HINDI CINEMA: a COMPARATIVE STUDY of COMMERCIAL and PARALLEL CINEMA, POST 1980S

Home , Aashirwad, Abbas Tyrewala, Abhinav Kashyap, Abrar Alvi, Amar Prem, Anubhav Sinha

REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN HINDI CINEMA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF COMMERCIAL AND PARALLEL CINEMA, POST 1980s

THESIS

SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF

Doctor of Philosophy In Women’s Studies

BY SAMIEN KIDWAI

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF DR. SHAHEENA TARANNUM

ADVANCED CENTRE FOR WOMEN’S STUDIES ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) 2016

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Shaheena Tarannum for her continuous support during my PhD study and related research, for her patience, motivation, and immense knowledge. Her guidance helped me throughout my research and while writing this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better supervisor and mentor for my study.

Besides my supervisor, I am thankful to the Director of the Advanced Centre for Women’s Studies, Prof. Nighat Ahmad, for helping me in my research work. I am immensely thankful to all the teachers of the centre for making me understand the subject which was new for me. Thanks to all the non-teaching staff of the centre as well.

I am also grateful to my teachers from the Department of Mass Communication especially Prof. M. Shafey Kidwai, Dr. Pitabhas Pradhan, and Dr. G.K. Sahu who lend me a helping hand whenever I was in need.

On the personal front I would firstly and most importantly like to thank my soulmate, Meraj Ahmad, who not only encouraged me to pursue this course but also helped me a lot personally and professionally to complete it as well. This research study could not have been possible if we both would not have been feminist enough. I hope to set an example to my juniors and future generation especially those who study Gender Studies/Women’s Studies by making them observe the way a man cannot only be a pillar of strength for a woman but can also be adjusting, flexible, and caring which are only considered to be feminine traits. Life can only become fulfilling when both the partners share the burden of responsibilities equally and feel proud to do so.

I am also thankful to my parents, Anjum Kidwai and Musaid Kidwai, who not only help me guide through this research work but have always guided me in every phase of my life. Thanks to my sisters, Farina and Zaara, who unknowingly helped me by indulging in long discussions which eventually enhanced the quality of my thesis. I am grateful to Imran Bhai and Subhadeep for encouraging me always. And of course thank you to my sweet little daughter, Zoey, for always relieving me from the anxiety and pressures of the research by indulging me with some sweet games with her. I really wish one day my research study could be of some benefit to her as well.

A special thanks to all my close friends Sumbul Khan, Khadijah Aayeen, Uzma Chaudhry, Loveeza Khan, Samreen Shaukat, and Shireen Tabassum for lending me their ideas and viewpoints from time to time. Thanks to my buddies Behjat Moni, Shahin Anjum, and Wasfia Jalali for helping me write the research papers related to the study.

And a sincere thanks to all the new friends I made in these few years at the centre including Deeba Abrar, Rida Afreen, Zeba Aslam Khan, and Mohd. Nadeem Khan for being here with me and bearing with my tantrums always. Thanks a lot Sameera aapa and Mohd. Tariq Iqbal for their support and guidance throughout the research study. And thanks to all the other research scholars who shared their viewpoints while various discussions at the centre and enlightening me even at my pre- submission session.

SAMIEN KIDWAI

REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN HINDI CINEMA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF COMMERCIAL AND PARALLEL CINEMA, POST 1980s

ABSTRACT

SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF

Doctor of Philosophy In Women’s Studies

BY SAMIEN KIDWAI

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF DR. SHAHEENA TARANNUM

ADVANCED CENTRE FOR WOMEN’S STUDIES ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH (INDIA) 2016 ABSTRACT

Cinema is a medium of entertainment that reflects socio-cultural practices, customs and based on different ideologies. Hindi cinema or Bollywood is a male dominant industry that produces hundreds of films every year. Most of the films project gender-based social issues in which women are represented from a male viewpoint. Such projections vary from one genre to the other as in commercial Hindi cinema and the parallel cinema. The present study attempted to study different feministic approaches that go in filmmaking in these two distinct genres. Patriarchal values are some of the leading considerations that play dominant role in representation of women in these two genres of Hindi cinema.

Today, cinema structures and systems have changed because of heavy commercialisation, privatisation and globalisation. Hindi film industry is abundant with private investors or producers from the corporate world who influence the filmmaking process as well. Huge corporations with their own profit motives own media houses. These developments are bound to affect the manner in which media scrutinises and covers any issue – gender being an important one. Hindi commercial cinema holds popular appeal whereas art or parallel cinema engages with social issues, middle cinema and regional language cinema. Popular cinema and popular culture are intertwined. They derive inspiration from each other. Films are believed to be the opium of the Indian masses as people depend on this medium to help them escape to a world of fantasy. In a very explicit way, cinema shapes the cultural, social and political values of people of this country. While, the other forms of cinema are also important when it comes to the representation of women, drawing a comparative study between the commercial cinema and the parallel cinema has been the focus of this study.

During the past century Hindi cinema has witnessed a sea-change in the presentation of the women character. It has come a long way ever since the first full-length motion picture in India was produced by Dadasaheb Phalke, the pioneer of Indian film industry who brought together elements from Sanskrit epics to produce his Raja Harishchandra (1913), a silent film. The female roles in the film were played by male actors. The film marked a historic benchmark in the film industry in India. It was a commercial success and paved the way for more such films. From the very 1 first film, it has not been an easy ride. And one reason for this can be the ‘beauty’ which has evolved over time in Indian cinema. Actresses like Madhubala, Wahida Rehman were considered the queens of the Indian cinema during their reign.

For decades Hindi cinema has been male dominated. Themes are used to be explored from the male audience’s point of view and female actors are considered secondary to the male actors. Her role is used to chart out in the context of any male character that is central to the story line– be it hero, villain, father or an elderly male figure. She is devoid of any independent existence. This kind of straight jacketing limits the women’s role to provide glamour, relief, respite and entertainment. And these patriarchal values have been institutionalised in films like Dahej (1950), Gauri (1968), Devi (1970), Biwi ho to Aisi (1988), Pati Parmeshwar (1988) which depicted women as passive, submissive wives as perfect figures and martyrs for their own families.

Film scholar and author Shoma Chatterji says, “Women in Hindi cinema have been decorative objects. Each phase of Hindi cinema had its own representation of women, but they were confined largely to the traditional, patriarchal framework of the Indian society. The ordinary woman has hardly been visible in Hindi cinema.” It has commonly been in the action-packed movies of Akshay Kumar, Sunny Deol and Sunil Shetty, the actress was abruptly placed in the romantic track as a distraction for the viewer from monotonous bouts of violence. So, the moot question is how real were the women characters in the movies? This is something to debate about because values, ideals, principles; morals have dominated the framework in which these films are placed.

Hindi cinema has been essentially male-centric, leaving little space for the female counterparts to evolve and grow as versatile performers. As now we have been seeing increasing numbers of movies creating bold and beautiful of Bollywood. In the past too, we’ve had actresses portraying strong characters who fight the shackles of their social milieu and the very first film is Mother India released in 1957. Considered as one of the finest classics of Indian cinema, the movie looks at the struggle of a rural woman in India, who fights all odds to raise her two sons. The portrayal of the late actress Nargis Dutt is of a loving and brave

2 mother, who struggles to raise her family alone and in the end, saying true to her cause, she kills her evil son to save a woman’s honour.

Women in Indian cinema are born with certain assumptions ranging from cult movies to celluloid blockbusters like Sholay to more recent Fashion that employ themselves as in severe gender issues. They are portrayed either as damsels in distress or demented feminists or simple belly-shaking glam dolls whose sole ambition is to attract the attention of the male gender. In many Indian films it is a common trend to insert ‘item numbers’ which bear no rational connection to the film in anyways, but with an assumption that the film is easily associated. Sometimes the one song ends up making a mark for the film, such as ‘Munni’ from Dabangg, ‘Chikni Chameli’ of Agneepath or ‘Fevicol’ of Dabangg 2.

In order to present the modernity among women, Indian filmmakers have parachuted on an idea that the display of dancing girls in ‘minimum’ clothes is real expression of freedom. On a lighter note, our elder generation, earlier exposed to the “sensuous” Helen, is now face-to-face with the more “fatal” Bipasha Basu. But the Hindi cinema became male-dominated through the nineties and even now, to an extent, with the item song culture. The really big films — those which cross the coveted rupees one billion mark at the box office — objectify women.”

In the present day, the typical Indian woman, item number and individualism share an almost symbiotic relationship. These three ingredients have become the major part of Indian cinema. The stereotypical portrayal of women, which ruled Indian films till a very recent time, has been witnessing a remarkable change – be it the blood thirsty Priyanka from 7 Khoon Maaf, or no nonsense journalist Rani in No One Killed Jessica or Parineeti Chopra as the rebellious lover from Ishaqzaade, each of their characters stood apart from the conventional women and none of them had qualms about it.

Actresses like Vidya Balan (Paa, Dirty Picture, Kahani, Ishqiya) and Konkona Sen Sharma (Page 3, Life in a Metro, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer) have led this change of direction, who have appeared in strong and independent roles which for the time being shifted the camera’s focus from the women’s body to her identity as an individual.

Parallel cinema was a film movement in Indian cinema that originated in Bengal in the 1950s as an alternative to the mainstream commercial Indian cinema, represented especially by popular Hindi cinema. It began as a precursor of the Indian New Wave the next decade. The movement was initially led by Bengali cinema and produced internationally acclaimed filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Tapan Sinha and others. It is known for its serious content, realism and naturalism, with a keen eye on the socio-political climate of the times, and for the rejection of the dance-and-song numbers that are typical of mainstream commercial cinema.

One of the earliest parallel films in Hindi cinema was Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar (1946) that had won the Grand Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival and paved the way for those directors who wanted to show their talents through parallel movies. Though at that time the term ‘parallel cinema’ was not used for such movies, hence, it was only a few years later that the movie came to be known as one of the movies of this genre.

The Parallel Cinema movement began to take shape from the late 1940s to the 1960s which is considered the ‘Golden Age’ of Indian cinema. In the 1960s, the Indian government began financing independent art films based on Indian themes. By the early 1990s, the rising costs involved in film production and the commercialisation of the films had a negative impact on the parallel cinema. The fact that investment returns cannot be guaranteed made art films less popular amongst filmmakers. Political and economic turmoil, television and piracy proved to be fatal threat to parallel cinema, as it declined.

However, in parallel cinema women have always had an equal opportunity to portray their roles along with their male counterparts. Sometimes even the male actors are overshadowed by the female ones. The movie Arth is one of those movies where the female actors are given major roles. Here the two famous women of the parallel cinema, i.e., Smita Patil and Shabana Azmi, were put against the then famous actor of the same cinema, i.e., Kulbhushan Kharbanda. Both the women were so convincing in their roles that the audience could hardly find the need of the male actor in the movie.

This research work planned to do a comparative study of the gender-based considerations that go in filmmaking in two distinct genres of Hindi cinema i.e., commercial cinema and parallel cinema and thereby to study the comparison of these two genres of the Hindi cinema. It focused on the projection of female characters portrayed on screen and how the portrayal of the same character is different in both the genres. If a female actor acts well, the character has to be praised and recognised. But most of the times the male actor took away all the accolades from the female actor who is not given strong or powerful dialogues in the same scene. Though the female actor may still be recognised but will always be overshadowed by her male counterpart. Why such biasness in the commercial cinema? And why such freedom of portrayal of women characters in the parallel cinema? This question needs to dig some concrete answer which lies in some form of patriarchal considerations of male film producers.

Comparing the same characters of some female actors in these two genres is the main aspect of this thesis. To delve into the depth of the difference of the same characterisation of the commercial and the parallel cinema and to extract the main reason behind such a big difference is what this thesis was all about.

Whereas, in Kabhi Kabhi when Rakhee had her last meeting with her lover, she was silent and her lover, played by Amitabh Bachchan, was given all the dialogues. The focus in that scene shifted to the lover rather than to the female character. Though both of the characters were going through a tough time but we can only sense the pain of the male character here. This shows how male characters are given more

5 importance in the commercial cinema while in the parallel cinema both the characters are given equal importance.

There is a number of research methodologies used in various researches. But in this particular research study content analysis and sampling were used as the two main research methodologies. In content analysis the properties of the content were systematically identified and then analysed. In this thesis, randomly selected films of some selected directors were kept as samples and were analysed in terms of gender based biasness.

In commercial cinema, whenever a woman is shown, she is shown satisfying men’s desires and is portrayed as raw material for producing and rearing children. The girls, who are shown in the barest possible outfits until they are married, are denied to have ‘say’ while choosing their life partners. The parents, the custodian of traditions, do that job for them. After getting married these women are mindlessly loaded with the weight of bangles, ornaments, and conventional clothes. Such a turnaround, while artistically displayed on screen, thins the morale of the girls who want to be the captains of their own boats.

In this research we focused on the same characters portrayed by women in commercial and parallel cinema and how the same character was different in both the genres. We observed how the characters have been differentiated. The characters may be as small as that of a maid or as powerful as that of a mother. This research took an account of all those nuances of the characters that has been portrayed on screen to enhance or overshadow a woman’s role.

Women always had the potential to act well on screen and stand tall with their male counterparts. There are cases when their potential is not completely shown to the world in order to boast the patriarchy that has always been omnipotent in our society in each and every sphere of the life. This thesis dwell deep inside the hidden potentials of the women of this particular sphere of life, i.e., Hindi cinema, and the study tried to hopefully come out having a solid proof that women have been and will always be equal to men when it comes to acting and portrayal of a powerful character.

Indian film industry is one of the prolific film industries of the world and surprisingly it was initiated by a pair of foreigners, the Lumiere brothers. Today

Indian cinema is at a very favourable position. With the help of new technology and vibrant creativity, Indian cinema is growing and crossing the borders to get appreciation throughout the world. There are several movies that are being exhibited and shown in various international film festivals. Indian movies are being recognised and appreciated by everyone around the globe. It was in 2013 that the Indian film industry celebrated its 100th year being one of the world’s most prolific film industries.

The main purpose of the cinema was to entertain and to educate the masses. Gradually it became a commercialised medium for people to earn money through making films. The commercial cinema is also known as the mainstream cinema. This kind of cinema is produced with a commercial aspect associated with it. In simple words commercial cinema is a business oriented cinema made for the mass in general. Mainly, all the movies that run in the theatres and shown on the television are the commercial movies. Commercial movies mostly work on a same formula and the structure of the movies is similar to make it a success.

Parallel movies are often known as the art films. These are unique, exclusive, unconventional, and have a signature style of the director or the team. Unlike the commercial movies, parallel films do not have similar themes or settings. They are diverse in terms of plots, themes, and subjects. They are mainly concerned about the social issues and evils related to the society.

The parallel movies came into the Hindi cinema during the 1970s and during the 80s it was at its peak. The 90s saw a decline in the parallel cinema and during the 2000s there was a resurgence in this genre in the Hindi cinema. Hence, the three major decades for the parallel cinema has been chosen for this study. Also, to make the young readers apprehend the content more closely, by choosing movies from the 80s till the 2000s will make them relate the movies in a better way than to choose movies from a later decade.

The study was focused on the representation of women in Hindi Cinema and it compared the difference in the portrayal of female characters in the commercial and parallel movies. After the analysis of the movies and further research this study came to the conclusion that commercial cinema is mostly concerned on the male viewpoint and look at things in the same manner as well.

In 1921, Mahatma Gandhi stated, “To me, the female sex is not the weaker sex; it is the nobler of the two: for it is even today the embodiment of sacrifice, silent suffering, humility, faith and knowledge.”1

The idea of a traditional woman in the Hindi cinema is more or less based on the same pattern. The mind-set of almost the whole of India agrees to this part that women are meant to make compromises, sacrifices without complaining and this shows our supreme culture where women are the caretakers of a family.

People behave in a particular manner because they are being socialised in that particular way. They have seen their mothers and grandmothers, aunts and sisters who perform household chores all through the day. Even if they are working in the public sphere and used to come home late, it is either they who do the laundry, cooking, and other household chores or there is a maid (again a female) who does all this work to help the woman of the house. In any case, the children will see females doing all the household work.

They are being socialised in this way that they feel it is the duty of a female to work inside the house, no matter if she is working outside the house or not. Whereas, the males are the ones who will remain outside the home for the most part of the day and will earn money to buy things for everyone.

The same socialisation is done by our cinema. The movies show a frail picture of females and a strong and macho image is projected by the males. The image of a pious and shy female is positioned opposite the blatant and bold male. Thus, the children are shown everywhere their positions and are practiced to be that way since childhood.

Movies subtly make its way through the unconscious mind of the audience and without any preaching they programme the brain of the viewers. Whatever the reality may be, it is always exaggerated in the movies and accepted by the audiences.

1 Quoted in Jayavardena et.al.: 1986: 95 8 known name in the Hindi film industry. She was considered to be the queen of Bollywood since she had been giving blockbuster hits during the late 80s to the 90s. Still if we look at the roles that she had played in many of her movies, we could see how her male counterpart used to overshadow her hard work.

One of her movies that was taken in chapter four of this thesis that dealt with the film analysis, was Ram Lakhan that was directed by a renowned director, Subhash Ghai, and was released in 1989. The movie showed her as a simple village girl who was completely dependent upon her father and after getting involved with Lakhan, she became dependent upon him. Her exploitation in the movie has shown at several places. One of them was the incident when she was been asked to perform in a mansion and was referred to as a prostitute by the host in a degrading and humiliating way. Therefore, her role showed her as a timid and submissive girl who could not stand up for herself.

In contrast to her male lead who was not only smart and cunning but also avenged her father death in a brave manner. Here the two characters were totally different and the male was shown in a superior position to his female lead.

Women subordination is an old age practice, since the patriarchal society came into being this practice can be observed. Male domination over their female counterparts is sometimes not even looked upon as an issue in many places of the world. But still when women continued to be subjugated through generations, they finally decided to raise their voices against such oppression. They wanted to free themselves from the shackles of such bondage. This voice that women raised against female exploitation has been given the name of ‘Feminism’. Feminists simply want to uplift the position of females in this male-dominating society.

Men have been repressing the female rights for too long when finally some women stood up against the old age customs. Feminism was started for the equality of men and women. It was a movement started for the social, political, and economic equality of everyone. Equality is, basically, a balance between a male and a female with the intention of liberating the individual. Feminism is a human rights movement. It is about proclaiming equal rights for every human being, men or women. It wanted to spread egalitarianism around the globe. The feminist scholars have divided the study of feminism into different waves based on the beliefs and ideologies pursued by the women in a particular time period.

