The representation of women in Hindi cinema

 When watching a movie, have you ever noticed how the camera would pan in and out over an actress's body? Many well-known Hindi tracks, including "Tip Tip Barsa Paani" and any song by Honey Singh, romanticize objectification through their lyrics and camera angles. We overlook the effect that these scenes have had on the audience as we watch scripts with poor structure and content from the comfort of the theater. 

Women were typically prohibited from acting in shows and movies in the early 1900s. It got to the point where a male played the first heroine in an Indian film. Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian cinema, assigned male actor Anna Sulanke the role of Taramati in Raja Harishchandra (1913), the country's first motion picture.

In the 1950s and 1960s, known as the "Golden Era of Bollywood," women were portrayed as strong characters. Take Waheeda Rahman's character in Guide, or Nargis's part in Mother India, a film that praised the idea of women being seen as the nation's pillar of strength. Yet, women continued to be presented through a man’s point of view.

Action films were the next trope to appear, in the 1970s and 1980s. Now, in order to demonstrate that your hero is larger than life and the saviour of this world, the most overused element was him rescuing a woman or exacting revenge on her behalf. To be honest, this was the point at which cinema reached its zenith of absurdity. Women were merely introduced into the narrative to serve as the midpoint or wake-up call for the hero to intervene and serve as her knight in shining armour in response to their violation. 

In the late 1980s, India was seeing its second feminist movement. Women played roles where they had real careers that didn't entail spending their entire lives getting ready for marriage! This started when Raveena Tandon played the part of a journalist in Mohra. Ironically, the only scene from her character in the movie that most of us can remember is the one in which she is dancing in the rain while wearing a yellow saree. 

In Hindi cinema's long past, women have fought to move from the periphery to the center of the story. The representation of women in the business, both in front of and behind the camera, has changed significantly over the past 20 years. As women's representation in crews and higher positions increased, so did the size and prominence of their responsibilities.

The heroines in recent Hindi movies are like Rani (Kangana Ranaut in Queen 2013, a film), who maintain their identity while experiencing the world to the utmost and relishing new things. A welcome break from the norm is Queen. It is not your typical makeover movie where a small-town girl is transformed into a contemporary bombshell and/or meets her prince charming or "true love" all of a sudden. The independent personality of a girl is examined in Vikas Bahl's Queen. A rooted Indian girl travels on vacation and discovers herself far from her family, friends, culture, and society.

Female characters now possessed traits that were previously stripped from them, such as Alia's dedication to serving her country in Raazi, Sridevi's tenacity in English Vinglish to earn her family's respect, Deepika's fierce inner strength in Chhapaak, or Priyanka's independence that gives her the courage to flee a toxic home in Dil Dhadakne Do. These women directors wrote about women in more nuanced ways; women were no longer just overly virtuous or bad; they now had depth.

But are we where we should be? The highest grossing Indian film of 2022, KGF: Chapter 2, has earned over Rs 509 cr at the box office. Yash gives his career best performance as the iconic “Rocky bhai.” But the women? Not really. Rocky kidnaps Reena in the film’s entry sequence to intimidate her father and threatens to keep her with him in his mansion as his "entertainment." Because she has no other option, the heroine ultimately falls in love with him. Unfortunately, the majority of spectators in the theater where I witnessed this appeared to be having fun. Loud applause, whistles, and claps greeted Rocky's description of Reena as his "entertainment." You can see why the typical Indian man is drawn to these heroes. Isn't it the ultimate goal for them to do whatever they want and still be revered?

In particular, positions for women have risen slowly and unproportionately over time. Even in the rapidly evolving media environment of the twenty-first century, where, on the one hand, filmmakers are attempting to give actresses in cinema equitable footing, KGF glorifies and uplifts them while in some ways hollowing out their characters through cinematic misrepresentation. Poetic retribution or a cliché from movies?

Written by: Tanisha Seth