Test Drive | Page 102

94 C. S. BHAGYA irrelevance of the scene and the inaccuracy of its portrayal of Indian women as weepy and reliant on the whims of a heroic man in the vicinity to act as saviour. Joanna plays the role of a kind of overseer, the voice of reason and poise. She forms intense, reassuring bonds with the women – she coaxes Lakshmi into seeing the futility of relentlessly fighting the system, guides Suranjana’s eye to her daughter’s delights, encourages Mad to continue the pursuit of musical success, and, in her spare time, frolics amidst the natural bounties of scenic Goa, fantasising about the attractive man who comes in occasionally to wash Frieda’s car. Joanna’s continued refusal to reduce herself to desultory, petty titillation for a male audience is juxtaposed by her many observations about (a largely homogenised version of) Indian society and its failings where it concerns the treatment of women. She is clearly inserted into the storyline to provide a raft to the sorrows of the other women – as a relief of mood, but more, as a relief via cultural contrast. Her British-Indian identity appears to be a construct used to endow her with the authority to speak objectively, by dint of cultural distance, about a vague and essentialised Indian society suffering from a monolithic, toxic sweep of patriarchy. Joanna’s presence within the film appears emblematic of an ideal female companion who is rational and empathetic in her understanding of how societal forces shape women’s anxieties and gradually erode their will. Conversely, the hope of change and understanding projected by Joanna is disrupted in one fell swoop in the denouement. Joanna, the night before the wedding, storms away from the dinner party after a falling-out about her anglicised Hindi accent, and is gang-raped by a group of five men – the same ones the women had fought with earlier in the film over an incident of street sexual harassment. Shocked by the tragic turn of events, the women summon the police to handle the case. After an extremely discomfiting round of interrogation by the biased inspector in charge of the case – he questions their motivations behind partying on an ‘unsafe’ Goan beach late at night in skimpy clothing and refuses to give credence to the pictures taken by Maya of the group of men responsible – Suranjana recovers Lakshmi’s gun from the house and goes after the men, shooting all five of them dead. The scene of the funeral held the next day is trite and formulaic.