In all these movies that were analysed in this study, different decades produced different kinds of stories. Yet a huge change in the parallel movies can be seen from depicting rural women (Rudaali) to urban women (Monsoon Wedding), and from the confident village girls (Mirch Masala) to the smart new age professional girls (Phir Milenge). Still the commercial cinema depicted women in more or less the same light from a dependent and meek girl in Ram Lakhan to a shy yet professional girl in Munna Bhai MBBS.

If we look into the trajectory of both the genres, we can see how innovative ideas were adapted and acknowledged in the parallel cinema became hugely successful when compared to the new perceptions adapted in the commercial cinema.

While bold female characters are shown in the parallel movies, meek and timid ones are shown in most of the commercial movies. A crude reality can be seen through the representation in the parallel films. The attitude and behaviour of the female characters are much smarter even if they are seen to be villagers. For instance, in Manthan (1976), the character of Bindu was shown to be a bold one when she scolded Dr. Rao after he took a small sample of the milk from her house. She was courageous enough to follow him and then explain the whole matter in front of a crowd of villagers. But when we see the character of Gehna in Virasat (1997) that was released two decades later, she was portrayed as a shy woman who followed her husband’s words blindly.

Such portrayal clearly shows that parallel cinema was not only bold but also ahead of its time, as some would say, and showed a much realistic picture without pleasing or falsely depicting any character.

As the new millennium barged in, it came with a lot of experiments, innovations, and excitement with it. Those bold movies that were used to make their way through the parallel movies in the 80s and 90s made their way in the commercial cinema in a full-fledged manner. Bold themes and serious storylines were dealt with pleasure in the movies that were meant for the youth that was controlling the box office of our country. More than ever, it was the time when male body also became the object of desire. Females got a chance to engage in voyeurism and they were able to ogle shamelessly.

This was the time when the females stop accepting the orders of the males and start finding the answers for themselves. They have broken the shackles of bondage that were clutching their feet for too long now. They were free from the societal as well as the psychological barriers which were put forth by the patriarchal society to hold them back. Females were free to make their own choices something that they were denied to acquire from the past several centuries under the classical male oriented society.

Clearly it shows the transformation of a traditional saree clad woman who was usually seen doing all the household chores to the modern fashionista classy woman who has an attitude of a devil and a personality of an angel.

Just like the male with their testosterone running through their blood were shown in a negative way in the movies, here females were shown sexually charged in a positive light. Movies were made where such taboo subjects were dealt with precision and creativity, including Amit Saxena’s Jism (2003), Abbas-Mustan’s Aitraz (2004), Anurag Basu’s Murder (2004), and Siddharth Anand’s Salaam Namaste (2005).

The trend for the films have been continuously changing with females gaining equal and sometimes more screen space/time with their male counterparts. It can be the beginning of a new era, a period where even if females are not the rulers, they are also not the slaves of the patriarchal society which have oppressed their free soul and have snipped their wings for too long.

Contents

Acknowledgements i-ii

Chapter I Introduction 1-42

Chapter II Hindi Cinema: Commercial and Parallel Cinema 43-108 Commercial Movies 78 Parallel Movies 85 Some Early Commercial and Parallel Hindi Movies 90 Ankur 91 Trishul 93 Manthan 96 Bhumika 98 Nishant 101 Purab Aur Paschim 102 Sholay 103 Amar Prem 105

Chapter III Theories: Feminist Theories and Film Theories 109-140 Feminist Theories 112 i. Liberal Feminism 112 ii. Radical Feminism 115 iii. Marxist Feminism 118 iv. Socialist Feminism 121 v. Amazon Feminism 124 vi. Eco Feminism 126 vii. Cultural Feminism 128 Film Theories 130 i. Auteur Film Theory 131 ii. Psychoanalytic Film Theory 133 iii. Marxist Film Theory 136 iv. Feminist Film Theory 138

Chapter IV Film Analysis: The 1980s 140-165 Laawaris 146 Bazaar 147 Arth 150 Mirch Masala 152 Namak Halaal 155 Mandi 157 Prem Rog 159 Ram Lakhan 162

Chapter V Film Analysis: The 1990s 166-189 Rudaali 168 Fire 170 1947 Earth 173 Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa 176 Hum 179 Hum Aapke Hain Koun…! 181 Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge 183 Border 186

Chapter VI Film Analysis: The 2000s 190-11 Monsoon Wedding 191 Phir Milenge 194 15 Park Avenue 196 Dor 198 Dil Chahta hai 201 Munna Bhai MBBS 203 Om Shanti Om 206 Dabangg 208

Chapter VII Conclusion 212-38

Bibliography 239-68 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Films are mere reflection of the society so much so that sometimes they can even influence the public opinion or can mould the viewpoint of the public of the society. Films are one of the important tools of mass communication. In India, when the films came into being, they were either devotional or morally influential. People used to teach the society and implant the good morals and ethics in them.

“Bollywood” is a term created by the English language press in India in the late 1970s. It has now become the dominant global term to refer to the prolific and box- office oriented Hindi language film industry that is located in Bombay (now known as Mumbai). Cinema in India encompasses a great deal more diversity and has a longer history than the Bombay film industry. Even as a British colony, India was the third largest producer of films in the world.

India’s first fiction film was ‘Raja Harishchandra’ in 1914 by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke (also known as Dadasaheb Phalke) who is considered to be the pioneer of Indian cinema. Though, unlike the popular belief that it was the first movie of Indian cinema, it has to be made clear that it was just the first fiction film of India. India had had a thriving nascent film industry since 1896 mainly on the periphery of a vast and well-entrenched theatre industry, including in particular the famous Parsee theatre and commercial theatrical troupes in its main presidency cities of Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and many other cities like Lucknow and Lahore.

This first feature film had a great influence on the society and made way for more such movies. Growth of movies began by creating different genres in them. Comedy, tragedy, romantic, mythological, historical are only some of the genres developed by the makers of the Indian films. Imaginative growth took place by creating different plots and stories in the films.

However, sound and music came into Indian cinema much later in 1931 with the release of Indian first talking film on 14th March, Alam Ara, at the Majestic Theatre

1 in Bombay (now Mumbai). The movie was promoted as an “all talking, all singing, all dancing film”. The movie had seven songs in it and director Ardeshir Irani established song and dance as staples of Indian cinema with this movie.

With the arrival of sound in the movie, the percentage of foreign films being screened in India dropped tremendously within a decade to less than 10 percent. Film industries in Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Lahore, and Pune started growing hastily even without state supports.

But with the advent of sound came a new complication into the filmmaking process, regarding the language of the film. India being a nation of several languages, the filmmakers were perplexed as to in which language they should make their movies. Bombay itself was a polyglot city and it was not an easy decision to be made. Hindi was the only language that offered the largest markets because most of the population spoke one or the other version of it. But there was still some confusion regarding which version of Hindi be used in the movies as even Hindi language was spoken differently in different regions. Finally filmmakers decided to use Hindustani as their main language of the film, which was a mixture of Hindi and Urdu spoken at that period of time. This language was mainly associated to the bazaars that was a lingua franca across the northern and central regions of the country.

Another complication was for the filmmakers to find such actors who could be able to speak this language and could also be able to sing. It was evident at this time that the Anglo-oriental women and the wrestlers who were dominating the cinema of the early period were no longer applicable.

The connection between Indian films and literary works can be seen from the initial stage of the cinema. And it is still evident from many films taking their main themes or plots from any classic book or scriptures. Ramayana and Mahabharata are the two epic classics that are still being used as an inspiration for several Indian films. Dada Sahab Phalke’s “Raja Harishchandra” was the earliest example of such a case that was based on a legend included in the Mahabharata. This film started a trend of epic-derived movies for the Indian audience.

Then there was another genre that was neglected for quite some time, which was that of the historical. Literature plays a major role in the contribution of several historical movies. However, many famous historical films are not exactly based upon the historical evidences. One of such examples is “Mughal-e-Azam” (1960) by K. Asif. However this movie was based on an earlier film “Anarkali” (1953) by Nandlal Jaswantlal that is said to be a remake of yet another earlier film regarding the same theme. And all of these so-called historical films can be traced back to an Urdu play of 1922 by Imtiaz Ali Taj named “Anarkali”. This new version of the historical epic became successful and it eliminated the real evidences of the history from the minds of the audiences.

There has been an ongoing debate on the connection between the cinema and the construction of the national history. The connection between the two, however, cannot be seen clearly as many movies are either inspired or directly based on literature that is not historically proven. We can ignore the sources and can easily point out many salient features of such literary piece of works as typical for the period of the movie.

Women in Films

At first, only men used to act in the films, not unlike the theatre where men used to enact the roles of the females, in movies also men played the part of the females. Only a handful of women used to act in Indian movies, and those who were, considered to be disrespectful and impious. Though the first female film director dates back to 1926, where Fatima Begum established Fatima Films, which later on in 1928 became Victoria - Fatima Films, and started making films. She had started her career in the Urdu theatre and shifted to the silent films. In 1926 she directed the film Bulbul-e-Paristan and became the first female director of Indian cinema.

During the earliest years of cinema when Dada Sahab Phalke was starting to make films, he was unable to find women to act. Most of the women were unwilling to act because of a stigma associated with the film industry. Also, singing and dancing was closely identified with that of prostitutes and courtesans which means that it was not something done within a decent society. The image of movies used to violate the ruling norms and ethics of the female modesty. Although most of the prostitutes

3 were also against acting in films as this could mean to disclose their occupation to the public.

Hence, for his first film, Raja Harishchandra, Phalke casted a young man to play the role of Queen Taramati. This was not something new to the audience as in many folklore around the country the role of females were played by male actors. Phalke casted his own family members frequently in his movies to solve this problem of casting unwilling female actors. Women started acting in Indian films by the 1920s when most of the actors were either British or European having Indian parentage, being Christian or Jews, who were commonly called Anglo-Indians. Their hybrid ethnic and cultural heritage was a positive point for them to be casted in films as they were already segregated from the crowd of the normal Indian society and, therefore, were less constrained regarding respectability.

In the initial years of the 19th century people opposed to make their way into the theatre as a profession especially if they belong to the educated middle class. Women’s involvement was also taboo, both as actors and as spectators as well. This level of morality and modernity was undoubtedly gendered. Certain dominant literary and cultural values of that period also condemned some women as the ‘other’, which includes the prostitutes, theatre artists, midwives, and Dalit women. Such actions were closely linked to control the women’s sexuality and to moralist reformist endeavours.

An essay by Lata Singh, “Foregrounding Actresses’ Question”, showed how theatre women were seen as the antithesis of the idealised women that clearly reflected the moralist anxiousness of the reformers. The cultural domain and participation in the theatre of such women were marked as lewd and they were considered as a threat to domesticity because they broke the distinctions between the private and the public domains. Lata Singh argued in her essay that these women have to be seen as workers and their work has to be linked to the issues of livelihood.

Slowly and gradually glamour was added to the world of movies but only on the female part. More women started to make their career in the film industry, not only as actors but also as singers and dancers. But the industry maintained to be male- dominated. The high posts and ranks in the industry were only for the males. Male-

4 oriented subjects were the basis of almost all the stories of the films. There were only a handful of female-oriented movies in the early 1900s.

Though the focus did not shift from the males to the females, but female actors also started to be seen in major and powerful roles in the late 1900s. Females were recognised as one of the important figures of this industry. Gradually more females started making their career in this field.

The colonial and post-colonial India has always been seen as having a gendered history for most of the feminist historiographers.

In their quest for non-elite viewpoint to comprehend historical processes, many subaltern historians have made an imprint on gender historiography of colonial India. They point to the intimidating trait of modernity and explained that the vital question with respect to women in the 19th century was not what women need rather how to modernise them, and this contained other intimidating characteristics. Several authors in their works have shown how existing disparities between men and women were not only intensified but also unavoidably systematised in the colonial period. In the meantime, subaltern historians have had an edgy relationship with feminist historiographies.

Gradually education among the women, increasing exposure through political participation in the public domain, which was before then considered to be a solely male domain, created insecurities for the patriarchal society. The traditional distinction of gendered spaces was becoming unsound and unacceptable to many. Lately, the vital responsibility for the feminist historians, either for gender studies or for feminist scholars, was to show the history where women are also visible.

Emergence of a New Genre

After the collapse of the major film studios like Bombay Talkies, Prabhat, and New Theatres, a new speculative climate of the industry emerged to make more profit by driving larger audience into the cinema halls. By the 1950s the Indian Film industry reformulated genre and audience appeal. It resulted in the encouragement of the sensational attractions of action, speculation and dance into the social film. The

5 industry induced these attractions mainly to lure the mass audience. Hence, a large number of the films produced in the 1950s are called ‘socials’.

It was during the 1950s that a new wave of film making started in the Bengal cinema. It was named as the New Wave Cinema Movement. This movement was started around the same time when the world saw the emergence of the Japanese New Wave and the French New Wave. The movies under this are known as ‘parallel’ or ‘art’ movies. This revival is a vital chapter in the history of Indian cinema. There is no real theory behind this movement. It was just a reflection of various objectives that were somewhat missing or highly underrated in the films of that era. These included a perspective which was largely humanistic and realistic in its manner of portrayal. They also adopted a linear type narrative and a carefree psychological representation of the characters. They wanted to establish a realistic picture of the social and political systems of the society. It was basically a breakaway from the idealism of the post-independence India. The use of the song and dance was also avoided unless the story requires it or it can be integrated in the narrative.

Initially these movies were shocking for the conservative audience because of the straightforwardness of the sexual representation in many of these movies. Unlike the commercial films where such portrayal were only suggestive and sometimes touching the obscenity mark. Except for a few films, these traits of the films belonging to this genre were seemingly unpleasant for the general audience who wanted to watch movies for entertainment as an excuse for a getaway from their daily routine life.

This wave influenced the Hindi movies as well. Though there is no particular year in which we could point out the first parallel film in the Hindi cinema, but it was this wave of ‘New Cinema’ that came into the limelight in the Hindi films during the 1970s. The earliest examples can be Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar (1946), a social realist film that even won the Grand Prize at the first Cannes Film Festival. There have been many earlier films that combined features of both commercial and parallel films; an example of such a film is Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zameen (1953). The film won the International Prize at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival.

However, during 1955, Indian film industry that was vigorous and productive for the past few years gained worldwide attention through the Bengali films made by Satyajit Ray, including Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956), and Apur Sansar (1959). All these movies came under this new emerged genre of filmmaking.

Urban critics widely appreciated movies such as Ankur (1974), Nishant (1975), and Manthan (1976) as being great examples for the Indian “new movement” or “parallel cinema”. These movies rejected the age old clichés of the popular cinema being shorter in length, with little or no dance or song in the movies, and having a very realistic approach to the theme of the film. It also focussed on the social issues of the society through the lens of progressive leftist politics. There is another name given to such movies, “middle cinema”. Supposedly these movies were seen to be located between the mass market entertainment films and the non-commercial experimental or avant-garde movies. However, their target audience were primarily the educated urban middle class people of the country.

The evidently decline of this rejuvenating movement in the final years of the 1980s showed the lasting preference of the masses for the big budgeted melodramatic and larger than life movies. Even the popular filmmakers like Shyam Benegal had to turn toward more accessible and marketable films in order to please the audiences which had been a subject of many critical analysis.

Women and the New Wave Cinema

However, in the 70s when the New Wave paved way for the parallel movies in Hindi cinema, several directors tried their hand on this realistic art form. Mani Kaul’s films such as Uski Roti (1971), Ashadh ka ek Din (1972), and Duvidha (1974) are some of the earliest examples during the boom of the parallel movies in Hindi cinema.

Surprisingly the female actors have primary and important roles in most of the parallel films as compared to the commercial films where the camera seldom shifts its focus from the male actors. Many parallel films are female oriented and those which are male oriented have vital roles for the females in the movie. In the parallel films the females are not treated as an object rather they are treated as the subject

7 unlike the commercial films where females are used as mere mannequins who are mainly required for the glamour in the film.

In parallel cinema women have always had an equal opportunity to portray their roles along with their male counterparts. Sometimes even the male actors are overshadowed by the female ones. The movie Arth is one of those movies where the female actors are given major roles. Here the two famous women of the parallel cinema, i.e., Smita Patil and Shabana Azmi, were put against the then famous actor of the same cinema, i.e., Kulbhushan Kharbanda. Both the women were so convincing in their roles that the audience could hardly find the need of the male actor in the movie.

Indian films are always seen to be offering something positively different from Hollywood celluloid perhaps because it always has its own vast distribution markets. Throughout its long history, Indian cinema has evolved as a form which has resisted the cultural imperialism of Hollywood. But this does not mean that it has not been influenced by Hollywood. The Indian film kind has undergone a perpetual change and there has been both inspiration and assimilation from Hollywood and other cinemas, but Indian cinema has remained remarkably distinctive in terms of the theme and structure of the films.

Women and Commercial Cinema

Cinema is a medium of entertainment that reflects socio-cultural practices, customs and based on different ideologies. Hindi cinema or Bollywood is a male dominant industry that produces hundreds of films every year. Most of the films project gender-based social issues in which women are represented from a male viewpoint. Such projections vary from one genre to the other as in commercial Hindi cinema and the parallel cinema. The present study will attempt to study different feministic approaches that go in filmmaking in these two distinct genres. Patriarchal values are some of the leading considerations that play dominant role in representation of women in these two genres of Hindi cinema.

This research will compare the roles of females in the commercial and the parallel films and how are they projecting them. The study will also focus on the importance

8 of female actors in the parallel films and how the female actors having the same characters in the commercial films are not given much importance.

The historical background of the Indian cinema will be discussed. In particular the history of the Hindi commercial cinema and the Hindi parallel cinema will be discussed. Indian cinema is the world’s biggest film industry which includes films in various languages like Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Malayalam, Telegu and Tamil, etc. From all of this, the research will focus mainly on the Hindi cinema.

Also this research will show how the potential of women in the field of cinema is sometimes overshadowed purposely by the patriarchy revolving around us. Females are not less than males anywhere and in any field be it cinema and films for that matter. This research will focus mainly on the female characters that are portrayed in the Hindi commercial cinema in juxtaposition to the same characters portrayed differently in the Hindi parallel cinema. This study wants to show how women are merely projected as objects in the commercial cinema and how they are given meaningful and sensible roles in the same industry’s other genre, i.e., the parallel cinema.

