Manjuben Truck Driver

Miss Manju is a truck driver who defies the Indian gender stereotypes. As a half Shiva, half Shakti, as Manjusha describes herself, she has created herself an identity against all social and cultural odds, thus gaining respect among her peers. This new identity is deliberately ‘male’, and seems to draw on several widespread notions of maleness. Thus, Manjusha wears men’s clothes, speaks like a local dada (goon), gets herself photographed in clothes and poses popularised by filmstar Amitabh Bachchan, and totally blends into the very masculine world of truckers. While rejecting one kind of stereotype, that of ‘female’ identity, Manjusha seems to have totally embraced another stereotype, that of the macho trucker. Yet, Manjusha is an enigma and defies simple categorisation. While being one of the boys, so to speak, she, unlike most truckers, neither smokes nor drinks. And while she seems to have cultivated a persona that is unusual for rural women, she seems to share most of the patriarchal values that she has imbibed from childhood. Thus, in her own house, while she herself eats alongside the menfolk, the other women eat last. In other words, Manjusha is no crusader. Beautifully shot, with lots of close-ups of the busy Indian roads, the documentary has been structured as a poetic tale portraying the protagonist but also the social landscape around her. In some sequences, the sound fades away and the loneliness of the ‘other’ becomes almost painfully tactile.