The Tribune - Spectrum
ART & LITERATURE
'ART AND SOUL
BOOKS
MUSINGS
TIME OFF
YOUR OPTION
ENTERTAINMENT
BOLLYWOOD BHELPURI
TELEVISION
WIDE ANGLE
FITNESS
GARDEN LIFE
NATURE
SUGAR 'N' SPICE
CONSUMER ALERT
TRAVEL
INTERACTIVE FEATURES
CAPTION CONTEST
FEEDBACK

Sunday, January 20, 2002		 Article

An era of heroic heroines
M.L. Dhawan

Nargis in Mother India
Nargis in Mother India

POPULAR cinema has since long been dominated by heroes. Rarely has the heroine in Hindi cinema been depicted as an iconoclast who is willing to stand up against the established mores. But the heroines are always there. And not only there, but there have been innumerable occasions when they have outshone men ignore heroines and you ignore half of cinema itself. For in the process of chiselling celluloid success stories, they have been as significant as heroes. Since our society is male dominated, some filmmakers have reflected the sordid aspects of a woman’s life in their films. They explored the elusive and inscrutable innerscapes of their female protagonists and revealed their toils, turmoils and tribulations. They succeeded in building public opinion against the oppression, and exploitation of women.

Mehboob Khan glorified the stoic strength of a woman in his magnum opus Mother India. Nargis as Radha created an alluring image of a woman who could be deified. By surviving flood, famine, desertion by her husband, Radha acquired a Durga-like image. When her son Birju abducts a girl, she curbs her emotions and shoots him for the greater good of the society. The comparison of Mother India with Vinay Shukla’s Godmother is valid because Godmother too has a woman protagonist and like Mother India depicts how an errant son proves to be his mother’s undoing. Shabana Azmi in Godmother has no qualms about picking up a gun. She refuses to indulge her son and uses her power to get the unwilling target of his interest (Raima Sen) married off to the man of her own choice. In Asit Sen’s Khamoshi, Radha (Waheeda Rehman) epitomised the inner strength and indomitable resilience of an Indian woman. A nurse in a mental asylum, she, too became a patient of mental illness. In the closing scene, the sobbing head nurse Lalita Pawar, who is shown reading out numbers of the asylum inmates, finally arrives at Radha’s number.

 


In Guru Dutt’s Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, Meena Kumari, as Chhoti Bahu fights for her rights in the feudal milieu of Bengal. Languishing in her boudoir while her husband Chhote Babu (Rehman) whiles away his time in brothels and kothas, Chhoti Bahu plots a scheme to bring him back home. Discarding social and religious taboos she takes to alcohol, dances and desperately tries to seduce her husband so that he might remain faithfull to her. She may appear to be an iconoclast, but her iconoclasm is born out her desire to be a perfect wife. In Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth, Pooja (Shabana Azmi) refuses to take her husband’s infidelity in her stride. She walks out of her marriage when she discovers that her husband is involved with an actress — Smita Patil. Arth presented a picture of an independent woman who prides herself on her self-esteem, above all else.

In Raj Kapoor’s Prem Rog, Manorma (Padmini Kohlapure) is a vulnerable young widow who emphasised the need to change outdated social customs and traditions. Widows must be given a chance to start life afresh, she cries, loud and clear. In Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Rupa (Zeenat Aman) defines the true concept of beauty, specially for her husband who believes that beauty is only skin deep. When Rosie in Guide dances like a woman possessed while singing Dil woh challa and standing in a cave cries, "Marco main jeena chahati hoon", she speaks for millions of women who suppress their talent and languish in bad marriages. N. Chandra’s Tejaswini is the story of an ordinary woman who overcomes biological frailties and stands taller than the men around.

In Mrityudand, Madhuri Dixit’s widowhood makes her an easy prey for the lecherous designs of the village sarpanch. Her sister-in-law (Shabana Azmi) suffers hell with an impotent but chauvinistic husband. Shilpa Shirodkar, a poor maid, is battered by her husband. The fiery Madhuri rebels against these atrocities. Both Shabana and Shilpa also take up cudgels against male injustice. They are joined by other women of the village. Kalpana Lajmi in Ek Pal painted the picture of woman who is capable of expressing her sexuality without any shame. Priyam (Shabana Azmi) is married to Ved (Naseeruddin Shah, who is workaholic. He goes to USA for a year. Priyam has a sexual fling with a man who once courted her. She conceives and decides to keep the child. Ved returns and thinks the child is his. Priyam tells him the truth. Her honesty pays off and they lived happily. Aditi (Tabu) in Astitva was ridiculed by her husband for submitting to her music teacher in a moment of weakness. Even her son born out of this liaison is equally scathing when he learnt the truth about his paternity. In a mutinous bid for liberation, Aditi steps beyond her limitations and feels emancipated when she comes out of her role as a wife and mother. Deepa Mehta’s Fire depicted a lesbian relationship between Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das as the only possible form of rebellion open to them when their existence is ignored and negated by their husbands. Nandita’s husband prefers the charms of his saucy Chinese mistress. Shabana’s husband is impotent but says he has to be celibate because of an oath he gave to his guru. Representing the many faces of Sita, Madhuri, Mahima, Rekha and Manisha Raj Kumar in Santoshi’s Lajja raised an angry voice against the society’s apathy towards dowry, domestic violence, sexual exploitation, male domination and female infanticide. Lajja is the story of tormented women wanting to break free. Who can forget the victimised courtesan Anarkali (Madhubala) revolting in the midst of crowded durbar and challenging the might of the Mughal monarchy while singing Pyar kiya to darna kya? More than the prince Salim, it was the poor tormented maiden who cried against injustice, tyranny and oppression. These power-packed and path-breaking roles performed by talented actresses sparked off social awareness against the discrimination, injustice, prejudices that women are subjected to.

Home Top