It has been years since in the world of Bollywood the ideal woman is seen as a suffering and devoted wife, also known to be pativrata, whose duty is to serve her

10 husband and his family. It does not matter if she has to put up with the humiliation at their hands because that is her sole duty and a sacred obligation as well. Such humiliation, servility, and slavery of a woman in her spouse’s home, that is her sasural, was considered as a praiseworthy act for an ideal Indian woman. The viewers watch such movies and share these cultural behaviours to the women in their community. They look at these projections as empowering for women.

The ethics and culture of India is shown and legitimised through the way a woman is portrayed in the Indian movies. In the early Indian films, the ideal Indian woman was always represented through the point of view of the heroine, the hero’s mother or sister and was a typical Hindu woman who never did anything against the wishes of the hero. But the vamp (female villain) used to be an Anglo-Indian or westernised woman, mostly a sexually promiscuous woman who was just the opposite of the innocent heroine. The vamp was also shown as an outsider to the Indian norms and traditions.

India has a history of colonialism and that is why when the films of the 1960s or 1970s showed vamps as Anglo-Indians the filmmakers were using the act of defiance and were asserting their cultural superiority over the other western cultures. It was a voluntary act by the writers and the filmmakers of that time.

Women and Present Hindi Cinema

In order to present the modernity among women, Indian filmmakers have parachuted on an idea that the display of dancing girls in ‘minimum’ clothes is real expression

11 of freedom. On a lighter note, our elder generation, earlier exposed to the “sensuous” Helen, is now face-to-face with the more “fatal” Bipasha Basu. But the Hindi cinema became male-dominated through the nineties and even now, to an extent, with the item song culture. The really big films — those which cross the coveted rupees one billion mark at the box office — objectify women.”

Growth of Parallel Cinema

However, as discussed earlier, parallel cinema was a film movement in Indian cinema that originated in Bengal in the 1950s as an alternative to the mainstream commercial Indian cinema, represented especially by popular Hindi cinema. It began as a precursor of the Indian New Wave the next decade. The movement was initially led by Bengali cinema and produced internationally acclaimed filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Tapan Sinha and others. It is known for its serious content, realism and naturalism, with a keen eye on the socio- political climate of the times, and for the rejection of the dance-and-song numbers that are typical of mainstream commercial cinema.

The Parallel Cinema movement began to take shape from the late 1940s to the 1960s which is considered the ‘Golden Age’ of Indian cinema. In the 1960s, the Indian

12 government began financing independent art films based on Indian themes. By the early 1990s, the rising costs involved in film production and the commercialisation of the films had a negative impact on the parallel cinema. The fact that investment returns cannot be guaranteed made art films less popular amongst filmmakers. Political and economic turmoil, television and piracy proved to be fatal threat to parallel cinema, as it declined.

There may be various reasons for such a difference in the same industry and this study will delve into the depth of those reasons through feministic theories and film theories. Not all the feministic theories or the film theories will be dealt with in this study. Only the relevant theories will be taken into account while analysing the study and its contents.

This research work is planned to do a comparative study of the gender-based considerations that go in filmmaking in two distinct genres of Hindi cinema i.e., commercial cinema and parallel cinema and thereby the study the comparison of these two genres of the Hindi cinema. It will focus on the projection of female characters portrayed on screen and how the portrayal of the same character is different in both the genres. If a female actor acts well, the character has to be praised and recognised. But most of the times the male actor took away all the accolades from the female actor who is not given strong or powerful dialogues in the same scene. Though the female actor may still be recognised but will always be overshadowed by her male counterpart. Why such biasness in the commercial cinema? And why such freedom of portrayal of women characters in the parallel cinema? This question needs to dig some concrete answer which lies in some form of patriarchal considerations of male film producers.

This study will also analyse the content in terms of various movies selected from the commercial as well as the parallel Hindi cinema. The research will be done by comparing the female characters portrayed differently in both these genres in detail. The content will be chosen randomly and the analysis will be done precisely.

Comparing the same characters of some female actors in these two genres is the main aspect of this thesis. To delve into the depth of the difference of the same

13 characterisation of the commercial and the parallel cinema and to extract the main reason behind such a big difference is what this thesis is all about.

For instance, the character of Supriya Pathak in Bazaar (1982) was that of an obedient daughter who was forced to get married to the person she did not love. The similar character was played by Rakhee in Kabhi Kabhi (1976) who was forced to leave her beloved and marry someone else. But the portrayal of both the women in the same condition was quite different. When in Bazaar Supriya Pathak met her beloved for the last time, she had no such dialogues to deliver rather a song was played in the background and both the lovers bid farewell only with their expressions. Here both the lovers were given equal attention while projecting this melancholic situation. Whereas, in Kabhi Kabhi when Rakhee had her last meeting with her lover, she was silent and her lover, played by Amitabh Bachchan, was given all the dialogues. The focus in that scene shifted to the lover rather than to the female character. Though both of the characters were going through a tough time but we can only sense the pain of the male character here. This shows how male characters are given more importance in the commercial cinema while in the parallel cinema both the characters are given equal importance.

There is not much done in this particular field of study. Either there is content about the commercial Hindi cinema or there is the material available for the parallel Hindi cinema. But there is no such comparison and when it comes to the potential of women in both the genres, there is almost no such research or study done. Related studies are done to show the potential of women in commercial cinema or how the female characters are moulded in the Hindi films.

This study is being done to add to the existing content of both of these genres of the Hindi cinema which can be in a later stage be useful to the future scholars and analysts. It will be helpful for the people to read the comparison of the female portrayal and their diverse styles in the Hindi cinema.

This study will also refer to all the available books and journals which deal with the same subject of this research. The review of all those literature will be dealt in this study to throw some more light on this subject.

Chapter Division of the Thesis

When the structure and the organisation of this research is concerned, it has to be taken into account that this study contains six chapters overall. All chapters pertaining to the core objective of the research will give a complete view on the female portrayal in the Hindi cinema and how in the same film industry there can be differences in the projection of females in two different genres.

The introductory chapter provides the context and a brief history which is vital to understand the remainder of the research work. It briefly explains the history of filmmaking in India from its origins.

The second chapter deals with the definition of both the genres of the Hindi cinema, i.e., the commercial and the parallel cinema. The historical background of these cinemas is further been discussed in detail. The present scenario of the Hindi cinema is explained and the review of the available secondary literature is discussed.

The third chapter deals with the finding of the relation between the relevant feministic theories concerned with the study, whether it is liberal, socialist, or radical. The viewpoints of each theory will be taken into account and how they are relevant in this particular study is discussed.

The analysis of the selected films is done in the fourth, fifth and sixth chapters. Eight films from each decade, four from each genre, post 1980s till 2000s is being analysed. The content selected in this chapter is random and the films are taken from the commercial as well as the parallel Hindi cinema both. It will also have the interpretation of the whole content of this research. This chapter which deals with the content analysis is further being discussed in terms of interpretation. How the content is interpreted and what is derived from the analysis is discussed in this chapter in a detailed way.

15 young readers apprehend the content more closely, by choosing movies from the 80s till the 2000s will make them relate the movies in a better way than to choose movies from a later decade.

The seventh and the final chapter is that of conclusions and suggestions, which means that the conclusions will be drawn from the overall research. The content analysis and its interpretations are further discussed by drawing the conclusion of the whole study. The main objective of the research is emphasised and conclusions will be drawn from the whole study.

There is a number of research methodologies used in various researches. But in this particular research paper content analysis will be used as the main research methodology. In content analysis the properties of the content are systematically identified and then analysed. In this thesis, randomly selected films of some selected directors will be analysed in terms of gender based biasness. We will analyse the factors of such biasness in commercial cinema. We will also observe and analyse why the other genre is devoid of such biasness. We will gather the main reason of shadowing the potential of the female characters in the commercial cinema.

In this research we will focus on the characters portrayed by women in commercial and parallel cinema and how those characters are different in both the genres. We will also see in what respect the characters have been differentiated. The reasons of such difference will be extracted with examples and proof and they will be analysed accordingly. The characters may be as small as that of a maid or as powerful as that of a mother. This research will have an account of all those nuances of the characters that has been portrayed on screen to enhance or overshadow a woman’s role.

Women always had the potential to act well on screen and stand tall with their male counterparts. There are cases when their potential is not completely shown to the world in order to boast the patriarchy that has always been omnipotent in our society in each and every sphere of the life. This thesis will dwell deep inside the hidden potentials of the women of this particular sphere of life, i.e., Hindi cinema, and will hopefully come out having a solid proof that women have been and will always be equal to men when it comes to acting and portrayal of a powerful character.

Feminism and Cinema

Women subordination is an old age practice since the patriarchal society came into being. Male domination over their female counterparts is sometimes not even looked upon as an issue in many places of the world. But still when women continued to be subjugated through generations, they finally decided to raise their voices against such oppression. They wanted to free themselves from the shackles of such bondage. This voice that women raised against female exploitation has been given the name of ‘Feminism’. Feminists simply want to uplift the position of females in this male- dominating society.

The traces of feministic actions are not only limited to a particular field. We can now see feminism in almost all the spheres of life. People are demanding equal rights for women and are trying to make an egalitarian society. These people are not only females but many of them are males as well. Many people have this illusion of believing the common myth that feminists can only be females and there is no place for any males. They even believe that feminists are basically male-haters and they want to make a matriarchal society.

However, this is not only wrong but absolutely impossible as well. No feminist wants any of these. Feminists simply demand equal rights for all and want that both males and females share equal burden in private and public spheres. Making an egalitarian society is the main objective of feminism.

Women have always played important roles in the society but they have never given their due respect. Most of the societies are dominated by men and controlled by them. Only in a handful of the progressive societies, women have the decision- making power. This exercise of the decision-making by women was not started in a

17 day; it took a lot of effort and a lot of time. It has been a continuous process to assert the equal rights for women by many women and some men as well. This process wanted to bring about a change in the society and it was termed as ‘Feminism’. Men have been repressing the female rights for too long when finally some women stood up against the old age customs. Feminism was started for the equality of men and women. It was a movement started for the social, political, and economic equality of everyone. Equality is, basically, a balance between a male and a female with the intention of liberating the individual. Feminism is a human rights movement. It is about proclaiming equal rights for every human being, men or women. It wanted to spread egalitarianism around the globe. The feminist scholars have divided the study of feminism into different waves based on the beliefs and ideologies pursued by the women in a particular time period.

The year 1972 was an important year for the women’s film movement and the development of the feminist film theory and practice. In the month of August, in conjugation with the Edinburgh Film Festival, a women’s event was held for the very first time. Fortunately for all the women, it proved to be a successful one. This, however, encouraged many and in the early 1973, Claire Johnston organised a season of women’s cinema at the National Film Theatre in London.

Feminist film making was encouraged by many but it was always surrounded by the clouds of political debates. It was inevitable for the development of a film theory. At that early phase, feminist film theory was mainly concerned with the representation of women in relation to the dominance of the male power structure within the patriarchal society. Many women, especially from the academic background, helped in the development, but it was perhaps Laura Mulvey and Claire Johnston who are said to be the progenitors of the feminist film theory. Both were actively involved in the development of this theory and wrote seminal articles which had huge impact on the study.

One of the earliest articles on feminist film theory and practice is Claire Johnston’s “Women’s Cinema as Counter-cinema” (1973). Johnston argues that women are stereotyped in films since the days of silent cinema. She challenged such a narrow depiction of females. Women are often seen as an extension of male vision and Johnston criticises such roles saying, “It is probably true to say that despite the

18 enormous emphasis placed on woman as spectacle in the cinema, woman as woman is largely absent.” 1

Johnston wanted filmmakers to break through the earlier norms and change the ruling ideology. She stressed her point in diverting from the conventions and use films as a political tool as well as for entertainment. She spoke about the importance of developing a film practice that questions and challenges main stream dominant cinema and its patriarchal basis. She used a term ‘counter-cinema movement’ which will be linked to avant-garde and left wing films.

First wave of feminism

The first wave of feminism is said to be between 1860s and 1920s.2 During this period, women started to make their voices heard at the various educational institutions. It helped in spreading feminist knowledge to students who were both male as well as female. The first wave of feminism mainly focused on the equal rights of the women. The demand for right to vote has been made during this wave. Mary Wollstonecraft spoke about the importance of social equality among women in her work ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’. She is regarded as the mother of British feminism. Then the first American feminist against the phallocentric society was Margaret Fuller who wrote ‘Woman in the Nineteenth Century’ in 1845. Thereafter many others initiated the feminist consciousness in writing such as, Rebecca West, Virginia Woolf, Dorothy Richardson, John Stuart Mill, and Olive Schruners. However, some of the prominent feminist spokespersons in the United States were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Their efforts made a huge change in the American constitution and in the 1920 an amendment was made which granted women the right to cast their votes. A huge change also took place when the right to practice birth control was granted in the America.

Second wave of Feminism

After the positive results of the first wave, the second wave of feminism gained momentum in the 1960s. Women now started to emphasise on their right to

1 Johnston 1973: 214 2 Mukherjee, Debashree; Feminism: Theories and Impact, 2008, Icfai Books

19 education and their right to choose career apart from being just homemakers. The second wave of feminism was more focussed on the equal rights in the sphere of employment and education for women. Feminists wanted to end the discrimination of women in these fields. In 1973, the United States Supreme Court passed a decision declaring that abortion is legal to be practiced by women in all the 50 states of the country. This made the women take control of their reproductive rights.

Third wave of Feminism

The third wave is the result of the misgivings of the second wave and continues upto the present day. Many believe that the third wave only bring to light the obstacles that the second wave had discussed earlier but many others are of the opinion that the third wave promoted the vital points put on the fore by the previous waves. In the early nineties women became more confident in their skin and demanded solutions for the various obstacles faced by them in that era. This wave criticised the media for an unfair projection of women and the inequality in treatment at the workplace. The third wave emphasised on the equal status of women at workplace and that of the homemakers. Feminists argued that initiatives must be taken for the working mothers to balance both home and workplace in a pleasant way. However, the third wave lacked a goal which was prominent in the previous two waves of feminism. The third wave erupted as a reaction to the misgivings of the second wave and did not have a particular direction to go. Hence, many critics provide a coinage to this wave as the ‘Second Wave, Part Two’. It was more like the conflict between the senior feminists and the junior feminists with no definite destination to reach.

When an Australian woman, Su, was interviewed for the 1996 anthology ‘DIY Feminism’, she said, “[Feminists are] just women who don’t want to be treated like shit.”

Feminism wants a person to be whoever one is – but with a political consciousness. As bell hooks has offered a definition in her book ‘Feminist Theory: From Margin to Centre’, she says, “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” This definition in no way implies that men are the enemy. Rather it puts sexist actions and thoughts as the main root of the problem. Hence, to understand feminism it is vital to understand sexism. It does not matter if the sexist actions are

20 perpetuated by men, women, child, or adult. One has to be free of all such actions and treat everyone equal regardless of their gender. Therefore, feminism is not a term used just by the females but it concerns the whole of our society and in a broader view, the world.

Simon deBeavoir’s Le Deuxieme Sexe (The Second Sex), in 1949, rebelliously asked the patriarchal world about the status and role of a woman in such a society. Most of the early feminists wrote passionately in advocacy for a world uncoloured by gender discrimination and stereotypes. The early feminists were working in the anti-racist and anti-classist settings to raise the common issue of sexism. Mass media helped them along in their quest to raise pertinent issues of rights -- about freedom to have abortion, freedom of sexuality, freedom to live as a lesbian, to challenge rape and domestic violence and above all to demand equity at the workplace as ‘equal pay for equal work’.

As the movement progressed, it was seen that anti-male was not the feminist consciousness anymore. Larger issues came to light and broader views were discussed. All this while, communication was the key for the feminists to take their points across, to argue against injustice and to make people see reason in their arguments. Different communicators used different writing styles to drive home their points. Many appealed to the elite, and some could make a mark on the general populace.

The general notion of feminism in the minds of most people remains one of a movement started by a bunch of angry women who wanted to be like men. That feminists hate men is an absurd though popular belief. hooks clearly believes that feminists are not born, they are made. She often emphasised the fact that being born a woman does not make someone a feminist. One has to believe in the feminist politics through choice and action. Feminism is a movement to end sexist oppression and not only women but also there are many men who believe in the movement.

In the year 1848, the revolution of feminism arose in the United States. The first Women’s Rights Convention was held near New York which resulted in the “Declaration of Women’s Independence” and it asserted that “the woman is man’s

21 equal – was intended to be so by the creator – and the highest good of the race demanded that she should be recognised as such.”3

Time and again females have shown their potential in various fields be it, science and technology, management, media, literature, arts, or any other for that matter. Women have created a niche for themselves but still have to fight and struggle for their equal rights. The Third World countries face this challenge in a more serious way than the developed countries like the United States or the United Kingdom. Though, the developed countries may also have a similar problem but it may not be on such a high level as compared to the other part of the world.

In this thesis, there is an attempt to bring about a realisation as to how much talented are the woman in the field of cinema. This research not only highlights the talent or potential of the women but also underlines the fact that even in Hindi cinema there is a genre where the subjugation of women is still prominent.

This research will compare the two main genres of the Hindi cinema, i.e., the commercial and the parallel cinema. It will show how a woman is portrayed in both the genres. It will point out the differences between the similar characters in both the genres and will question the reason behind such a difference.

The basic issue of feminism, which is ‘equal pay for equal work’, will also be taken into consideration in the backdrop. But the main concern of the thesis will remain that the women in cinema are overshadowed by the men in the same field. And if there is no valid reason for this overshadowing then why there is this inequality in an era which is referred to as ‘modern’ and ‘developed’ by the historians?

History of Indian Cinema

The pioneers of Indian cinema were the Lumiere brothers from France. In 1896, they had shown a series of six motion pictures in Bombay. This was an inspiration to many potential filmmakers and in 1897, Save Dada made two short films. In 1913, Dada Saheb Phalke, who is considered to be the father of Indian cinema, made the first feature length silent film Raja Harishchandra. Whereas in 1931, Ardeshir Irani

3 Dixit, 1992, p7

22 made the first Indian talking film Alam Ara. Afterwards in 1937, Irani even made the first colour film in Hindi, Kisan Kanya. But the colour did not become a popular feature until the late 1950s. At this time, sublime romantic musicals and melodramas were the principle categories in the cinema.

Various genres emerged when the talkies came into being. People had started off by making mythological films but later on romantic, comedy, tragedy, family drama, thriller; all such genres were introduced in the Hindi cinema.

