NEW DELHI, June 28: Bollywood actresses have broken the Sati-Savitri mould and are no longer all about sugar, spice and everything nice, says a book that documents their journey from a time when cinema was considered a profession beneath the dignity of ‘respectable’ women to an era where women actors are icons and idols.
“Mother Maiden Mistress: Women in Hindi Cinema” by Bhawana Somaaya, Jigna Kothari and Supriya Madangarli records and reviews the woman in Hindi cinema – the mythical, the Sati-Savitri, the rebel, the avant-garde and the contemporary.
According to Somaaya, the definition of the perfect Indian woman is changing and it has to.
“The women characters are individuals not just glamour dolls. It was inevitable they changed to suit into a changing society. At the same time it is important to say that there are no absolutes. In the past there were women who played progressive roles and now there are women who play regressive roles,” the film critic-writer told.
It’s been a long hundred years since Dadasaheb Phalke had to settle for a man to play the heroine in India’s first feature film “Raja Harishchandra” (1913) and women in Hindi cinema have come a long way since then.
“The women have been getting their due. The heroines in the 50s and to a certain extent in the 60s played centre stage. The rot set in the 70s when she was relegated in the background to allow the men to call the shots. But the neglect hurt and she made a back entry through the art cinema in the 70s and the parallel cinema in the 80s. Shabana Azmi was the pioneer of the new woman during these decades,” Somaaya says.
She feels cinema reflects life and women are marching with men in all spheres of life.
“Today’s woman is not making a martyrdom of virtues. She wants to be heard, wants to express herself. Zoya (Parineeti Chopra’s character) in ‘Ishaqzaade’ does not sit and cry when she is betrayed. She cries foul, that is coming a long way from the heroine wanting to commit suicide if the man she loved refused to marry her.”
Somaaya says the interesting thing about the new crop of women directors is that they are not obsessed with the women characters.
“They don’t think of themselves as a gender but just as a filmmaker that is why Farah Khan makes ‘Main Hoon Na’ and Zoya Akhtar makes ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’. On the other hand, Nandita Das and Kiran Rao talk about social issues.”
The authors sift through six decades of history, bringing to life the women that peopled cinema and the popular imagination, and shaped fashion and culture. There are also first-person narratives of a leading actress from each decade – Waheeda Rehman, Asha Parekh, Hema Malini, Shabana Azmi, Madhuri Dixit and Rani Mukerji – all close-up examinations of how some of the iconic characters of Hindi cinema came to be.
“One day I casually discussed the idea (of ‘Mother Maiden Mistress’, published by HarperCollins) with Shabana Azmi. She said there are so many books on women in cinema and if I wanted to do it should be the best.
“I decided it was a mammoth task and if I wanted to cover six decades I should take co-authors… What followed was never ending research, ideation and discussion and finally the book is on the stands.” (PTI)
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