Women in Hindi cinema

I am extremely opinionated about Indian movies. That is why I love some of them and that is why I hate some of them.

I have often seen this classification of B-grade masala movie makers and A-lister masala movie makers with interest. One of the points put forward is that the A-listers have better female characters as compared to the rank objectification and vulgarity associated with B-grade makers. To an extent this classification is true, but if you ever looked closely, you might notice some hard cold facts about our cinema.

Let us take Indian cinema’s two biggest hits. ‘Sholay’ and ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ (DDLJ). Look at its two most well known female characters. Simran and Basanti. Now ‘Sholay’ is perceived as an out and out revenge drama with women on its peripheral . DDLJ is perceived as a man, woman story with a balanced role for the woman.

Basanti is a working woman. Simran cannot even listen to her favourite song when father is around, forget earning on her own. Basanti is going out and has the focus and strength to choose her own life partner Veeru. Good or bad . She makes her choice. Look at Simran – Babuji says marry Kuldeep, she agrees. Then Raj sings a few songs on the train and she wants to marry Raj. For all her London education and grooming ,what’s her solution? Let’s run away and get married. She cannot face up to her father and say she wants to marry Raj. Basanti takes on a ruthless killer Gabbar head on in the climax and is even willing to dance on broken glass – Simran can get irritated with just a rose water gun throwing a few drops on her face. Basanti chooses her man. Simran is waiting to be convinced and won over. Basanti is spunk. Simran is a dumb trophy.

Look at ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ (KKHH) women. One is a tom boy and a great friend of Rahul, our hero. She has no frills. She is a simple lady who adores her friend and plays basketball. Enter glamour girl Tina, the first thing we notice is not her large heart but her glycerin shining thighs in a small skirt. Whenever she appears on screen the camera does tend to focus on the thighs; the camera is positioned from the thigh to upwards. So A-grade ish na. Imagine Prabhu Deva showing Nagma like this and we the B-grade movie haters would jump out of our pants to protect the ladies. But Karan Johar directed this one, so I guess that as A-grade as it gets and therefore pardonable. The guy falls for the thighs first but later on we are very conveniently told she is a good heart too who can also sing “Om Jai Jagdish Hare” too. Great! Now Rahul suddenly becomes candy to be won for the other lady too. So she tries to transform. Wear same kind of short skirts, etc and fails. So she leaves immediately broken. The guy does shed a few tears but lets her disappear- he has better deal on hand. One lady dies and the other one, once again the central character is still waiting nine years on. Ask any lady with an iota of self respect, will you ever decide to wait for a guy who uses you only as a backup option and has already dumped you once because he got something better on hand. KKHH’s Anjali is the ultimate mix of low self esteem, spinelessness, and confusion, god knows who taught her basketball.

Let us pick up the case of the ultimate epitome of positivity and social thinking icon Raju Hirani. ‘3 Idiots’ remains Hirani’s best work till date. Look at the character of Piya closely in this one too. She needs a prankster to tell her that she decides to go for a brand obsessed joker because daddy chose him, and she is a qualified doctor. Compare her with the character of Rajjo Pandey from ‘Dabangg’ – a girl from the potter community, living in extremely low condition, does not take tips from an inspector, and has the guts to talk back to him – remember the now legendary “thappad se dar nahi lagta” line. She commands instant admiration and respect from the hard boiled inspector. Rajjo Pandey takes care of an alcoholic father and fends for herself too. Piya is daddy’s doll. Now all purists will tell you that ‘3 Idiots’ is a better movie than ‘Dabangg’, which it is, but the lady of ‘Dabangg’ has more spunk by a million miles.

So the next time a lady friend tells you that she prefers watching Shah Rukh’s movies over Sunny Deol’s just tell her that at least Sunny never threw his ladies from roof tops on marriage day killing them. Just tell her that Sunny treated his ladies in that B-grade ‘Yamla Pagla Deewana’ series with far better respect.