After India’s independence, the Indian film industry grew tremendously and the period from 1940s to 1960s is regarded by the film historians as the “Golden Age” of the Hindi cinema. Filmmakers like Guru Dutt and Raj Kapoor contributed to the cinema and some epic movies were made during the era. Many films have a backdrop of the freedom struggle or the face of India after the independence. Social evils like unemployment and crime were prominent in many of the movies.

In the late 1960s to the early 1970s the movies were mainly romantic and action oriented. During the mid-1970s the movies dealt with gangsters, bandits, and smugglers. The famous duo script writer ‘Salim-Javed’ penned a new character in his films, the one with the ‘angry young man’. The Shehanshah of Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan, became a superstar with his roles as the angry unemployed youth who was mostly brought up without a father and, hence, went on to the wrong way which eventually either brought him his downfall or resulted in the enlightenment of the purpose of life which was to be righteous and honest.

It was during the 1970s that the New Wave Cinema movement came to the Hindi cinema from the Bengali cinema. Many prominent filmmakers made parallel or artistic films in Hindi cinema like Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Mahesh Bhatt, Mira Nair, and Ketan Mehta.

The late 1980s and early 1990s again saw the Hindi cinema as the abode to the romantic and family-centric films. The new generation stars and the three ‘Khans’ of Bollywood came into the limelight around the early 1990s. However, the end of the decade showed the resurgence of Parallel cinema in the Hindi cinema. It marked the entry the new performers in arthouse and independent films out of which some were

23 commercially successful while some were only critically acclaimed. Some of such movies are Shiva (1991), Satya (1998), Shool (1999),

Today Indian cinema has become a global enterprise along with the Hollywood and the Chinese film industries. In terms of annual film output it was being reported during the 2010 that India ranks first followed by the Nigerian cinema, Hollywood, and China. Indian films are screened in over 90 countries all over the world.

The Indian media is representing a changing consciousness when it comes to the Indian middle class since the early twentieth century. From the colonial to the post- colonial times, the Indian media has not only represented this class consciousness but also has fashioned it accordingly. The Indian cinema and its history can be seen defining the bourgeois nation in different ways in a variety of contexts. First there was the anti-colonialism then came the nation building followed by a planned development. When seen in the contemporary context it has been moved on to the globalisation. All of this has been an interestingly enriching experience for the journey of the bourgeoisie in India. Most of the Indian media is now owned by the capitalists and controlled by the bourgeois.

It was in the nineteenth century that as a progressive and developmental vehicle the liberal capitalist interpretations of the early modern enlightenment became an integral part when it comes to the consciousness of this class. And it was the first half of the twentieth century that the Hindi cinema became an effective medium of the bourgeois hegemony in India.

It would not be right to say that the infusion of bourgeois social engineering into Hindi cinema was preordained, it could be asserted that it was the popular commercial Hindi cinema that finally serves the interest of the truly patriarchal Indian dominating class.

The writer Kiran Nagarkar remarked a few decades ago that cinema has become the opium for the masses in the independent India. Undoubtedly this cannot be ignored as it has some truth in it but there is something else that has happened since Indian cinema has started its journey into the lives of the masses. From a long time back, the Indian cinema and television, both have blended politics and culture with this

24 opium and the audience is inhaling it from a long time now that they have become accustomed to it.

Commercial Hindi cinema provides an intriguing record of Indian history and political issues. In Hindi cinema the portrayal of our country is seen as a mythical community, one big happy family of heterogeneous groups, but this image falls under the burden of its own disagreements. The country is embedded with contradictions regarding gender, class, and religious communities. All of these disturb the patriotic portrayal in Hindi movies to unmask a different history every time. Metaphorically we can see that if a woman is looked upon as the idealised nation, there is always an ideal male hero that will rescue the nation from the inevitable risks.

Parallel Cinema

The 1950s saw the emergence of the Parallel cinema in Hindi movies but it was only later on in the 1970s that the movement was fully recognised and appreciated. The movement was led by the Bengali cinema and it started gaining prominence in the Hindi cinema. Some of the earliest Hindi movies in this movement were Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar (1946) and Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zameen (1953).

Some of the prominent directors that have made huge contributions to the parallel cinema in India and have won global acclaim as well as are Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, G. Aravindan, Aparna Sen, Shaji N. Karun, and Girish Kasaravalli. There have been some other filmmakers who have found success overseas. Some of them are Shekhar Kapur, Mira Nair, and Deepa Mehta.

There are certain traits of parallel cinema that are distinct in this genre and separate this genre from the commercial cinema. The parallel cinema is much more realistic with believable situations and characters than in the commercial cinema. There is no glamour in this cinema with colourful attires and huge houses with decorative rooms. The movies in this genre are set up mainly at the real locations and not at any studio. Many parallel movies do not even have any song and dance sequence, and those that does have only a few songs. Parallel movies are concerned more on the

25 lower class of the society and deals with the social issues and evils prevailing in the society.

A qualitative revival of the Indian cinema was much needed during the 1970s and this need was one of the various reasons why some filmmakers started innovation through the cinema in the form of ‘art films’. In that particular period, popular Hindi cinema was dominating the nation and was appreciated by the masses. But it has its negative points as well, people living abroad were not accepting the same formula applied in almost all the Hindi and regional films. Though this was a time when Indian film industry (including the regional film industries) became the biggest film industry in the world, overtaking even Japan.

But gradually the intellectuals were becoming bored of the similar plots and themes of the movies. This was a time when some filmmakers decided to make a much needed change in the industry by experimenting with their works as they felt that filmmaking is an art form that could be dealt with a lot a different ways. Hence, they rejected the age old formulae of making films and dug out new and innovative ideas in terms of story and treatment of the movies.

Many critics were biased towards the commercial cinema and condemn the parallel cinema arguing on the basis of their financial failure and low popular appeal. They were also sure that popular cinema is the one upholding the essence of the culture of the country.

The historians of Indian cinema believed that the official year for the beginning of the “New Indian Cinema” was the year 1969. They did not apply it only to the directors but also to many of the actors as well like Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil, and the technicians and cinematographers too including Malayalee cameraman Venu, Kannadiga Ramachandra and KK Mahajan who worked for the Hindi cinema and worked with Mani Kaul and Kumar Shahani.

However, Aruna Vasudev wrote in her book, ‘The New Indian Cinema’ that “paradoxically, this new movement was born of a government decision and not from the impetus of filmmakers rebelling against the existing popular cinema.” Although this government aid was only helpful for realistic themes which was preferred by

26 most of the auteur filmmakers who were either of Leftist or Marxist temperament. This financial help given from the government was not enough but still as Vasudev had written, “the prizes and awards won by these small budget films led to the feeling that only ‘small’ was ‘artistic’.”

This bizarre approach that artistic films are only made on a low budget concerning social themes and the more depressing, the better, made the audience judge this ‘New Cinema’ with a particular viewpoint. Style and aesthetics were side lined when it comes to the parallel movies. Only the themes and plots were analysed. Only serious subjects were dealt in the movies obstructing other creative ideas to barge in. these movies were meant for a cause by treating a situation in a particular way but they rarely reached to a place beyond portraying the reality.

In a way, Parallel Cinema have made a huge change in terms of cinematic expression. It introduced reality based themes and plots that deals with the social issues of the nation. It made the Indian audience discover their various diversities in terms of culture, linguistic, or physical ways of life. The protagonist were ordinary men and women who accost several uneasy situations but confronted them with dignity and bravery. Unlike the commercial cinema where the heroes were seen dealing with the toughest of situation in an unbelievable way. This new genre of cinema gave an opportunity to the auteur directors to explore the aesthetics of the Indian cinema innovatively.

But during the late 1990s the parallel cinema saw a huge decline in terms of production of films and viewership of those films. In the year 1997 alone there were almost 800 films out of which only 50 films could be termed as parallel movies. Many parallel cinema directors made appeals to the government to create a distribution network for their movies as the national network, Doordarshan, was being indifferent in broadcasting these films. Also censorship were imposed whenever these movies were shown on television which was a cause of trouble for these filmmakers.

There were many other factors during this period when parallel films were no longer in the limelight. One of those reasons was that movies were now made on new and untouched themes in a commercial way. Plots were dealing with families that were

27 urban middle class and were much more educated as well. Another major reason was the technological outburst in the form of satellite or cable channels all over the country. The growing number of films increased the competition and many filmmakers started making films with serious issues on a grand scale of commercially run cinema, for instance Mani Ratnam’s Bombay (1995).

This was a time when parallel cinema came to a deadlock and all it needed was a new generation of innovators to make a resurgence of this art form that was dealt very differently from the commercial cinema that had been ruling the country for so long.

Hindi Film Industry

Indian film industry is one of the prolific film industries of the world and surprisingly it was initiated by a pair of foreigners, the Lumiere brothers. In 1896, the French brothers showed the moving pictures for the first time to an enthusiastic audience in Bombay (now Mumbai). These films were a huge success which led to the screening of films by James B. Stewart and Ted Hughes.

Though in 1897, Save Dada made two short films but it is Dada Saheb Phalke who is considered to be the father of Indian cinema. He had made the first feature length silent film in 1913, Raja Harishchandra. Afterwards in 1931, Ardeshir Irani made India’s first talking film, Alam Ara.

With the end of the silent era and the beginning of the talkies, the main theme of the movies was based on mythological texts. Films were started to be made in not only Hindi but also other regional languages like Tamil, Telugu, and Bengali. During the 1930s, word had spread around the globe about the vibrant film industry in India. Many foreigners landed upon Bombay shores to participate in the industry.

One of the many foreigners was Mary Evans. She was a young Australian girl who was good in doing stunts. She could easily lift a man and throw him across the room. She wore masks and used a whip at times. Her name was changed to Nadia and was popularly known as Fearless Nadia. Although, she unable to talk in India’s native

28 language, her career spanned from 1930s to 1959. The press and critics did not appreciate her work but the audience could not get enough of her fabulous stunts.

During 1940, a teenager from Baghdad arrived in Bombay following the footsteps of Nadia. Her name was Florence Esekiel but she was given the screen name of Nadira. She played the main lead against the then heartthrob, Dilip Kumar. Afterwards her sarcastic smile and bold attitude gave her the roles of a female villain, often called as a ‘vamp’. Later on she started doing motherly roles and one of her last performances was in Ismail Merchant’s Cotton Mary.

There were other male foreigners who left a mark on the Hindi film industry. One of them was Bob Christo who was an Australian. He specialized in villainous roles.

Then there was another actor, Tom Alter, who was raised in Mussourie, India. He was fluent in Hindi and Urdu but used to play roles of a foreigner who could not speak the Indian language.

There was a Franco-Burmese refuge, Helen, who broke all norms in the Hindi film industry and gave sexuality a new direction. There was a time when no film was made without a song with Helen. She used to do a dance item in many films or ‘item numbers’ as they call them today. Though she always stayed within the code of decency and wore body stockings all the times. She even did a few serious roles in her career.

After the independence, mythological and historical themes were replaced by social themes. These themes were focussed more on the lower classes and the evil prevailing in the Indian society. Slowly and gradually a new wave of film makers came to the fore such as Bimal Roy and Satyajit Ray. In the 1960s, India’s New Wave cinema was founded which was inspired by the social and cinematic changes in the US and Europe. Though the Indian audience wanted to be entertained by the cinema rather than be preached by it, still there were some elite classes who not only appreciated such films that were the outcome of this new wave but also tried to make their efforts to increase the number of such art.

Today Indian cinema is at a very favourable position. With the help of new technology and vibrant creativity, Indian cinema is growing and crossing the borders to get appreciation throughout the world. There are several movies that are being exhibited and shown in various international film festivals. Indian movies are being recognised and appreciated by everyone around the globe. It was in 2013 that the Indian film industry celebrated its 100th year being one of the world’s most prolific film industries.

In one of his articles in ‘Film Comment’, David Chute said, “Bollywood cinema’s peak achievements, like those of Hong Kong, devote immense amounts of creative energy, ingenuity, and highly evolved craftsmanship to the life-affirming task of delivering intense pleasure to the largest possible audience. But while Hong Kong cinema works by radical compression, Bollywood operates by expanding in all directions.”

Cinema everywhere is different in its own term. The culture and society influence the cinema in a huge way. The term "culture" can actually mean several different things. If we look it as the broad anthropological sense, it describes to be a "way of life," embodied in social relations, processes, and material objects. The cuisine and dining of a particular society contains all three aspects. But if we look into it as a much narrower and more traditional sense, it describes the intellectual and artistic activities and products: the domain of a Ministry of Culture. We use this term as a broad concept that reflects our concern with considering media arts within a strongly social understanding. In Marxist terms, this analysis of culture and society is one that recognizes the realm of production and the realm of reproduction, base and superstructure, the economic and the cultural.

When we study the culture and society in this context, we observe the national culture as a stratified phenomenon, which is usually in a state of active contention with imperialist imperatives. When we look at it as a case in India, a pre-existing

30 culture was eroded by the penetration of British values, particularly in the national bourgeoisie. Whereas in other cases, for instance in Cuba, the native culture was totally destroyed with the establishment of a colonial slave society under the Spanish control, which later on in the 20th century was followed by the U.S. economic and political domination of the nation until its revolution. Hence, with this understanding it is vital to analyse the contradictions and resistance taking place in the culture under colonial and neo-colonial domination. In most of the Third World countries, there can be found various kinds of cultures. Somewhere there are simultaneous presence of a traditional agrarian folk culture, and somewhere an artisanal and often urbanized popular culture. There is presence of a highly commercialized and often imported mass culture at some places, and sometimes an active resistance or a revolutionary culture.

When we look at it from this perspective, we can understand a long development of cultural resistance, taking place before and after national liberation in various forms including media. We can notice its further development in the new society and how that in turn affected the cinematic experience. It is more useful to look at cinema and films in relation to the other art forms of communication as well. We can take the example of Jean Franco’s The Modern Culture of Latin America: Society and the Artist which shows a brilliant discussion about the themes and forms of Latin American literature. It also provides an excellent way of understanding the art of films of that region.

Culture is not only different from one place to another but it is also constantly changing. Many a times we are sceptical of the elite notions of culture that do not conform to the culture of the masses. It is not possible to label one culture as good and other as bad. Simply because majority is following certain norms, we cannot say that majority is always right. Culture domination is also another point that has to be taken into consideration. Foreign culture domination is a common thing happening in most of the Third World countries. But we must analyse the cultural domination as well as the culture appropriation which may describe how the people receive, understand, and use that which is available to them. As we have seen several Hollywood movies related to Tarzan with a totally distorted view of Africa but once a South African student said that he and his countrymen knew that it could not be

Africa because the foliage was all wrong and the people in that movie did not look like Africans at all. They thought that the place where Tarzan lived has to be somewhere in the United States.

To understand any national cinema, it is very important to understand the entire communication system of the country. One cannot generalise or categorise the Third World cinema in one way without giving a complete view of the context. Especially when now in the present scenario there is a dramatic expansion of video production in many areas. We need to have a very good understanding of the different media, that is, print, television, radio, film, data transmission, etc. However, various small nations do not have a fully developed film industry due to the lack of capitalisation required, but still there are several other countries, like India, that not only have a huge film industry but it is also popular in all parts of the globe. There are some nations, on the other hand, that may be significant in radio production which works as a vehicle for national culture. There is also a cultural mix in many of those countries. Several Third World countries have music and dance as a significant part of their national culture for economic, historical, and cultural reasons rather than having books or magazines that require literacy for comprehension.

Cinema is basically a mode of expression developed by the West and dependent on the Western technology as well. Hollywood movies have been one of the earliest carriers of Western culture into the Third World. In India also, our media and movies are hugely influenced by the Western culture. However, the concept of national cinema may appear differently in different societies. A national cinema in a monolingual country like Cuba will be having a different meaning than a national cinema in India that has 16 officially recognised languages and around 300 dialects. Even the function of the cinema is different in different nations depending upon the country’s stage of development. Here also if we see the cinemas of Cuba and India, we can notice how dynamic both film industries are where Cuban cinema has an internationally recognised critical cinema and Indian cinema has a large capitalist sector and an innovative stet-funded “New Wave” cinema that attempted to break free from the traditions of the commercial cinema in both form and content.

Difference between Commercial and Parallel Cinema

In India, commercial cinema is the most popular form of cinema. Ever since its inception, Indian commercial movies have a huge fan following. Gradually the viewership increases and now Indian commercial films, especially Hindi films, are seen in almost all parts of the world.

In India, films are made not only in Hindi language but in several other regional languages as well. But Hindi film industry is still a much prolific industry when compared to other regional film industries in India.

Some general conventions of the commercial films in India are that the movies are quite long in length, approximately three hours, with an interval. Also one of the important features of the Indian commercial film is its dance and song sequences. The commercial films give a lot of thought to the songs of the movies. The songs are choreographed by professional dancers and sung by professional playback singers whereas lip-synced by the dancing actors. The music of the songs is also given by music directors and lyrics are penned by the lyricists. The Indian popular cinema is a mix of sentiments and melodrama. There are various genres of the popular cinema be it romance, comedy, drama, thriller, action, or suspense. Some of the movies are a

33 mix of many genres and are labelled as a full entertainment package or, in Indian term, a masala movie.

Parallel cinema often refers to the offbeat movies which have strong influences of social realism and Indian theatre. The existing social realities and complexities of relationships are usually side-lined in the commercial cinema unlike the parallel movies where the movies are mostly based on such dark and sombre themes.

In India, commercial and parallel movies differ from each other in terms of genre, theme, audience involvement, subject, cast, and tempo. Commercial movies keep their consumers conform to the dominant ideology to maintain the status quo. Parallel movies have diverse themes and unusual plots when it comes to the treatment and the form of their stories.

The new wave movement was started by a bunch of filmmakers who refuse to follow the rules of the mainstream commercial cinema and wanted to work outside the commercial structures of Bombay and other regional cinemas. Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, and Ritwik Ghatak were the three Bengali directors who were ignored by the Hindi commercial film industry for a long time. But these filmmakers were perhaps the first ‘New Indian Cinema’ directors.

Theories and Films

There are several feminist theories but in this theory we will focus only a few of them. We will see how these feminist theories are relevant in the films, especially Hindi films. The main feminist theories that are selected for this thesis are radical theory, Marxist theory, socialist theory, and liberal theory.

On the same note, we have chosen a few film theories and will apply in the Hindi films. Those film theories are feminist theory, auteur theory, and psychoanalysis film theory.

