BOLLYWOOD TALES: RISE OF THE HEROINE

Women-oriented films in Bollywood are no longer a rarity in today’s time. Almost once in every three months there is some sort of a female centric film that hits the theatres. For long, Bollywood has been critiqued for reducing its women, particularly the heroines to mere eye-candies who groove to crude sounding songs, flashing their voluptuous bodies; however over the past 5 years there’s been a consistent and thankfully positive participation of the heroine in Bollywood films.

It all began with the iconic Mother India (1957) directed by Mehboob Khan that featured a woman playing a pivotal role in a mainstream Bollywood film. Nargis’ character continues to be remembered today for it broke the stereotypes about an ideal Indian woman, who’s expected to be docile and subversive; however is at heart, the epitome of resilience, grace and selflessness. Often, parallels have been drawn between the character and revered Indian goddesses. However, after Mother India there were only a handful of films that actually celebrated the spirit of womanhood, Julie, Arth, Bhumika, Mirch Masala, to name a few.

                                                

The films that came afterwards to a great extent built on the idea of the dauntless, boisterous and a ‘mass’ hero, with little importance being given to women in terms of characterization. Though films in the 1990s featured iconic love stories where the heroine had an equally important role to play, these characters were seldom liberating and ironically were quite the opposite. They were stifled by the shackles of the society, being forced to live up to the idea of the ‘Susheel Indian girl’.

Madhur Bhandarkar to some extent has to be credited for introducing women-centric films to contemporary Bollywood. Though his recent films have been undeniably sloppy and distasteful, in the past, films like Chandni Bar, Page 3, and highly popular Fashion have been critically acclaimed. Fashion (2008) marked the arrival of the mainstream, commercial heroine into the genre of female centric films. Post Fashion, there’ve been a plethora of women-oriented films that have resonated with audiences and critics alike. To some extent Priyanka Chopra, Vidya Balan and Kangana Ranaut ought to be thanked for blessing the audiences with films with excellent stories, starring women. Fashion, The Dirty Picture (2011), Kahaani (2012) and Queen (2014) have played a very important role in changing the perceptions of the audience and what they expect out of heroines, raising the bar and setting a new threshold for the scales that women in films can achieve.

                                                                                     

  Lately there’s been a boom of female centric films in Bollywood. While not all have been very good, Akira,Bobby Jasoos,Heroine, Begum Jaan and recently released Noor being the most plausible examples of disasters from this bandwagon, there’ve been many contemporary films that have incredible stories centered around women. Highway (2014) starring Alia Bhatt was one such film, which traced the journey of a young woman who gets kidnapped and eventually develops Stockholm syndrome that finally helps her make peace with her harrowing past. It explores the otherwise dark subject of child sexual abuse at the same time retaining Imtiaz Ali’s essence of soul-searching.Or NH10 (2015) starring Anushka Sharma, which was highly riveting and also morbid in parts; exploring the story of a lone woman’s journey through a night on a seemingly eerie highway. And one cannot talk of successful female oriented films without acknowledging Sridevi’s highly celebrated comeback film, English Vinglish (2012) that showcased a middle-aged woman redeeming and empowering herself by learning English in the US. Other films like Angry Indian Goddesses and Phobia too, despite not being commercially very popular; have been praised by critics for featuring strong female characters in highly challenging and intriguing roles.

 While we’ve still got a long way to go, particularly when it comes to the absolutely unfair disparity that comes in terms of the salaries heroes and heroines are offered and in terms of the average shelf life of an actress opposed to an actor who acts till he’s senile. We’ve got to admit that Bollywood has improved greatly in terms of the characterisation of women in films. Even in other films that aren’t essentially female oriented, women now feature in strong and important roles that make an impact. Much to our relief,with films like Mom, Simran and Haseena lined up for release very soon; there’s definitely more girl power to look forward to from Bollywood.