Bollywood’s women: Damsels will progress

It’s no more Ms Nice Girl for the women of today.

Bollywood’s women characters are no longer cardboard stereotypes, but are confident, have oomph and a sensuous, earthy appeal to them. They are no longer all about sugar, spice and everything nice. It’s safe to say that the modern women of Bollywood have weathered the undercurrents of stereotypical portrayal of woman on the big screen, reports timesofindia.com.

From movies like Ishqiya to Ladies Vs Ricky Behl, Tanu Weds Manu, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Delhi Belly, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu and not to mention, The Dirty Picture, film-makers now prefer showing women in powerful roles and avoid the typical ‘damsel in distress’ depiction of the fairer sex.

Previously, directors like Deepa Mehta showed the strength and the weakness of women in her element trilogy Fire (1996), Earth 1947 (1998) and Water (2005). All these films showed controversial aspects of a woman’s life such as practising homosexuality, committing murders and having affairs with men during the mourning period following their husband’s death. Now, more and more directors are jumping on the bandwagon that promotes women as wearing the pants and as being as strong as men if not more and this genre is no catering to a niche market.

Call it the entertainment industry’s smart marketing move to attract this particular target audience to the theatres and multiplexes, or Bollywood’s awakening to the need to giving its women audience content that they can really relate to, this move seems to be fetching more digits in terms of theatrical revenue, reports timesofindia.com.

On the other hand, Pakistani directors have also added to this women’s liberation movement. Directors like Mehreen Jabbar and Oscar-winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy have also kick-started the trend of empowering women through visual campaigns in the country and abroad. Gone are the days when the ‘weaker sex’ used to sit at home and kill time by watching overly glamourised television dramas as Obaid-Chinoy’s recent venture Saving Face shows how a film-maker can show the plight of women — who get subjected to domestic violence — and get an Oscar for it.

SOURCES: SEATTLEEPI.COM, IMDb.COM

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2012.