By:Lopa Bhattacharya
In its awe-inspiring journey of nearly hundred years, the
Indian film Industry, consisting mainly of the ‘star-struck’ “Bollywood",
and also of myriad regional films, has been witness to a sea-change in the
presentation of the female protagonist. Yes, rarely will a person deny that the
Bollywood filmdom has been essentially male-centric, leaving little space for
the female counterparts to evolve and grow as versatile performers. The roles
they played were mostly of the “sati savitri” mould, lacking variety and depth
of the ‘female psyche’. However, film-makers like Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, Mehboob
Khan and Raj Kapoor in the 50’s and 60’s, marked an exception with their
brilliant presentation of women excelling as wife, mother and beloved. Some of
their films portray the brilliant craftsmanship of the ‘flesh-and-blood’ women,
with all their inner depth and exquisite spirited individuality. Take for
instance, “Mother India”, “Pyaasa”, “Kaagaz ka phool” and “Madhumati”. A close
look into all these four films will show you how they celebrate the extreme
gracefulness and vigor of women in the face of personal adversity. These
film-makers gave constant effort to present the constructive world of the
female protagonists’ emotions with their supreme artistry and depth of human
understanding.
Again, the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s witnessed a severe decadence
in the portrayal of the ‘heroine’ in mainstream Indian cinema. It was then that
the ‘female’ protagonist was reduced to a ‘heroine’, connoting the image of
mere glamour-dolls, dancing around trees with heroes and performing cabaret
numbers. This way, she was projected as a show-piece or in other words, as a
“feel-good touch” to the film, rather than being a flesh-and-blood human being
in her own right. However, even in the midst of such general decadence, a few
films of Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterjee stood out as prominent
variations with their presentation of the essence of the female soul.
Nevertheless, these films had their common success quotient of romantic songs,
melodies and other “feel-good” factors for which Hindi films are recognized
today. However, the handling of the female protagonist was sensitive enough,
compared to numerous other formula-films released at the same time. Take for
instance, “Abhimaan”, where we see the extremely soulful Jaya Bhaduri giving up
her musical career for the whims of her jealous husband and later coming to
terms with her personal agony through the magical device of music. Again, in
“Mili”, we find another bubbly, spirited Jaya, suddenly struck with Leukemia
and striving to live life with the same animated zeal with her beloved. “Chhoti
si baat” and “Rajnigandha”, on the other hand, reflects on the lives of the
working women of the 70’s and the dilemma they experience with regards to the
men in their lives, though in different contexts.
Leaving aside the mainstream films of Bollywood, the films
of Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Hritwik Ghatak in Bengal should be mentioned
specifically in regard to the psychological exploration of the female
protagonist. Ray, in “Charulata” in the 60’s, introduced us to the magnificent
“Charu” with all her subtlety and quest for a life of creativity. In her
relationship with “Amal”, which begins with Charu exploring her literary and
creative pursuits, the much needed intellectual companionship and attention
forms the crux of this “extra-marital” liaison that changes her inner being
forever. Again, Ray in “Ghare Bairey” and “Mahanagar”, depicts the female ever
grappling with uncertainty and extra-terrestrial reality, with exploring the
emergence of the modern woman in the upper-class of colonial India. One can not
help drawing parallels with Ibsen's “A Doll's House”, as these two films, like
this play, marks the female’s quest for her identity, an introspection of her
soul, and a gradual self-realization, defying all set patterns of a
male-dominated society. On the other hand, Mrinal Sen, in “Ekdin Pratidin”,
explores the turbulent life of a working woman and focuses on her inner turmoil
questioning the so-called “righteousness” of the external world. The film
depicts the trauma induced in a lower-middle class Bengali home when the young
daughter fails to return home on time. As the family is engulfed in anxiety,
many facades crack and unresolved tensions surface, exposing the hypocrisies
and pretensions of so-called “respectability”. Again, in “Durotto”, Sen speaks
of ‘distance’ between a married couple and the pain of their alienation. Mamata
Shankar here plays the wife ravaged by the bitterness of divorce and later
gleaming with the hope of reconciliation.
Hrithwik Ghatak’s “Meghe Dhaka Tara”, “Komolgandhar” and
“Subarnarekha” on the other hand, portrays the conflicting worlds of the
females struggling for livelihood in the post-partition Bengal. The partition,
with its devastating repercussions, forced the women of the middle and
lower-middle class families to turn as bread-winners of the house. The films of
Ghatak, based on these stark fragments of reality, explore the subtle pains of
the women under such engrossing situations.
Today, the depiction of the female protagonist has been ever
more challenging in context of her sexual identity. The seed of this quest was
first sown by the dynamic Aparna Sen in the 80’s with “Paroma”, where the woman
tread the path of so-called “promiscuity” only to gain psychological maturity
in the long run. Today, directors like Deepa Mehta, Mira Nair and Meghna Gulzar
are upright enough to depict ‘taboo topics’ like lesbianism, polygamy and even
surrogate motherhood, where its woman who takes the lead role in proposing,
making love and even in deciding to “lease” her womb without the permission of
her husband-to-be! While in “Fire” and “Kamasutra”, the women brave the world
to explore their sexual desires, in Mahesh Manjrekar’s “Astitva”, the soulful
Aditi gives birth to a child out of wedlock and shatters the vain world of male
vanity when ultimately the truth is disclosed. The film questions the feminist
moral concerns through the detailed examination of sexual and familial relationships.
Again, very recently, in “Shunyo-e-buke”, a Bengali film by Koushik Ganguly,
the protagonist is a flat-chested woman of the 21st century who questions the
very basis of judging the worth of a woman “by her cleavage”. In a vain society
where a well-rounded, curvaceous figure is regarded as a supreme embodiment of
female beauty, where her bust line holds more value than her brain and her
emotions, this hard-hitting film questions the projection of women as sex
objects in Indian society.
Thus, from Hritwik Ghatak’s “Subarnarekha” to Rituparno
Ghosh’s “Bariwali”, from Raj Kapoor’s “Ram Teri Ganga Maili” to Madhur
Bhandarkar’s “Chandni Bar”, we see the changing face of Indian women enmeshed
in their private world of inner turmoil and the external world of multiple
challenges. Women in India, defined by a set of relationships and models of
conduct within the framework of a created society, have over the years, learned
to live under the twin whips of heritage and modernity; and it is welcome if
more and more directors in the coming years project the awakening feminine
consciousness, breaking archetypal patterns with their clarity of perception.
On a lighter note, our elder generation, earlier exposed to the “vampire”
Helen, is now face-to-face with the more “fatal” Urmila Matondkar. Many are
saying that the change is “delicious” for their “filmy” palate!
Source: eslteachersboard.com
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