Women Problems On Silver Screen

Real Heroine In Hindi Cinema

Cinema has played its role in re-imaging women as opposed to the prevalent stereotypes.It is only now that leading women in the Hindi cinema have started commanding an equal price with the male leads. Otherwise the films have always had some great women stars spearing on the silver screen,like Meena Kumari, Devika Rani,Nirupa Roy,Nargis,Smita Patil ,Shabana Azmi and Jaya Bhaduri etc., and whenever films about strong women is discussed,V.Shantaram’s Duniya Na Mane tops the list. In this film ,an orphaned girl,Nirmala, (Shanta Apte ) is married to an old rich widower but she revolts and refuse to consummate union with her husband as her younger step-son casts with roving eyes at home. The similar issue was raised by Kamal Amrohi in his film Daera, in which a 16-year old girl,Meena Kumari,--fortunately she,herself too,was 16 years old—is married tp an ailing man old enough to become her grandfather.The film is blistering indictment of a syatem that heaps injustices upon helpless women.Meena Kumari hardly spoke in the film but used her eyes to such telling effects that wecome away with a deep impression of her character. For all the glamour Nargis brought to the silver screen and more so in the films made under the banner of R.K.Films but her portrayal as Radha in Mehboob Khan’s Mother India stradding the barren fields weighed down by plough ,is one of the enduring images of women in Hindi cinema.

Some of the most memorable films have been those that were women-centric in which heroines not only confronted gender biases but the shaped the changing attitude of the women in the society.

Meena Kumari’s whose personal life remained a shambed, projected her tribulations and agony through her roles so realistically that her reel performances appeared to be a chunk from her real life.The character she played on the silver screen, identified most with one she portrayed in Guru Dutt’s Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam ,as chhoti bahu incarnate in real life. Her role as chhoti bahu had seeds of revolt in it for she challenges a feudal system in which the woman has to just busy themselves with making an remaking jewellery.She claims the attention ,she deserves from her husband even if the end is tragic.It is important to note ,that when Guru Dutt was filming the song,na jao sayian churake bahian,was so matching with her real life that compalled Guru Dutt to have wine to bring originality and to have wine in actual, she was ready to work free of cost in the film.Resultantly, Dutt had to kneed down before her.Her remarkable roles in Mere Apne,Phool aur Patthar,and Dushman etc can’t be ignored

In Shekhar Kapoor’s Bandit Queen, Seema Biswas brought as animal-like wuality to her portrayal that was a take off on the life of dacoit Phoolan Devi. In Raj Kumar Santoshi’s Damini, Meenakshi Sheshadhari witnessed her brother-in-law and his friends rape a maidservant while the entire family conspire to hush up the matter,the docile daughter-in-law.Damini rebels against the family and its respectability code ,celebrating the triumph of courage of an ordinary woman.

Madhu Bala’s classic good looks still enjoys the sex-symbol status in the country ,her lop-sided smile and come-hither looks, she imparted in the tantalizing number aaiye meherban baithiye jan-e-jaan (Howraha Bridge) epitomized magic.The most enduring image of Madhu Bala is when she dared to challenge the might of the Mughal empire while singing pyar kiya to darna kya in Mughal-e-Azam.

In Asit Sen ‘s Khamoshi, Waheeda Rehman as Radha,a nurse in the mental hospitalepitomised resilience of an Indian woman. In Guide, she, as Rosie, was at her expressive best when standing in a cave,cries out Marco Main jeena chahati hoon. She thus voices the anguish of women who suppress their talent and bad marriage. In Hrishikesh Mukerjee’s Abhimaan,Jaya Bhaduri as wife Uma,portrays the travails and turmoils of a wife in whose married life cracks develops as her jealous but less talented husband starts feeling threatened by the success of his own wife.. These films questioned the suppression of a woman’s creativity in marriage.

In Arth and Masoom,Shabana Azmi mirrored the despair and despondency of a wife while accusing her husband of infidelity.In Mirch Masala , Smita Patil slaps an official who feels that he can have the village woman he so desires and to protect her honour ,takes refuge in a spice factory run by women. Resultantly ,the women of the village protest in her favour with the Sarpanch’swife defying her husband and the feudal authority that he represents.In Gulzar’s Aandhi, Suchitra Sen gave a powerful performance of a jilted wife fulfilling her political ambition. The looks of Nutan in Bandini as she poisons the nagging wife of her lover made the role a landmark. The role of Nutan in signifying the plight of a married woman in Khandan,Meherban can’t be ignored. Salma Aga exposing the sufferings of divorced Muslim woman, in B.R. Chopra’s Nikaah, was superb.

These are some of the films in which women showed the dare to go against the tide are odes to womanhood and proved as mirror of the society.

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