelings of grief and betrayal when she realises her husband’s cruelty has led to her friend’s death. Refusing to be a victim, she takes charge of her fate and kills her malicious husband in the impactful climax of the film.
In Dosar, a Rituparno Ghosh directorial, Konkona’s Kaberi is forced to confront her husband’s infidelity when he is injured in an accident with his lover. Konkona brings a quiet rage to Kaberi – she fulfils the duties of a wife while expressing her contempt through passive-aggressive remarks. Arlie Hochschild’s theory of emotional labour (Hochschild, 1983) aligns with Kaberi’s experiences: she is expected to forgive her husband and mask her pain to save the marriage, much like an obedient employee does for an organisation.
Konkona starred as Sona, a young starlet in Zoya Akhtar’s 2009 film, Luck By Chance, navigating the harsh realities of the Hindi film industry. She is conveniently used and forgotten by her partner, Vikram, once he rises the ladder of fame. Konkona plays Sona with hope, integrity, and resilience – she refuses to give in to the temptations of taking revenge or reconciling with her ex-lover. Instead, she chooses to continue following her ambition and live life on her terms. Konkona effectively brings to life Sona’s evolution in the film – she grows from someone emotionally and professionally dependent on others to taking charge of her fate and continuing to dream big.
Experiences of discrimination: The perpetrator and the victim
Sharma’s characters have sometimes been on opposing ends of prejudice and discrimination as either the perpetrator or the victim. The actress won the National Award for one of her earliest performances in the critically acclaimed 2002 film Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, directed by her mother.
Konkona portrayed Meenakshi, an orthodox Hindu married woman and mother who meets and develops an unconventional relationship with Raja, a Muslim wildlife photographer, on a bus trip. She effectively portrays the dissonance faced by Meenakshi as she is forced to confront her bigotry when a riot breaks out and a Hindu mob hijacks the bus. Despite being a prejudiced character, Konkona’s performance never makes the audience dislike Meenakshi. The film, however, focuses on the evolution of Meenakshi’s character – when she realises the horrible implications of religious fundamentalism, she risks her life to protect Raja. And, at that moment, there is a subversion in the gender roles as Meenakshi becomes Raja’s saviour.
In Geeli Pucchi, a segment of the 2021 Netflix anthology, Ajeeb Dastaans, Konkona portrayed a queer Dalit factory worker, Bharati Mondol, who faces casteism in the workplace. Unlike Meenakshi, Bharti is on the receiving end of prejudice and discrimination. Bharti, however, is not a victim: despite her moments of vulnerability, Konkona’s performance is spectacular as the fierce and slightly cunning Bharati, as she manages to negotiate her agency by bargaining with patriarchy, much in line with the theory proposed by Kandiyoti (1988). When Bharati realises that her romantic interest, an upper-caste privileged woman, Priya, will never accept her for her caste identity either, she ensures she is promoted at work by convincing Priya’s in-laws to not let her work after having the baby, all the while sipping tea from a steel cup that serves as a stark reminder of Bharati’s marginalised position in society.
An empathetic gaze towards mental health
Konkona’s interpretation of mental health as an actor and director has been sensitive and layered. Her performance as a woman with schizophrenia in 15 Park Avenue was deeply empathetic. Unlike Bollywood’s theatrical depiction of mental illness, Konkona’s portrayal of Mithi was insightful and human – she effectively captured Mithi’s frustration, heartbreak, and disillusionment with those who refused to acknowledge her reality and treat her as a person with agency. Her partner leaves her, her relatives mock her, and she is subjected to torture by a fraudulent tantrik (somebody who claims to have profound knowledge of sacred rituals) with claims of “curing” her.
The film was a poignant retelling of the stigmatisation and marginalisation of women with mental illnesses: Mithi is assumed to be incapable of possessing feelings of love and desire and is considered a burden because of the same assumption.
In 2017, she directed A Death in the Gunj, a poignant insight into the impact of toxic masculinity, male loneliness, and ignorance about mental health. The film, inspired by a short by Mukul Sharma, tells the story of Shutu – a young, shy, and introverted man who becomes an unfortunate victim of his circumstances. The camera closing in on Shutu ensures the audience views the world from his point of view- it is almost as if his awkwardness, discomfort, feelings of loneliness, and struggle with his mental health are internalised by the audience.
Aligned with R.W Connell’s theory of hegemonic masculinity (1995), the way Shutu’s male relatives and family friends bully, mock, and taunt him becomes a display of intermale dominance that Connell spoke about – Shutu is constantly reminded that he is not ‘man enough,’ to be treated equally by the other men and is ultimately pushed to a point of no return.
Female sexuality and empowerment
Konkona’s characters in the late 2000s depicted female sexuality and desire from a woman’s gaze. In Lipstick Under My Burkha (2016), directed by Alankrita Srivastava, she played Shireen Aslam, a woman trapped in an emotionally and physically abusive marriage. Through Shireen, Konkona displays how women adopt gender performativity to avoid being an ‘inconvenience‘ – while assertive and outgoing as a saleswoman, Shireen is submissive and oppressed at home.
Konkona’s quiet and subdued portrayal of Shireen’s emotions mirrors the societal constraints on women’s expressions. Shireen’s arc is a tale of resilience and feminine rage as she confronts her husband and breaks free from patriarchal shackles. In another Srivastava directorial, Dolly, Kitty, Aur Who Chamakte Sitare, Konkona played Dolly – a middle-class married woman who seeks fulfilment beyond her marriage. Dolly’s character resonates with multiple Indian women who are torn between societal expectations and pursuing one’s aspirations.
Konkona brings strength and vulnerability, humanising Dolly as a married woman having an extramarital, an ‘imperfect mother,’ uncomfortable with her son’s gender non-conformity, and an emotionally unavailable sister ignoring Kajal’s discomfort with her husband’s inappropriate advances. Both characters serve as a sharp critique of marriage and society’s restrictions on female desire and sexuality.
Konkona’s second and latest directorial, The Mirror, was a part of the 2023 anthology Lust Stories 2. The short film served as a clever commentary on the intersection of class and sexuality – it posed an upper-middle-class woman as a voyeur while her domestic worker engaged in sex with her husband in her employer’s bedroom. The literal mirror, placed strategically in the frame, served as a reflection of the employer’s desires and the power over her yearnings that was assumed by the worker.
Konkona’s direction subtly subverts the power dynamics in the situation – despite being economically privileged and ‘allowed,’ to express her desires, the employer is powerless as her fantasies are being controlled by her domestic worker, who is economically marginalised but is freely indulging in her sexual desires and autonomy. It also highlights the hypocrisy of the privileged who often do not dare to publicly display approval of something that they might freely engage with in private.
Konkana, an inspiration to women across generations
Through her films, both as an actor and director, Konkona Sen Sharma has carved a niche for stories by women and those for women in the industry. Her films offer a space that reflects and reveals the realities of the society that we live in, allowing women to be flawed and vulnerable. Her craft finds a way to make the audience empathise with her characters -because, like them, we too navigate the complexities of life and try our best. In a world that is often unforgiving to women, Konkona’s characters inspire women to dream, falter, and pursue their ambitions unapologetically.