Feminism Theories

Liberal feminism was one of the earliest kinds of feminism. It was started during the first wave of feminism. The earliest demand of the liberal feminists was that of suffrage, franchise, and right to vote. They wanted women to gain education, to have

34 job opportunities, and to take part in the political system of the society by being an active participant. They believe that God has created men and women equally, hence, both must have equal rights in all the spheres of life. In a few words, liberal feminists want to free women from the bondage of performing gender roles. Whatever privileges a man enjoys, the same must be given to a woman without getting discriminated on the any basis, especially on the basis of sex.

As the name suggests, radical feminists were quite radical in nature. They challenge everything and everyone in the name of discrimination. They were the first to introduce the terms ‘gender’ and ‘patriarchy’. They condemn patriarchy and explain the need to show respect towards individual feelings and sentiments without discriminating on the basis of sex alone. According to radical feminism, women’s oppression was the main issue behind all other kinds of oppressions. Radical feminists want to end women oppression to make a better and healthier society for the human beings. Radical feminists want to imbibe the thought of change in women. This will help in paving the way for equality amongst women all over the world.

Marxist feminism is a branch of Feminism that mainly focuses on the investigation and explanation of the ways in which women subordination takes place through system of capitalism and private property. The Marxist Feminism explains that the current capitalist economy do not appreciate or compensate women’s labour. One of the earliest works in this field was that of Friedrich Engels when he published ‘The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State’ in 1884. It deals with the issues of class, women subjugation and private property. According to Engels, patriarchy created a capitalistic society where women have very less or sometimes even no share at all. Because of no property of her own, she has to be dependent upon the male pillars of her family which in return results in her subordination. Many Marxist feminists argue that female oppression originated from being forced into the private sphere. They proposed that conditions of women could improve only if their work was recognised and valued in the public sphere. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a socialist writer who worked on this issue and wanted to end women subordination by influencing people to appreciate female housework and promoted his message in academic and public domains.

In the Socialist feminism, the points that have been left out in the Radical and Marxist feminist theories were being dealt. According to the socialist feminists, the root cause of women subjugation lies deep within the societal rules and norms. The social structure is responsible for this distinction amongst men and women. It approves certain tenets of Marxist feminism and believes that the economy of the society cultivates class distinctions that in return allow a particular class or classes of people to overpower and dominate over others. This domination of one class over the others generates corruption in the society.

Film Theories

We will observe how these feminist theories are applied in the Hindi films. However, apart from these feminist theories, we have some important film theories as well. Some of them are Feminist, Auteur, Marxism, and Psychoanalysis Film Theories.

Film studies is an academic discipline where we use film theories to explore the essence of a cinema. Film theories are used for conceptualizing frameworks to understand a particular film’s relationship to reality or other arts, to individual viewers, and to society at large. Many people interchange the term film theory with film criticism or film history. Though these three are quite similar to each other still they are not to be confused by being the same thing.

Auteur film theory explains that the director is the author of the film and the film reflects his personal creative vision. The word ‘auteur’ is a French word for ‘author’. Many parallel films are said to be following this trend of being the creative vision of the director himself. The director is without any doubt the creator of the film but many times during the production of the film, the director’s vision is blurred or mixed up with other points of views. Hence, all the films cannot be clubbed under this division. A director brings a movie to life by expressing his own personal views and thoughts to it and by using different other methods of production like lighting, camerawork, cinematography, and editing. He uses all these techniques to add to his vision.

The second wave of feminism and the development of women’s studies influenced in the development of feminist film theory. The feminist scholars started analysing films from a feministic point of view. They analysed how women have been portrayed in films and how much screen time is given to the women in the movies. Initial attempts were started in the early 1970s in the United States where the focus was given to the roles of the female characters in a particular film and the treatment of the character.

Laura Mulvey was a British feminist film theorist and is best known for her essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’. The essay was written in 1973 and was published in 1975 in a British film theory journal Screen. Her essay was influential for the feminist film theorists to look into the films and the women in those films in a new perspective. The essay explained how one person seek pleasure in looking at another person as an erotic object. A women’s image is something that requires male gaze which is the demand of a film. The essay was influenced by many theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan.

Psychoanalytical film theory analyses films from the perspective of psychoanalysis and is influenced by the works of Jacques Lacan. Earlier the critics of psychoanalysis focused on extracting the hidden meaning behind screen images and unmasking the meaning that were implied rather than described. Later on they considered film as a representation of fantasy. In the early 1970s after the work of Laura Mulvey, the critics explored many other aspects related to the ‘gaze’ in the cinema identifying the viewer’s perspective with the camera vision.

Marxist film theory is said to be one of the oldest forms of film theory. There were many filmmakers who heighten the class consciousness and promote Marxist ideas. Many Soviet filmmakers including Sergei Eisenstein expressed ideas of Marxism through their films. The concept of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie can be seen in many films highlighting the ideas of Marxism. The themes and plots of the films were also showing the economic exploitation of people from a lower class. Gradually the development of Marxist film theory moved on from these precise beginnings and later on it was viewed in a much wider way to refer to any power relationships or structures within a moving image text.

The vital objectives of this thesis are to study two distinct genres of Hindi cinema, that is, commercial and parallel cinema and to study gender-based considerations in Hindi cinema. It is also important to draw a comparative analysis of distinct representation of women in commercial and parallel Hindi cinema.

This study will be relevant as it will, firstly and primarily, contribute to the existing knowledge. Secondly, the comparison will show the potential of women in both the genres, especially in the parallel cinema. It will show the different dimensions of women. It will throw light on the fact that women can excel in every field, including Hindi cinema.

The basic research questions that will be answered in this thesis include the parameters of success of women characters in commercial and parallel cinema. It will observe whether representation of women in commercial cinema is a result of gender-based discrimination and whether portraying women in parallel cinema is devoid of such gender bias.

The hypothesis of this thesis is that women have potential in all the fields, including cinema, but it is shown only in the Parallel movies. Commercial movies portray women as secondary actors. Following this hypothesis, the study will focus on the portrayal of women in Hindi cinema and particularly comparing the two main genres of Hindi cinema comprising commercial and parallel cinema.

In India, the vastness of the movie watchers shows the over whelming presence of a vibrant film culture. Indian movies are popular all over the world as Indians and Hindi speaking public are scattered all around the globe. Non-native speakers on the other hand appreciate the vivacious song and dance sequences in the films full of colourful choreography. Many people in the film industry attribute its success to the “techno folk” form that combines the Indian folk traditions with Western cinematic technology.

Era of Crossover Films

The contemporary period of globalization made its presence felt in India in the 1990s. An important part was played by the movies made around that period. From

38 the themes, plots, and stories of the movies to the clothes the actors wear and the way they behave had a great impact on the Indian audience. The parallel cinema during that period was declining and only a handful of movies can be recognised from that genre. However, there were still some filmmakers who continued to make meaningful and out-of-the-league Hindi movies that can be considered as parallel ones.

But this period had seen the dawn of another genre in the Hindi film industry and it was called the “Crossover” movie. A crossover movie had actors from the Indian film industry with the dialogues in English language. It was actually an English language Indian film. It was basically meant for the elite class and for those Indians who lived abroad. It had a desi flavour to it with a Hollywood styled movie. It was more like a movie where we can experience the “East meets West” kind of a flavour.

International productions with Indian themes together made Indian crossover movies. It started with Merchant Ivory Productions when they made The Householder in 1963. It had an Indian setting, an Indian story, and an Indian cast, including Shashi Kapoor, Leela Naidu and Durga Khote. But the movie was in English language. It gave way to many more such ventures but it took a while before Indian directors commercially took up making films in English language.

Aparna Sen had made a movie 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981) during the peak of the Parallel cinema movement. The movie gained critical acclaim and the genre began to become an entity in itself. Dev Benegal’s English, August (1994) gave a big push to this new genre and was accepted by a huge audience especially of the urban class by becoming first hit of its kind that drew an audience of 20 million.

The 1990s saw the emergence of such movies which paved way for other directors like Nagesh Kukunoor, Gurinder Chadha, and Mira Nair to make several such crossover movies. Some of the famous crossover movies are Hyderabad Blues (1998), Monsoon Wedding (2001) Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002), 15, Park Avenue (2005), Bride and Prejudice (2004), and Parzania (2007). These movies were a blend of both Hollywood movies and Indian films. Some of them even had songs in them just like an Indian film whereas most of them had only background score to go

39 with them. These films were made on Indian themes for international acclaim. These movies showed the genre new ways of both creativity and commercial profit.

Though the theme and plot of the movie was either like a commercial film or a parallel one but the language and the treatment of the movie was a bit different from the Hindi films. Some movies were made on a set-up of a commercial film like Bend it Like Beckham (2002) and Hollywood Bollywood (2002) while some movies had the aesthetics and aura of a parallel film like The Mistress of Spices (2005) and Being Cyrus (2006).

Still we cannot merge this genre with any of the previous ones first of all due to the language used here and also because the treatment of the crossover movies were neither Indian nor Hollywood style. It was a mixture of both to attract the audiences of both – Hindi film viewers and Hollywood film viewers.

Like any other genre of movies, the crossover movies helped bring out a number of new artists in the world of films. It includes a new breed of directors who were ready to experiment with language and creative ideas like Aparna Sen, Deepa Mehta, Kaizad Gustad, Rituporno Ghosh, and Homi Adajania. Then there were various actors who emerged from this new genre and many of them later on moved to the commercial films as well. Some of these actors are Konkona Sen Sharma, Rahul Bose, Rahul Khanna, and Lisa Ray.

It is during this period that another genre emerged in the Hindi film industry, that of the “off-beat” films. There have been a number of films during the early 2000s which we can include to this latest genre of films. As the production quality of the films perked up, so came the new age filmmakers with better and improved cinematic quality and digitalization facilities in the Hindi cinema.

Actor and director Rajat Kapoor had made several of such films including Raghu Romeo (2003), Mithya (2007), Fatso (2012), and Ankhon Dekhi (2014). Then there was another actor/director of the same calibre, Saurabh Shukla, who made some off- beat movies like Raat Gayi Baat Gayi (2009), Pappu Can’t Dance Saala (2011), and I M 24 (2012). Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, and Vikramaditya Motwane

40 contribute a lot to these films by making interesting entertainer that also have a message in them.

These movies also gave break to a huge number of actors and also made way for some of the existing actors who were otherwise underrated in the commercial movies. These actors include Rajat Kapoor, Ranvir Shourie, Vinay Pathak, Neha Dhupia, Sanjay Mishra, Vijay Raaz, Brijendra Kala, Mannu Rishi, and Gul Panag.

These off beat movies were in Hindi language and deals with the problems of an average Indian, not unlike the parallel films. The movies are light hearted with serious issues dealt in a playful way. These movies are more realistic than those of the commercial ones. Some critics say that these are a branch of parallel films. They say the resurgence of parallel films have begun with the emergence of these movies. Films like Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday (2004), Nagesh Kukunoor’s Dor (2006), Kiran Rao’s Dhobi Ghat (2011), and Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox (2013) have almost all the traits that parallel movies used to have.

These movies were not commercially promoted but still have made a space for themselves in this flourishing film industry. New age realism and reality based themes are vital in these films. They sometimes blend the realism with the commercialism. They are being said to be reviving the parallel cinema and generating interest from the current audience that demands change from the old age genre of Hindi cinema.

In a way we can say that these filmmakers did not hesitate to try some new recipe in the old kitchen and the best part was that the customers are appreciating the dish that they prepared. There has been demand of such films as they are not only critically appreciated but also internationally accepted by screening several of such films in various international film festivals. The audience is hopeful that these movies will keep the torch flaming for the parallel films which will continue to thrive.

However, this study will only focus on the female actors portrayed in the commercial as well as the parallel films in the Hindi cinema. But a background of the history of the Indian film industry plays a pivotal role in understanding this

41 research work. It is very important to note the highs and the lows of the Hindi film and the way it has evolved from one form to another.

This study is not only meant to add to the already existing knowledge of the film studies but also to put forth a personal viewpoint, which may be similar to some of the scholars of film studies, that shows how the portrayal of women in Hindi cinema differ and what are the reasons behind such differences.

Although females are portrayed in all the genres of the cinema in different ways, including the crossover and off-beat movies, but the main emphasis of this study will be only to study the two main genres of the Hindi film industry and pin point the basic differences in the representations of females in those movies.

CHAPTER 2

HINDI CINEMA:

COMMERCIAL AND PARALLEL CINEMA

Films are a source of entertainment for all the age groups in our country. Cinema is appreciated by generations now and the pleasure of watching films on the ‘big screen’ cannot be compared by the (comparatively) small TV sets. Films are often referred to by the other media as they are shown on TV, satellite, and video. The various developments in computer technology and multimedia also affects movies directly or indirectly.

Films are the central part of the Indian culture and Indian film industry is one of the most prolific film industries in the world. Though the form and structure of the Indian films are totally different from that of the other film industries of the world, especially that of Hollywood cinema, the plots and storyline may intersect with each other. Even in Indian cinema, Hindi films are the most popular films that are recognised all over the world. The song and dance sequences and the extravagant visuals are not only expected but also appreciated by the audiences.

Hindi film industry commonly known as Bollywood – a tongue-in-cheek term coined by the English language press in India by combining ‘Hollywood’ and ‘Bombay’ – has many genres under it. The main genre being commercial, parallel, crossover, and off-beat films, Bollywood also has many sub genres in them. This study will concentrate only on the two main genres, i.e., commercial and parallel Hindi cinema. It will focus on the films produced during 1970s to 2010s.

Although the term Bollywood has become popular due to the press and media still there are people within and outside the film industry who are justifiably upset with the term. The term dates back to the 1970s but it gained popularity during the 1990s. It even officially entered the English lexicon when in 2001 the Oxford English Dictionary included the term. Undoubtedly Bollywood is a controversial term and several film scholars expressed their displeasure by the use of this term by media and a few scholars as well.

Many people within the film industry feel that the term is cheaply derived from ‘Hollywood’. By using this term people will compare the two film industries which is why many people dislike the term. However, if Hollywood is an icon who is looked upon by filmmakers around the world then by comparing the Hindi film industry should signify that it is capable of being on the same level. Perhaps this is why ‘-ollywood’ is a productive morpheme referring to other film industries as well, for instance Tollywood, Tamil film industry, and Nollywood, Nigerian film industry.

Indian film industry is considered to be the largest film industry in the world. However, the contribution of the Hindi film industry is much smaller in it, which is approximately 20 percent of that total.

If we look at the trajectory Hindi cinema has taken, we can clearly see how every era had a distinct impact of characters and stories. The films in the post-independence era of Nehruvian socialism had young unemployed Indians struggle for livelihood but cling to the idealism and hope characteristic of a nascent nation. Raj Kapoor’s Awara, Shri 420, captured the sentiment and struggle but were unequivocal in their advocacy of ideals and righteousness. This idealism paved the way for a rebellious streak of the 70s, which gave birth to the iconic angry young man. In uncountable films, Amitabh Bachchan played to perfection, the rebellious young India who was fed up with idealism, frustrated with the system and hungry for success, by whatever means it came. The 90s had films unabashedly displaying the impact of liberalisation that spawned a new generation of well-to-do, brand conscious, westernised urban middle class.

Indian history of colonialism plays a major role in constructing the role of a vamp (female villain) as an Anglo-Indian or a western woman. During the 1960s and early 1970s this was the act of defiance and an assertion of the Indian cultural superiority by the filmmakers. It showed how western women were immoral in contrast to the traditional Indian women. Hence, the projection of the Anglo-Indian women were always morally and spiritually inferior to the Indian women. The Indian woman was always the repository of chastity and the Indian man was the repository of masculinity and high Indian values who could easily tame the feminine West.

Manoj Kumar’s movie Purab aur Paschim (1970) is based on this concept of contrast between the East and West. The movie put a contrast between Preeti, an

Anglo-Indian girl brought up in UK, and Gopi, a traditional Indian girl. Both are competing for the love of Bharat (literally meaning India), an Indian man who is a son of an Indian freedom fighter and had a heart full of Indian morals and ethics.

Bharat met Preeti when he went to London and saw that though Preeti’s father is an Indian she was ignorant of anything about India. Bharat told her many things about the ‘real India’ in a melodramatic song. Subsequently Preeti fell in love with Bharat and asked to marry her but Bharat put one condition that he would go back to India with Preeti. Reluctantly Preeti agreed and went to India as an ideal wife. She gave up her ‘evil westernised’ habits of drinking and smoking and shed her mini-skirts for a sari.

Superficially we can only observe the film as taming of the Anglo-Indian woman by a traditional Indian man. Preeti was seen ready to be turned into a traditional Indian woman only to win the heart of her love. She even described her love for the country as:

I had heard that India is a land of snake charmers. There are snakes here, but people worship them. I had heard that India was full of poverty, but there are some problems in all cultures. The best thing here is the love that people have for each other, the love between parents and children. I have never stayed with my parents as a daughter should…1

These were some highly sentimental dialogues of the movie showing an emotional picture of India. It asserted Bharat’s vision of India as spiritual and backward only in the things that do not really matter. Whereas, Preeti’s change of heart showed the superiority of Indian culture and tradition.

Later on the family dramas of the 80s showed the values and modesty of the middle- class Indians in contrast to the vulgarity and lack of values of the rich and upper class Indians. The female protagonists often embodied femininity and an ideal nurturing woman. Films like Sooraj R.Barjatya’s Maine Pyar Kiya (1989) showed how a middle class girl, Suman, easily adjusted to the upper class Prem’s household and how she even impressed Prem’s mother with her charm and her Indian values so much so that Prem’s mother agreed to accept Suman as her daughter-in-law. Here in

1 Geetanjali Gangoli, p. 152, Bollyworld

45 contrast to Suman was Seema, a woman belonging to the upper class, rich parents. Her westernised attire and looks were in contrast to the traditional Indian looking Suman.

Here again Seema was seen as the Westernised vamp who wanted to take control of the male protagonist but Prem was in love with Suman who was morally upright and chaste. In one of the scenes Prem was talking about the girl who wears jeans and have bob cut hair:

“Aisi ladki ghar ka kam kaj thodi karegi, arey matar thodi cheelegi. Bado ki izzat, hum umro se apnapan, aur chhoto se pyaar, ye sab thodi karegi.”

(Such a girl will not do household chores or peel peas. She will neither respect elders, nor care for other people, nor love young kids.)

It showed how traditional women in India are seen. They are seen as humble, home makers, who does all the household chores, cooks food, and take care of everyone in the house.

Hence, in this movie the winner was Suman who was not only innocently charming with her Indian beauty but was also full of Indian values and morals who quietly obeyed her father in all of his decisions.

