Celebrating women who deserved better 
By Subhash K. Jha, March 8, 2008 - 11:43 IST
In Balu Mahendra's Sadma and Shashilal Nair's Grahan, Sridevi and Manisha Koirala played women who surrendered to the male presence almost regressing to being a child. In this era of women being in-charge, it's difficult to come across women who lose themselves into the feeling of gender-free surrender without feeling like the weaker sex.
Oh, how we love to watch women weep on the floor and dance on the rooftop. But what about women of substance….do we ever embrace them without fear? And do filmmakers ever take to them without a backward glance at how the male members of the audiences react to their assertive women? In Madhur Bhandarkar's Corporate, for instance, Bipasha Basu got into an executive suit and played the male game in the corporate world .Finally, though she ended up taking the rap for her man and goes to jail to save his (cowardly) skin.
An instant and immediate hark- back to Nutan in Bandini, 45 years earlier when the actress goes to jail for love. Of course Nutan wore a crumpled saree, not a chic suit. Bandini was no chic flick. But under the apparent apparel has the leading lady really changed?
The woman of substance seems to have drowned in acres of skin show. What would Nutan think of her niece Tanisha romping around with nothing much on except the I-pod in Neal & Nikki? Who was the last truly dignified woman we saw on screen?
Nostalgia isn't the only reason why we find women from the past so appealing. Nargis in Mother India and Meena Kumari in Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam were removed from one another by almost a generation. And yet they were equally enchanting portrayals of the Indian woman in all her splendor.
In the 1980s Shabana Azmi did a series of films about contemporary women. Among them Mahesh Bhatt's Arth, the modern but maudlin saga of a deserted wife, made the maximum impact. Not men but women repeatedly saw Arth and made it a hit. Shabana's another bravura effort at portraying a deserted wife in Pravin Bhatt (Vikram's father)'s Bhavna went unnoticed. She becomes a call girl to bring up her son…the archetypal Fallen Woman rising to become Mother India….Cut to Pradeep Sarkar's Laaga Chunari Mein Daag where Rani Mukherjee becomes a whore to support her family.
Both the films were rejected by the audience. Fallen Women are in for a fall. Gradually, in the 1990s female-oriented cinema lost its sheen. Outstanding film about the Indian woman's sexuality such as Aruna Raje's Rihaee, Ketan Mehta's Mirch Masala, Shyam Benegal's Zubeida and Madhur Bhandarkar's Satta bombed.
Only Yash Chopra's Chandni and Bhandarkar's Chandni Bar clicked. When was the last time you saw a female oriented film doing well?
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Sridevi upset with Rajkumar Santoshi