Then in 1998, there was Karan Johar’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) where Tina was seen an Indian girl who studied at Oxford as a Westernised girl in contrast to Anjali who was a tomboy, also kind of a Westernised version of an Indian girl.

But as soon as Tina fell in love with Rahul, an Indian boy, she disposes off her western attire for the Indian salwar-kameez to look a girl with Indian values and morals. She proves to the audience time and again that she is a typical Indian woman who sacrifices her life to give a child to her husband and who even after her death proves to be an ideal wife by asking her daughters through her letters to get Rahul married off to his ex-best friend.

46 tomboy Rahul never notices her but once she becomes feminine by wearing Indian dresses, Rahul not only notices her but also falls in love with her.

Though Rahul often says in the movie that we live once, we die once, and we love once. But in his case, he loves twice and get married twice as well. Perhaps, the femininity of Anjali was too strong for him to not love her. It can easily be seen that love transforms and Indianises both Tina and Anjali for good. But all in all the movie shows the supremacy of the Indian morals and ethics over the western culture.

However, this film was criticised by many feminists saying that Anjali need not be a feminine to make someone fall for her. Her identity was her tomboyish look. Only to make someone love her she took a u-turn in life and transformed her completely and becomes someone that is completely different from her identity.

This challenges the way an ordinary Indian girl thinks. It shows how a normal girl has a low opinion about her if she does not seem to be feminine enough to the males. And in order to find love she has to change her identity. This does not show females in a good light at all.

It is a well-known fact that India is the most prolific film industry of the world. It produces more than 900 films in a year and these films are viewed all over the world especially in South Asia, Africa, South America, Eastern Europe, and Russia. The content and narrative of the Indian movies are different from that of the Hollywood movies. A combination of musical and melodramatic themes are common in the Indian films. It actually offers the audience an alternative to the Hollywood movies.

India has 22 official languages included in the eighth schedule in the Indian constitution according to the Census of Indian (2001). Apart from these there are almost 100 more languages in India which are not included in the eighth schedule of the constitution. Out of all these languages, films are made in around 20 of them. Ganti (2004) says, “Feature films are produced in approximately 20 languages in India” (p. 3). Therefore, we can say that Indian cinema consists of all the movies made in these 20 languages which includes several regional languages. When we look at the percentage of films that are generated, “the four South Indian film industries (Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada), that account for almost 60% of the films made since 1971 together represent the largest section of the Indian film

47 industry2”, followed by the Hindi cinema which produces “about 150 to 200 films of a total of 800-1000 films a year, 20% of the total number of films made in India3”.

The narrative structure of a Hindi film is different from Hollywood movies where the narrative structure do not follow the classic codes of Hollywood. Rather a loose structure is made with a lot of sub-plots in the movie with a lot of song and dance sequences. All of these are strung together with the main storyline. Hindi movies are longer in duration than the Hollywood movies and are mainly produced for mere entertainment. The audiences tries to forget their problems and delve into the fantasy world of movies where they could escape from their anxieties.

The most common theme in Hindi movies is that of romance. There are several adaptations of Shakespearean ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and various movies revolve around this same theme. Some of such Hindi films are Raj Kapoor’s Bobby (1973), K. Balachander’s Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981), Mansoor Khan’s Qayamat se Qayamat tak (1988), and the latest, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Goliyon ki Raasleela Ram Leela (2013).

During the late 60s and 70s, the relationship themes were more of a lost-and-found saga where two brothers (or sometimes more) gets separated due to some natural disaster or accident and then met each other at the end of the movie. Many times the brothers grow up to be the opposite of one another and then recognise each other with the help of a family pendant, a birthmark, a sepia-coloured photograph, or a family song they sung in their childhood years. Some of these films are Yash Chopra’s Waqt (1965), Nasir Hussain’s Yaadon Ki Baraat (1973), Manmohan Desai’s Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) and Suhaag (1979).

Another theme that is common in Hindi films is that of family relationships. Mainly it is focussed on the relationship of a joint family where brother(s) or a mother-in- law or a daughter-in-law is the cause of problems in the family and the protagonist makes them realise the error of their ways. Some of such films are Vijay Sadanah’s Sau Din Saas Ke (1980), J. K. Bihari’s Biwi Ho To Aisi (1988), David Dhawan’s Swarg (1990), and Kalpataru’s Ghar Ho To Aisa (1990).

2 Kindem, 2000, p. 37 3 Ganti, 2004, p. 3

There was also a new concept in Hindi cinema of anti-hero. An anti-hero is different from a villain in a way that a villain is seen as a negative character throughout the movie whereas an anti-hero is a main character of the film but lacks conventional qualities of a hero like idealism, courage, and morality. In Hindi cinema, Sunil Dutt was the first anti-hero who played the character of Birju in Mehboob Khan’s Mother India (1957). The character received appraisals from the audiences as they saw a character who is close to humanity on many levels. The fantasy world of Hindi cinema shows people in the light of either ‘black’ or ‘white’. However, in real life no one person is totally bad or good. Hence, the emergence of anti-hero in the Hindi films was readily accepted by the viewers.

There are many more such movies that have anti-heroes in them, some of them are Yash Chopra’s Deewaar (1975) and Trishul (1978), Abbas-Mastan’s Baazigar (1993), Mahesh Manjrekar’s Vaastav (1999), and Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminey (2009).

Family relationships are vital in the Hindi movies and a person’s responsibilities and attitude towards his/her family decides whether the character is a hero or a villain. Hence, in the lost and found tales the one who takes care of the family (especially the mother) and expresses his emotions at various intervals of the movie is considered to be the good guy in the film. In contrast to the other who does not think of anyone’s emotions and is rude to people is often regarded as irredeemable.

The romantic and family-oriented plots in the Hindi films are all too well familiar with the audiences and Ashis Nandy4, a famous political psychologist, had said, “The Bombay film-story does not generally have an unexpected conclusion, it only has a predictable climax. It bases its appeal not on the linear development of a story line but on the special configuration which the film presents of many known elements or themes derived from other movies, or, as Sudhir Kakar5 suggests, from familiar traditional tales.”

Episodes from famous Indian epics are also taken in many of the films as the main plot. Due to the familiarity of the themes the audience gets interested in ‘how things

4 ‘The popular Hindi Film: Ideology and First Principles’, India International Centre Quaterly (Vol.8, No.1, 1981) pp.89-96 5 A famous Indian psychoanalyst

49 will go about’ rather than in ‘what will happen now’. Visual performances of such actions are more important to the audience in such cases.

The plots may change in every film but the central conflict in Hindi films will always revolve around the concept of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ relating to the Hindu concept of ‘dharma’ or duty. A fine fictional world is prepared in the world of cinema which is unrelated to the reality as such. However, it does not mean that its depiction is totally different from the real world or bizarre but simply that its aesthetic content and musical attempts segregates it from the real world where we live in. it creates its own logic and realism especially to give rise to emotions within the audience which is vital for the success of the film.

In the cinema, it is very important to affect the audience in any way. Unless the movie will be ‘touching’ to the audience or do not ‘move’ them, it will not be considered as a good film. The emotions that is played in the Indian cinema held its origin during the 2nd century AD in the Natyashastra, a scholarly treatise on the performing arts. According to it the drama that is performed has to be for the amusement of the audience in order to portray the eight basic emotions or bhava – love, humour, energy, anger, fear, grief, disgust, and astonishment. These emotions are shown to the audience with their causes and effects so the audience can experience the aesthetic essence of the eight corresponding sentiments or rasa – erotic, comic, heroic, furious, apprehensive, compassionate, horrific, and marvellous6. Although the classical theatre have been lost for the past several decades now but its dramatic codes were inherited by the folk theatres around the country. The Parsi theatre was one of such theatres originated in the 19th century that incorporated those dramatic codes and gradually all the other theatres also incorporated them.

The history of Indian theatre goes parallel with the history of Indian cinema. The theatre had its own folk forms in the early period as nautanki, tamasha, and lavani. These forms left their impressions on the Indian cinema and its musical sequences also influenced the cinema.

The initiative was taken by the Parsi community, which was an entrepreneurial group having close ties with the colonial empire. It was often referred to as the Parsi

6 Warder 1975: 172

50 theatre. The Parsis were considered to be the iconic figures of modernisation in the western part of India. The play they initiated were part of the pre-modern narratives. The Persian Shahnama by Firdausi was a model taken by them with Gujarati being the language chosen for expression.

The tradition of Persian daastaan recitation also influenced the theatre which was the oral rendition of a story but it was reinvented during its movement from Persia to Lucknow. Persian romance narrative, also called masnavi, was also taken into theatre along with musical conventions derived from the North Indian culture.

Gradually Parsi started to translate their plays into Urdu language making it popular all over the Northern part of the country. The emergence of Urdu playwriting and staging reached places and the language became a trend for the theatre.

The urban theatre had their own attractions that included mixing the dialogue with the music and adding song or dance in between a performance. The technologies they had at the urban theatre were spectacular when they change the backdrops or showed any kind of physical situations like the storm at the sea or escaping from the fire on stage.

The troupe of the Parsi theatre were highly mobile who travel all over the country to showcase their talent. Later on they even crossed borders and went to perform at Burma, Singapore, Malaysia, and even England.

Later on during the emergence of cinema in India, several playwrights from the Parsi theatre went into the field of cinema and wrote films related to the stories depicted by the theatre in the past. The Persian and Arabic folklore had influenced the theatre but when the writers went into writing film scripts they took stories from Laila- Majnu, and Shireen-Farhad into the newly emerged genre. The musical culture of the folklore was also taken into the cinema.

The Shakespearean plays were also adapted into the movies and can be seen in the movies from 1930s to 40s in the work of Sohrab Modi, who was a popular artist at that time. Parsi entrepreneurs were among the first to set up distribution networks and also to set up studios for filmmaking.

When the movies came into being, the theatre artists started to perform in them and, hence, automatically those codes were incorporated into the world of Indian movies.

Though these codes are now in a refined form than the original ones but their presence is always there. In this way the Indian cinema has somewhat maintained an unbroken link with its historical past.

Many a time all these eight emotions or most of them are present in the Indian movies. Such movies are called ‘masala movie’ in India. As it shows all the spices in one dish. Therefore, many of the Indian movies are overloaded with emotions.

Apart from the emotions, one of the important things in an Indian film is its songs. An Indian popular film has five to six songs in it. Though in the past there were movies that had more than ten songs. The movie Indrasabha (1932) holds the world record of the most number of songs in a musical film by having seventy one songs in it7.

Songs are a very important part of the Indian cinema. Many times the complexities of a film plot is resolved by a song. The director does not include any extra narrative texts to make the audience understand the situation rather he uses the songs of the film to fill those voids. The screenplay of the movie is written as such to include songs at regular intervals in the movie. Classical theatre always have the concept of song or sangeeta – a combination of instrumental music, vocal song, and dance. As the other features of the theatre entered into the cinema, song also became an intrinsic part of the Indian movies in no time.

Many directors have tried to omit the song and dance sequences from their movies but the result was always a disaster. In popular or commercial Indian movies, song is a requirement of the movie. The promotion of a movie starts with its songs. The music directors and lyricists are always given a special place in the credits of the movie. On any poster or a billboard of a movie, their names are written alongside the director and producer of the film.

The first talkie of Indian cinema, Alam Ara (1931) was a musical film with many songs in it. Though it was a production of the Irani theatre where all the features of a theatre were included. Hence, it became a trend to include songs in a movie afterwards. According to film historians Barnouw and Krishnaswamy, “The Indian sound film, unlike the sound film of any other land, had from its first moment seized

7 Kabir 1991: 1

52 exclusively on music-drama forms. In doing so, the film had tapped a powerful current, one that went back some two thousand years8.

The song and dance sequences have also gone through a great deal of development since its inception from the silent era to the contemporary movies. Back then when the silent films were played, the screening of the film was accompanied by a live orchestra. Imported films had western musical accompaniment while Indian movies had Indian musical accompaniment. In rural areas, narrators explained the intricacies of the plot of the movies. They even provided their own sound effects for the film like the galloping of the horses, or the crash of the thunder.

Many early songs borrowed its melodies from the folk music. The actors in the films were mostly singers who used to sing their own songs. The filmmakers at that time preferred singers who could not act well rather than actors who could not sing. In the 30s the sound technology was in its primitive stage and it was very difficult to shoot a scene or a song without noise disturbances. The microphones used for the live recording of the song were stationary, hence, restricting the movement of the actors as well. The musicians used to hide behind the bushes and trees in that scene. Later on those trees became a routine in the song sequences although they have outlived their usefulness in that manner.

In 1935, R.C. Boral, a music director, discovered that a pre-recorded song can also be used in the film where the actors could lip-synchronise the song while shooting. It became to be known as ‘playback singing’. It helped the actors to move around in a song and liberated their movements. Playback singers became celebrities in their own way. The songs used to be of three and a half minute which later on became of almost five minutes.

Movie songs have their own charm and importance in our country. The patriotic songs are played on national festivals, the funky songs are played on religious festivals, and devotional songs are played while prayers. Songs are also played on shops and restaurants, beggars sing songs on train and on the streets. There are several television channels that are devoted to only songs, like 9XM, B4U Music, M Tunes, VH1, and ETC Music. Songs are also played on radio stations as well.

8 Barnouw and Krishnaswamy 1980: 69

Music album is an entirely new genre developed only a few years ago in India. It is also known as a Pop Album. A music album includes a set of songs. These song recordings are produced as a single collection. These music albums may or may not picturise the songs from the album. The picturised form of the music album is known as a video album. Mostly this video shows a short story in one song itself. The 90s were said to be a very rich period for these video albums in India.

The term ‘Pop album’ comes from the word ‘popular’. It came around late 1920s to describe a piece of music that has ‘popular appeal’. It developed in UK and USA with the help of the Beatles, ABBA, and the Rolling Stones, etc. and came into India with Madonna and Michael Jackson. Though it started in the Southern part of Asia during the 1960s but in India it got its fame through the Pakistani artist Nazia Hassan and Zohaib. Gradually Indian artists started making their pop albums with the initiative taken by singers like Alisha Chinai, Baba Sehgal, and Bally Sagoo.

These video albums were a treat to the eyes with their lavish set ups and often beautiful outdoor locations. They were basically intended to capture the youth market. Most of the times one song has one story in itself but sometimes one video album picturised more than one song with a continuity amongst them. Watching a whole video album sometimes feel as if watching a whole musical film. One of the examples for such a video album is Milind Ingle’s Yeh Hai Prem (1998) where a set of songs were picturised in continuity.

Many singers made their mark in these pop songs and then afterwards try their hands in Hindi film songs as well. Some of those singers are Shaan, Lucky Ali, Sonu Nigam, KK, Babul Supriyo, Daler Mehendi, Sunidhi Chauhan, Falguni Pathak, Mohit Chauhan, Anushka Manchanda, and Shubha Mudgal. These pop albums became immensely popular in India that many of the established playback singers released their albums to make a name in this market. Some of such singers were Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Alka Yagnik, Abhijeet and Kumar Sanu.

Traditional form of song and dance required heavy make-up or masks with decorative dresses and ornaments. When the Indian film industry incorporated this trend of the traditional song and dance sequences into the movies, it also automatically adopted its different aspects used in those sequences with only a few changes. Grand palaces or landscapes used to be the backdrop of a song. The actors,

54 especially the females in the song, used to wear glittery dresses which have little or no significance from the story of the film.

Later on choreographers were hired to teach the actors dance steps that would look attractive to the audiences. Although the whole film was shot in the country, the song(s) had to be shot in a beautiful exotic foreign country just to appeal the audience before even the movie is released through its grand posters and promos. Sometimes heavy amount was spent during the shoot of a single song.

Love songs are vital in Hindi movies and many times dream sequences are shot with larger than life decorations. Later on visual effects were also added specifically for songs. The songs are mainly used in a film to lighten the emotional baggage carried by the audience while watching a movie. During a complicated plot and sub plots of the movie, a song is used as a relaxation exercise.

Music directors have a lot of pressure to create new a different music for six to eight songs in a single film. This have resulted in rampant borrowing (or according to the Indian audience, stealing) from several sources of music by the music composers including western pop music and music from other countries. Rock ‘n’ roll, samba, and other kinds of western symphonies were adopted in Indian films. Many a time these symphonies were Indianised and replayed which were loved by the audiences. Hence, the latest musical trends were easily accessible to the Indian audience through this hybridisation by the Indian music directors.

Apart from the songs of the film, ‘stars’ are also important feature of the Hindi movies. That actors that rose to the heights of popularity in the country are referred to as the movie stars. Mostly male stars are paid more than the female stars. The number of male stars are also larger than the female ones.

These stars or sometimes ‘superstars’ need not be identified by names on the posters of the movies or the hand painted billboards of films mounted at almost every city in the country. These stars are popular enough to be identified by the native people only by face. A star studded movie is often more successful at the box office than a film with actors having less popularity.

Among the first movie stars that Indian audience have ever known were Chetan Anand, S.S. Vasan, and Devki Bose during the 1930s. After that Rajesh Khanna is

55 said to be the first superstar in the 60s. The 70s was ruled by many stars including the superstar Amitabh Bhachchan, Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, and others. Though in the 80s there were no new stars as such, only popular actors and the stars of the 70s, but in the 90s we saw the emergence of some new stars including Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Amir Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Sridevi, and others.

Though in the new millennium the superstars of the past decades are still ruling in terms of the distribution of the movies but there are again some budding stars as well like Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Ranbir Kapoor, and others.

The movies in Hollywood are distributed depending upon their genres so that specific audience could attract for that movie. In India there is no such thing. Most of the times Indian movies are filled with different genres in order to gain more audience and in return more box office revenue. The main reason for this is that movie watching is a family activity where everyone watches a film together. Hence, different parts of the movie have different moods. Emotional and sentimental part is meant for the ladies, slapstick comedy is meant for children, romantic scenes are included for the youth, and erotic display of women is targeted at the males.

In this way, Indian movies do not divide its audience or revenue like Hollywood movies, but it gives a complete package for the families to enjoy with one another. It contains, romance, comedy, tragedy, action, and the most essential song and dance sequences. It is mainly a commercial reason rather than an aesthetic one. This genre containing everything in a single movie is often known as the ‘omnibus’ genre.

The film maybe having a single theme which is romantic or comedy but still it will have all the other genres intact in it. Hence, making it a movie of the omnibus genre. Devotional films have also been famous in every community. Depicting pictures of pilgrimage and shrine shown on the celluloid is considered by many as a blessing.

Mythology is also a famous theme which was started from the earliest period of Indian cinema with Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra (1913) and Baburao Painter’s Seeta Swayamwara (1916). Many times episodes of Ramayana and Mahabharata are taken in the films and adopted in a different screenplay for the audience.

Historical films are based on Indian or world history showing legends on screen. K. Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Kamal Amrohi’s Razia Sultan (1983) have been immensely popular among the Indian audience. The history shown in the theatre with grand set ups and bright costumes not only attract the audience but also mesmerise them for three hours.

Then there is a generic category of the ‘social’ which was first used as early as in the 1940s. V. Shantaram’s Padosi (1941) and Mehboob’s Mother India (1957) came under this genre where the social evils are shown and discussed through the different characters of the movie. At several intervals of time these social films keep on showing its various facets through one or the other film. Every decade has seen the production of a couple of social films.

There is another genre of the Muslim social movies. These kind of movies do not always want to reform the social norms like the social movies do. They are mostly romantic movies with a backdrop of a Muslim family. H.S. Rawail’s Mere Mehboob (1963) and Sawan Kumar Tak’s Sanam Bewafa (1992) are some such movies. A fading genre in the contemporary Hindi movies, this genre was at its peak in the 1960s.

There are a couple of horror movies in the Hindi cinema which deals with the black magic and other tantric rituals. Hindi horror movies were often gory in nature and people seldom get attracted to them. Though recently some of such movies were made in 3 dimension which quite attracted the audience like Vikram Bhatt’s Haunted (2011) and Bhushan Patel’s Alone (2015).

Hindi movies that belong to the omnibus genre and give preaching to be a dutiful citizen and a caring person are said to be a ‘formula’ film. Such movies are mostly made with different stars and some spectacular song and dance sequences. Most of the formula films are similar in theme and plot but the filmmakers try to give them a different screenplay to appeal to the audience.

The success of the film depends totally on the audience. The Indian audience mercilessly rejects a film they do not like or approve resulting in huge financial loss for the distributers and the producers of the film. On the other hand if the audience appreciate a movie it reap plenty of rewards in the monetary form. It can also give rise to some new stars, giving actors new stardom and the rates of the actors can

57 immediately shoot up. Hence, the Indian audience is the key to the success of the movies at the box office.

The interiors play an important role in the perception of the movie. The way the background of a scene is displayed effects the apprehension of the audience. There are specifically employed set designers who work on the sets or the interiors of the movie.

In the 1990s, Sooraj R. Barjatya’s Hum Aapke Hain Koun! (1994) was the first of the family drama movies. Many critics have described the movie as a “giant marriage video” which elaborately showcases all the rituals of the high class North Indian families. The sets are grand with lavish panoramic interiors.

The wealthy interiors have their own aesthetic style which was shown in the movies like Ram aur Shyam (1967), Kal Aj aur Kal (1971) and Bobby (1973). The ornate furniture, huge staircases, and spatial expanse were hallmark of a wealthy house. Similar to such interiors, Barjatya also depicted the interiors in his film to portray a wealthy house with grand bedrooms and huge lawns in front of the house.

Different songs are shot in different locations inside the house. Some are shot in the large bedroom with huge paintings and photographs on the walls, while some are shot outside the house in the lawn or in the backyard beside the swimming pool.

The movie have a number of characters that includes the elder and younger generation, family, friends, foes, servants, and dogs. Hindi-Muslim integration is also depicted by showing a Muslim friends enjoying with the Hindu family in every family function. The movie is a carnival in a utopian set up with everyone being good at heart even if some are ill mouthed.

The architecture of the movie with grand archways and glittery chandeliers were a sign of the interior of a wealthy household. And the fusion of the temple inside the house with a pool table at one side of the drawing room shows the traditional and modernity alongside. The aesthetic interior very clearly matches the theme of the film.

Then there was Yash Chopra’s Dil To Pagal Hai (1997) where the interior was quite modern and blends well with the theme of love and music of the film. The story tells about a theatre troupe and most of the movie is shot indoors where the troupe

58 rehearses. Chopra wanted to show a place for creative people, hence, the art director here made a colourful arrangement of furniture and wall art.

There is a big hall where different levels of spaces are made without a wall between them. At one corner they have their set up of musical instruments and at another they have a set of cushions with a hammock for casual recital of lines from their play. Then there is another wall where graffiti can be seen that mimic the New York style art and at one corner a red car is standing against a brick wall.

The colourful arrangements of properties and materials gives us a lively show while watching the movie. In contrast to the set designs, the characters also wear refreshing coloured clothes that goes perfect with the surroundings. The interior has a modern outlook with cool colours and mood lighting.

Some songs are shot outside in the green fields and under the blue sky with pastel coloured clothes worn by the protagonists. Other songs are shot indoors by using the whole set with different colours and all along the songs the costumes of the characters change according to the background.

The flashy and fashionable look of the movie suits the theme of the film. The aesthetics matches the mood of the creative zing that shows in the movie. The modernity represented here is quite different from what was shown in Hum Apke Hain Koun! There a traditional look was obvious in every corner of the set but here only the vitality and energy of the characters are seen from every perspective.

In 1998, Karan Johar made Kuch Kuch Hota Hai which set a new trend of filling the colours on the screen without any particular reason. The film was like a fantasy land with comic book characters filling up the first half of the movie.

The first half of the movie deals with the college life of the three main characters of the film including some supporting characters as well. The bright coloured clothes of every student in the college was like watching a colourful saga from Disneyland. The hallways of the college had clean tiles on the floor with a Pepsi machine and a bright yellow pay phone in the corner. The characters are seen wearing branded clothes like GAP and DKNY t-shirts. This was probably one of the earliest movies where brands are projected inside the movie in such a trendy and loud manner.

The dormitory of girls is seen having a lavish hall with bright wall paintings and shelves with decorative items. The pillars of the room add depth to it with huge windows on the side. However, the houses of the characters are also shown to be spacious with large beds and silk drapes on the walls.

Although when asked Karan Johar about the unconventional look of the college with striking colourful images and characters that were similar to the teen television shows of the United States he replied, “I used to love Archie comics. If you see Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, it’s really that. It’s Riverdale High with all the colours for no reason. When in used to see Beverly Hills 90210, I liked those corridors and those lockers. None of that exists in Indian colleges. I was 25-26 and I was influenced by things I saw and things I read about and basically I was a huge Archie fan. If you see Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Shahrukh plays Archie, Rani Mukherjee plays Veronica and Kajol plays Betty. It was exactly that. And the principal looked like Weatherbee and Ms. Grundy was Archana Puran Singh.”9

When the classroom of the college is shown the sleek furniture and teen fashion can be seen through the characters. The walls of the classroom have a huge painting of Shakespeare in the back (as it was a class for English subject) and a detailed Renaissance painting on the side. The architectural look of the movie all along was quite a comic book style. The last two decades have seen a growth of cable television that shows American series and MTV songs which have added to the proliferation of international symbols all over the country.

Though there are a lot of Hindi movies dealing with college lives of the protagonists but this movie was more like a Hollywood teen flick. It started a trend of showing fashionable dresses on the campus in the movie with colourful indoors and outdoors including the display of brand names in the movie itself.

Though the second half of the movie is dealing with the life of the characters in a matured age but still the vibrant colours and flashy clothes can be seen worn by the children of the summer camp. This movie was perhaps the first one to also start a trend of summer camps in the country.

9 Karan Johar, in discussion with Ranjani Mazumdar, November 2002.

Another spectacularly designed movie was Karan Johar’s Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (2001) where the set designer made a grand set recreating Chandni Chowk of Delhi. It was full of shops of all sizes sprouting lanes and by-lanes in between.

Then there was a large villa of the richest man of the city which had a lavish lawn in front of the house. Inside the house there were stairs, as depicted by many other sets of wealthy people in Hindi cinema, grand bedrooms and ornate furniture with chandeliers and decorative vases and paintings.

The movie was a family drama where the director emphatically gave focus on the family relations and values. The house is often seen decorated with huge family photographs of the parents and the children of the house. This aesthetics of the family portraits clearly shows what the main theme of the movie is.

The songs of the movie are shot lavishly whether indoor or outdoor. Dancers who are behind the main characters are wearing colourful clothes highlighting them with their contrasting dresses. The panoramic view is seen many times when the aerial shot is used during the songs of the movie.

Huge halls with pastel drapes, large windows with beautiful sky in the background, portraits in golden frames, all of which was symbolic of a majestic household was given importance in the movie.

The religious side of the house is also shown in a song where Diwali is celebrated. A whole lot of diyas and candles are seen lightening at every corner of the house. A big statue of the Hindu idols are seen wearing glittery ornaments. Lamps of different colours and glass chandeliers are lighting. The set is illuminating with the lighting provided to show the celebration and happiness of the moment.

On the other hand, when the sadness and gloominess revolves in the lives of the protagonists, the lighting became dim and the colours of the clothes worn by the characters became a shade darker than before. The sadness could be seen through the aesthetics of the settings.

Another movie where aesthetics pled a vital role in the interpretation of the movie setting is Farhan Akhtar’s directorial debut Dil Chahta Hai (2001). The movie tells a story of three best friends and how they deal with their post-college lives with different kinds of ups and downs.

Each friend is different in nature. Akash (Amir Khan) is a carefree, indifferent boy who likes traveling, loves himself and wants to have fun with his friends. He is a cool guy belonging to the upper class of the society. Siddharth (Akshaye Khanna) is a painter who loves to draw anything beautiful that he sees. He is a romantic by nature and is the most mature among the three friends. Sameer (Saif Ali Khan) is a middle-class boy who easily falls in love with any girl. He is seen as a confused person who cannot easily take decisions on his own.

The houses and rooms of each actor can be seen matching their character. Akash has a huge house with classy furniture and coloured walls. A glass centre table and a big television shows that he belongs to a wealthy family. Akash is a cold and self- centred character and his room has a cool blue colour to its walls.

Siddharth is seen to have paint brushes and colours in his bedroom. He has a separate room for his paintings and wooden furniture rule the place. The walls of his room is dark in colour while paintings are scattered. Unlike Akash’s place, his place has a more ethnic feel to it with artefacts, paintings, and earthy colours all around. This shows his artistic life.

Sameer have a colourful room with bean bags in his rooms depicting his easy going and lazy character. His room is never shown in a wide angle and only fragments of his room is shown in scenes. His room is not a spacious one but a one where comfort and privacy is well maintained.

The interior of the movie enhances the characters of the actors. Their personal choices can be vividly seen through the colours and settings of their rooms and houses. The movie, however, deals with a tale of friendship and all that comes along but the landscaping and the interior including the paintings, colours, and artefacts works to enhance the cultural codes and becomes the marker of taste and class.

Hence, in this way the interior and the set designing play an important role in depicting the overall view of the movie and specially to establish the characters of the movie.

Hiralal Sen was a Bengali filmmaker who saw a film presentation in 1898 and was influenced to make his own share of films. In 1899 he purchased Urban Bioscope from the Warwick Trading Company in London with his brother Motilal Sen and

62 formed the Royal Bioscope Company. He made several films based on classic stories like Alibaba and the Forty Thieves (1903). He also made several advertising films but as other film ventures entered the market, the fortune of Royal Bioscope declined and finally it had to stop in 1913. In October 1917, Hiralal heard the tragic news that his brother’s warehouse had caught fire that contained the entire stock of the Royal Bioscope Company. With the fire, Sen’s career as a filmmaker also went up in flames. The fire not only destroyed Sen’s movies but also the proof of India’s earliest cinema history.

As the centenary celebrations of the Indian film industry suggest that Indian film production began in 1913, it is not close to the truth. However, it is estimated that 99% of Indian silent movies are lost. Films came into India on 7th July 1896 at Bombay’s (now Mumbai) Watson Hotel and was only meant for the elite British audience. Though Hiralel Sen was not there and he saw these moving images two years later in Calcutta (now Kolkata). But a local photographer was at one of those Bombay shows. He was Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatavdekar, popularly known as Save Dada. He was influenced with those films and shortly thereafter he ordered a camera of his own from the UK.

Bhatavdekar’s first movie was shot in 1899 and it was the first movie by an Indian filmmaker. It was a wrestling match in Bombay’s Hanging Gardens. It was the beginning of his filmmaking career and also of the Indian film production. He sent the reel for processing to the UK and by the time it came back for screening in Bombay, he had already bought a projector and was screening foreign films.

However, the first Indian news footage was also captured by Bhatavdekar when he shot the returning of RP Paranjpe, a maths scholar, to India from Cambridge. He continued filmmaking until mid 1900s and also bought the Gaiety Theatre in Bombay, which he ran successfully until his death.

During these initial age of the emergence of cinema in India, not just foreign films came to India but also many foreign filmmakers used to come for shooting their films, mostly documentaries, in India. These documentaries were then shown internationally. A British film director Charles Urban used to make such documentaries in India. His equipment was used by Indian filmmakers and he had also sent cameramen to different regions of the country throughout the early film

63 period. To celebrate King George V’s coronation the King and the Queen visited the Delhi Durbar in 1911. He had recorded the royal visit and it became an international box office hit.

The foreign films shown in India during this period was a source of encouragement for many native Indians. It was during one such screening that the photographer Dadasaheb Phalke felt the need to make films himself. He was watching a film based on an event in the Bible and he later wrote, “While the life of Christ was rolling before my eyes I was mentally visualising the gods Shri Krishna, Shri Ramachandra, their Gokul and Ayodhya. Could we, the sons of India, ever be able to see Indian images on the screen?”

The father of Indian cinema dedicated himself in filmmaking and the result came out with his first film in 1913, Raja Harishchandra. Indians celebrate this film to be the first Indian film and had marked the centenary celebrations accordingly. But the production of this film was not an easy task for Phalke, if he really wanted to compete with those foreign films being played in India. He had to travel to London to learn more about film production and had to buy equipment for the shooting of the film.

He returned to India, set up a studio and assembled the cast and crew for his film. The movie was less than an epic at that time but it was a useful experiment for the budding directors and filmmakers of the time. Raja Harishchadra was premiered on 9th May 1913 and was considered to be the first film of Indian manufacture. Though it was not a breakthrough product as it is claimed to be today but it is almost impossible to trace back the real breakthrough movies from the very initial age of the Indian cinema.

The Anglo press of the colonial India was not bothered about the Indian filmmakers and the vernacular press was preoccupied with the political news more. It was not easy to trace Hiralal Sen’s works but he had shot the Durbars in 1903 and 1911 and these events were also covered by the western filmmakers, hence, Sen’s works came to the fore.

In 1917, Rustomji Dhotiwala made a remake of Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra for Madan’s Elphinstone Bioscope Company. Many film critiques and historians believe that it is this version and not the original Phalke’s version of the movie that survives

64 till date. Therefore, the first Indian movie is just as hard to find as the films made by Hiralal Sen. However, when Phalke died in 1944, he was a forgotten man. But several decades later his contribution was recognised and only then he was given the title of ‘Father of Indian cinema’.

Although Dadasaheb Phalke is inaccurately considered to be the pioneer of Indian cinema because there were many other men who made efforts to start the film production in India even before Phalke. Save Dada (Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatavdekar) and Hiralal Sen were the first Indians to make two short films in 1897 and 1899 respectively. However, these short films were only attempts to capture live theatrical performances on film but was nonetheless the starting of the film production in India. Bombay based F.B. Thanawala also made a few short films including The Splendid View of Bombay and The Taboot Procession (1900). These films were actually the documentation of live events which if still preserved would have given the real historical view of the India of that time.

The history of India as a country is very rich and vibrant and so is the history of Indian cinema. There were several ordinary people who did some extraordinary work that seemed insignificant in those times but later on became to be called milestones of Indian cinema and gave it a new identity and put the Indian cinema on the map.

It was on 28th December 1895 that Louis and Auguste Lumiere showed their first motion picture to a small private audience in France. The response they got overwhelmed them and they decided to showcase their new found talent overseas as well. It was more than a century ago when Lumiere Brothers brought their art of moving picture in the country. It was not only well received but also appreciated by the audiences. Some were mesmerised some were thrilled while some were greatly influenced by this art. Those who were influenced were mostly people who later on tried their hands on it and made a huge contribution to change the face of Indian cinema in a global sense.

Before the showcase of films, the only means of entertainment for the Indian audience were the traditional traveling theatre troupes also known as nautanki, puppet theatre also known as kathputli natak, and the occasional dance and music shows for those who could afford them. The first and the earliest was the silent era of

65 the Indian films where only music was accompanied by the moving pictures on the screen. Without spoken dialogues, the movie was told by the expressions and behaviour of the actors. Several films were made in this era, most of which have no existence today. In 1914 Mohini Bhasmasur was a significant movie in that time because it was this movie that introduced a woman to act before the cameras. She was Kamalabai Gokhle. Before that, males used to play the roles of the females, much similar to the Shakespearean era where the plays were enacted by males only.

Gradually Indian audiences started to prefer local made movies than the foreign made ones. India was producing more than 27 films a year by 1920 which was a significant number at that time. Raja Harishchandra gained a phenomenal success and with it came the trend of mythological films which did not change for quite some time. It was only with the advent of the talkies in the 1930s that the subject of the movies started to change with a number of topics and themes.

The age of sound in the Indian cinema came from A. Irani’s Alam Ara (1931). It is said to be India’s first talkie. It was made in Bombay in Hindi language, which was the official language of the country. Since then, the film industry was set up in Bombay and the language used was that of Hindi. Which, of course, later on spread across the country and gave rise to several other regional film industries having other languages.

With the advent of sound in the movies came the necessity of sound studios and indoor shooting. Many such studios were built in Lahore (now in Pakistan), Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras. And by the 1930s India had almost hundred studios all around the country for film production. But there were three such studios that were very important for the development of Indian cinema in later years – New Theatres, Prabhat Studio, and Bombay Talkies.

B.N Sircar was an engineer who had built a grand theatre but in 1931 he decided to build a film theatre for himself in Calcutta. He built ‘New Theatres’ with a lavish studio and gathered some talented Bengalis for the creative film making. Debaki Bose is one such director that rose to fame shortly after the theatre came into existence. His famous movie Chandidas (1932) was based on the life of the poet- saint in the 16th century. He blended the songs and music in the religious theme which was appreciated by the viewers. He made several other movies for the New

Theatres which were based on religion or mythology like Puran Bhagat (1933) and Seeta (1934). Seeta is an important movie in the history of Indian cinema because it is the first ever Indian film to be screened at an international festival and won an honorary diploma in the 2nd Venice International Film Festival.

But after a year came another great sensation from the New Theatres, P.C. Barua. He was an Assamese prince who made Devdas (1935) that was based on the novel by the famous Bengali writer Sarat Chandra Chatterjee. The movie was made in Bengali and Hindi languages. It received over whelming responses from the audience. The movie was a tragedy where a man drowned his sorrows by being an alcoholic when his lover is married off to another person. The soulful songs and the superb direction touched the heart of the audience. P.C. Barua directed both the versions but played the role of Devdas in the Bengali version of the film. Ironically he also died of drinking at the age of 48, but not melancholy.

Most of the later works of this studio was influenced or adopted by literary sources. The audience started to associate the work of this studio as sophisticated and intellectual for the same reason.

Prabhat Studios was established in Kolhapur in Maharashtra in 1929 but later on it shifted to Pune in 1933. Similar to the New Theatres, Prabhat Studios also started to produce mythological and religious films in the beginning. One of the famous filmmakers this studio had given us is V. Shantaram. He made his first film in Marathi language in 1932, Ayodhyeche Raja. It was the story of the same King Harishchandra which had made Phalke famous a few years ago. Later on in 1936, S. Fatehlal and V.G. Damle, who were V. Shantaram’s associates, made a devotional film about the seventeenth century poet-saint Tukaram, Sant Tukaram. It is still considered to be one of India’s finest films and it was the first film to win an international award in the Venice Film Festival.

Soon enough V. Shantaram moved on from mythological movies to social movies. He started making films that deals with the social issues of the country and became famous for bringing out justice to the subjects he was dealing with in his films. One of his most famous films was Duniya Na Mane (1937) that dealt with the abuses of an arranged marriage. There was another movie, Padosi (1941), which was based on Hindu-Muslim animosity.

Prabhat Studios became to be known for its movies dealing with social issues and innovative themes. Though the movies were ideologically ahead of the age but the camera works and direction was unique and attractive. The directors made good use of the music and songs in the films and were appreciated by the audiences. Prabhat Studio also gave opportunities to those people who started their career by being apprentices at the studio.

One of the other major studios in the 1930s was Bombay Talkies. Himanshu Rai was working in Germany and Britain but later on came to India and set up the studio. Devika Rani was working as a textile engineer when she met Rai who persuaded her to join his production team. The two got married later and Rai launched her as the heroine of his films. When Rai established the Studio, Devika used to play the lead roles in the movies, mostly opposite Ashok Kumar, and the pair became famous all over the country. She is often said to be the first lady of Indian cinema.

Rai employed some German technicians while setting up Bombay Talkies and started to make three films in a year. Sometimes, though, the films showed a social message and only occasionally the feeling of patriot ism was projected through the movies produced. One of the movies depicting a social message was Franz Osten’s Achhut Kannya (1936). The movie deals with the relationship of a high caste Brahmin male with a low caste ‘untouchable’ woman. The movie was among the few hits of the early period and is still considered to be an epic.

Rai ran his studio with a set of policies where university graduates were recruited and given fixed monthly salary. Each member of the studio, whether a technician or an actor, were treated equally and they were provided with a canteen, healthcare facilities, and free education for their children. Film historians Barnouw and Krishnaswamy wrote, “It was known that at Bombay Talkies all company members, of whatever caste, at together at the company canteen. It was even said that top actors, on occasion, helped clean floors… All this was part of the legend and role of Bombay Talkies.”

These three major film studios produced many film directors and actors who later on found fame and fortune.

Apart from these three film studios, there were several other smaller studios including Minerva Movietone, the Laurence Olivier of India, and Wadia Movietone.

Sohrab Modi, the famous Indian Parsi theatre artiste and film actor/director was associated with the Minerva Movietone. The Laurence Olivier of India produced mainly movies with historical subjects. And Wadia Movietone gave birth to the stunt woman Nadira who amazed the audience with her dramatic antics including rescues from a moving train, runaway cars, or wild horses.

Like all the good things in life after a few years of studios in the film industry, they also started to decline. The actors who were getting monthly salaries came to know that they could demand more money for only one film. Soon enough many studios, including the above mentioned, were rented for film production to other filmmakers and later on completely shut down.

Gradually the need to acquire more and add something else in the film industry was constantly going on in some of the filmmakers’ minds. Hence, it was not difficult for them to add colours to the motion picture. The first ever colour Indian film was made by Ardeshir Irani that was named Kisan Kanya (1937). The colour format did not become popular until the 1950s but this movie was a huge commercial hit. In 1952, it was Mehboob’s Aan that was made in colour but still the colour processing equipment was not imported to India before the 60s.

The colour in movies gave a better scope for the landscapes and sceneries to be shown in the movies. The majestic beauty of Himalayas, the serenity of Kashmir, and the magnificent charm of the sea was explored in the colour era of the movies.

Movies like Subodh Mukherjee’s Junglee (1961), Shakti Samanta’s Kashmir Ki Kali (1964), Suraj Prakash’s Jab Jab Phool Khile (1965), and Pramod Chakravorty’s Love in Tokyo (1966) were aesthetically more appreciated by the audience because of its soothing cinematography that was set up in hill stations which was a treat to the eyes. It was a decade of romance with beauty signifying love and glamour intertwined.

During the colonial period of the country, movies soon became the medium to communicate to the audience. Filmmakers started making films on social issues and about freedom struggle. The theme of mythology and religion of the 30s changed into the theme of patriotism and frustration of being a colony.

This was the time when a source of entertainment was changed into a medium expressing its rage and angst towards its suppressors. Even the songs of the films expressed clear messages to the audience about the independence movement rather than just added for the glamour in the movies. It was this period when K.L. Saigal became the first super star in the field of singing and is still considered to be a jewel in the Indian film industry.

Many gifted directors spread social concerns around the country with their movies and influenced the citizens of India to struggle for their freedom. V. Shantaram’s Admi (1939) and Amrit Manthan’s Dharmatma (1935) were some of such films. Another famous personality whom the Hindi film industry could not forget till now would also come during this same period. He was none other than Raj Kapoor, son of the famous silent era actor Prithviraj Kapoor. He started his career at the age of 11 years and later on ruled the industry with not only his acting but also with his direction.

The pre-independence and the post-independence era showed the protagonist coloured in patriotism with a nationalistic fervour. The hero was always a Hindustani at heart no matter how he dressed or imitate the western people. There was always a hidden preaching for the audience that asserts the importance of being a cultured Indian and it also showed how Indians are much better in every way from the rest of the western world.

The villains during this era was always shown clad in western dresses and with an immoral ‘western’ behaviour. Villains usually sported their attitude in a westernised manner with whiskey bottles and scantily dressed women by their side.

1950s is considered to be the Golden Era of the Indian film industry. India got its independence in 1947 and the struggle was finally over after 200 years of being in shackles. The air of freedom and revolution was all around the country and it could well be sensed through the Indian cinema as well. The partition of a great country with a huge number of bloodshed on both the sides was sure to change things forever.

There were a number of renowned directors that came in the 1950s including Raj Kapoor, Mehboob, Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy, and Satyajit Ray (from Bengali film industry). They changed the face of the Indian cinema especially with their Hindi

70 films. They had seen the freedom struggle and its repercussions with their own eyes. Hence, they made movies which relate to the condition of the country and its citizens.

In 1952, the first International Film Festival of India (IFFI) was held in Bombay and provided a much needed platform for the movies of the Indian film industry. The 50s was a period of a struggling India after the independence with youth desperately in need of jobs and having dreams of their own as to how to make India a proud country of its free citizens. The movies during this period was mostly socio political melodramas depicting the current condition of the country that desperately wanted to stand on its own feet.

Major movies during this period was Raj Kapoor’s Awara (1951), Shree 420 (1955), Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zameen (1953), Devdas (1955), Mehboob Khan’s Mother India (1957), Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa (1957), Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), and K. Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam (1960). These movies and many more of them during this era glorified Indian cinema on national and international levels.

One of the notable films during this period was Satyajit Ray’s Bengali movie Pather Panchali (1955). It was the first Indian movie to open the Cannes International Film Festival and once again gave Indian cinema fame on an international platform.

While the movies were doing well on a commercial level, there were some filmmakers who chose a different path and produced a bunch of movies that later on came to be known as a distinct genre of cinema – Parallel cinema. Directors like Shyam Benegal, Mani Kaul, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihlani, and Vijaya Mehta were among those who made movies to depict the core and harsh realities of the world rather than mere entertainers.

One of the earliest parallel films in Hindi cinema was Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar (1946) that had won the Grand Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival and paved the way for those directors who wanted to show their talents through parallel movies. Movies made in the 50s can be found under the lists of the best films of the world created by the American Film Institute (AFI), British Film Institute (BFI), and even under the prestigious lists by The Time Magazine plus Sight and Sound where Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool were tied at number 160.

Although the first colour film was produced in 1937, it was only during the 60s when it started to begin as a trend. The popular Mughal-e-Azam and its supremely famous song, which was shot in colour while the rest of film was in black and white, influenced other filmmakers to try their hands in making colour films.

Shifting in this new decade gave rise not only to new filmmakers but also to a new audience comprising of a generation that was born in the independent India and knows nothing about the trauma and struggle of the revolution a few years back. Hence, the socio political films made in the previous era was not appealing anymore to the audience. They need entertaining movies that could took them to a fantasy land of utopia. Therefore, a whole lot of mediocre movies with no morals, lessons, or preaching in them were released in this era. They were made specifically because of the demand of the distributors and the viewers.

The hero during this age was bolder and smarter than the past era. As it had been a few years now post-independence, the audience was confident with their place in the world. The hero was not to be shown as a patriot to remind the audience of their existence. Lively westernised hero like Shammi Kapoor became famous with his jolly antics and an unabashed imitation of Elvis Presley. Donning a guitar in his hand, Kapoor was the heartthrob of the nation.

Romantic movies with their musical numbers were becoming popular during the 60s. Some of the famous films during this period were Radhu Karmakar’s Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai (1960), Abrar Alvi’s Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam (1961), Nitin Bose’s Ganga Jumna (1961), Subodh Mukherjee’s Junglee (1961), Bimal Roy’s Bandini (1963), Raj Kapoor’s Sangam (1964), Vijay Anand’s Guide (1965), Ramanand Sagar’s Arzoo (1965), Yash Chopra’s Waqt (1965), Basu Bhattacharya’s Teesri Kasam (1966), Promod Chakravorty’s Love in Tokyo (1966), Manoj Kumar’s Upkar (1967), Adhurti Subba Rao’s Milan (1967), Hrishikesh Mukherji’s Ashirwad (1968) and Anand (1971), and Shakti Samanta’s Aradhana (1969).

Where there were such romantic and light movies being produced in Hindi cinema, a new movement was being started by the Bengali filmmakers as the New Wave Cinema. They made films that were socialistic and realistic in nature. They were more humane and relates to the common problems of the common people of the country. The commercial cinema was mainly playing the role of a fantasy world

72 whereas the movies from the New Wave Cinema became to be known as parallel movies where actual world was seen through celluloid. As the word suggests, parallel cinema was working right beside the commercial movies but they were not popular enough amongst the audience who became used to the fantasies they watch as films.

Though the movement was started in Bengal soon there were filmmakers in Hindi cinema that went to the same path and made a number of parallel movies towards the end of the 60s and the beginning of the 70s. When in Bengal filmmakers like Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Majumdar, and Tapan Sinha were making art movies, in Bombay there were Basu Chatterjee, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Mani Kaul, Basu Bhattachrya, Shyam Benegal, and Kumar Shahani who were trying the same genre in Hindi cinema. This movement was not limited to the Bengali and Hindi movies only, several regional movies were also made during this movement. In the south India, filmmakers like Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Girish Kasaravalli, and G. Aravindan were making such realistic movies as a part of parallel cinema.

Though parallel cinema gained its popularity mostly in elite classes, it was no way near the commercial cinema in terms of monetary profits, public acceptance, or recognition. Still it continued to become a strong movement throughout the 70s and 80s in a full-fledged manner. Along with the commercially popular films of India, parallel movies were being constantly produced and appreciated all over the world. Though in India there were only a few takers for such artistic movies but there were still many directors and filmmakers who were ready to create realistic cinema instead of popular movies.

However, in the commercial front of the Hindi cinema, the romantic air of the movies subsided during the 70s and the need for action and dramatic movies came to the front. Though the main plot could involve a love story but the treatment of the movie was not totally mushy. Some of the popular movies of this decade were M.A. Thirumugham’s Haathi Mere Saathi (1971), Kamal Amrohi’s Pakeezah (1972), Raj Kapoor’s Bobby (1973), Prakash Mehra’s Zanjeer (1973) and Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978), Nasir Hussain’s Yaadon Ki Baarat (1973) and Hum Kisise Kum Nahin (1977), Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay (1975), Yash Chopra’s Deewar (1975) and

Kabhi Kabhi (1976), and Manmohan Desai’s Dharam Veer (1977) and Amar Akbar Anthony (1977).

This was the era of the arrival of a new hero in the Hindi cinema – the angry young man. Infuriated with the system, the youth did not need nationalist ideology anymore and the romantic hero was changed into a frustrated one. The writer duo of Salim- Javed gave birth to the youth of the country by depicting the male protagonist who was hungry for success no matter what. The introverted avenger was seen fighting with the villains in an action sequences. Priority was given to the stunts in the movie rather than the song and dance sequences. However, the songs were still an integral part of the movie but it was sometimes replaced by the valorous fight sequences by the hero of the film.

The stunts became an important part of the movies and stunt men and action directors were hired to portray such sequences with a realistic way. The hero was shown as a brave, daring, and dauntless man who knows how to protect his girl from the goons. Many times the number of villains were increased just to show how a single hero could overshadow all of them with his bravery and bone-scrunching acts.

This was also a time when multi-starrer movies became popular. The 70s has seen a lot of movies having ensemble cast. One of the famous movies till date is Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay (1975). The film publicists portrayed them as the new ‘superstars’ of the Hindi cinema. They were paid more money after that and many times songs, dialogues, and scenes were written or re-written to suit the whims of these actors.

By the end of the 70s parallel cinema in India reached its highest peak. The movement was taken seriously and new artists were born out of these movies. During the early 80s there were a number of parallel movies in Hindi cinema. But later on through the end of the 80s there was a sudden decline in the parallel movies and for a couple of years there were no such movies that could be labelled as a parallel movie. it was only after the new millennium hit in that a sudden resurgence of the parallel movies came into the Hindi cinema but with another name – off beat movies.

Some of the prominent parallel movies during the 70s and 80s were Shyam Benegal Ankur (1974), Muzaffar Ali’s Gaman (1978), Biplab Roy Chowdhury’s Shodh (1979), Govind Nihalani’s Aakrosh (1980), Saeed Akhtar Mirza’s Arvind Desai Ki

Ajeeb Dastaan (1978) and Albert Pinto Ko Ghussa Kyu Aata Hai (1980), Sai Paranjpye’s Sparsh (1980), Rabindra Dharmaraj’s Chakra (1981), and Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth (1982).

Indian cinema especially the Hindi cinema was flourishing in the 80s with commercial as well as parallel films. Indian movies were being appreciated all over the world from winning Special Jury Award at Cannes by Mrinal Sen’s Kharij in 1983 to winning the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival by Mira Nair’s Salam Bombay in 1988, which was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

This was the time when a lot of women filmmakers came to the front including Vijaya Mehta (Pestonjee), Kalpana Lajmi (Rudaali), Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay), and Sai Paranjpye (Sparsh).

The 80s, however, was quite a confusing time for the Hindi cinema. No set formula was working during this period. Romantic, comedy, fantasy, artistic, and other kinds of movies were accepted as per the audience’s choice. Filmmakers were making movies one after the other no matter how much confused they were. Also it was the time when television entered the country. It was a time when people had other sources of entertainment including television and serials. Watching movies and going to the cinema was not the only means of entertainment left for the people of the country.

It was now easy for people to watch films at home without going to the cinema hall. This was a period when B grade movies came to the front in huge numbers. Though, B grade movies were always there since the inception of Indian cinema but this was the time when it thrived the most.

The audience for such movies were mostly the lower classes. These films were filled with toilet jokes, irrelevant nude scenes, gory horror scenes, and crude language. Because television was giving cinema a tough competition, filmmakers and producers wanted to make easy and quick money. So they prefer to make silly movies that could just give them monetary profits rather than add to the intellect of the audiences. But these B grade movies have a lot to contribute to the Hindi cinema when we look at its history.

While the 80s started with some popular commercial movies like Rakesh Kumar’s Do Aur Do Paanch (1980), Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Khubsoorat (1980), Prakash Mehra’s Laawaris (1981) and Namak Halal (1982), Raj Kapoor’s Prem Rog (1982), Subhash Ghai’s Meri Jung (1985), and Ramesh Sippy’s Sagar (1985) it ended with some fresh faces and a new phase in the Hindi cinema like Basu Chatterjee’s Chameli Ki Shaadi (1986), Shekhar Kapur’s Mr. India (1987), Mansoor Khan’s Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), N. Chandra’s Tezaab (1988), Yash Chopra’s Chandni (1989), and Sooraj R. Barjatya’s Maine Pyar Kiya (1989).

This was the time when Hindi cinema took notice that it had two greatest enemies now – cable television and piracy. The cable television started to telecast in India during the starting of the 90s. Privatised television channels were an excitement for the natives. India was the first country of the subcontinent to allow the telecasting of the cable network. Piracy was at its boom at this period and the film industry was unaware of its threats. It was only when the industry lost millions of dollars’ worth of money because of the pirated copies of the newly released, and sometimes even unreleased, movies that it started working strongly against this threat.

But as the history of the Indian cinema had shown that film industry never lost hope and so this issue was also casted away with focus on other matters. Romantic and family oriented movies once again became the trend in the 90s. Yash Raj Productions and Rajshree Productions gained momentum and gave rise to many superstars of today including Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Rani Mukherjee, and Akshay Kumar with blockbuster hits like Hum Apke Hain Kaun! (1994), Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995), and Dil To Pagal Hai (1997).

But there was another genre of the serious movies that came during the 90s. Many actors like Nana Patekar, Manoj Bajpai, and Tabu came to the fore with the rise of such serious theatre. These movies include Krantiveer (1994), Maachis (1996), Satya (1998), Hu Tu Tu (1999), and Shool (1999). This showed that the audience was on one hand entertaining themselves with the romantic movies and family dramas but on the other hand were also accepting the realities shown to them through this serious cinema.

These serious cinema was somehow the resurgence of the parallel cinema of the early 80s. The new millennium saw a mix of commercial and parallel movies where

76 both the genres were equally accepted and appreciated. The first decade of the millennium had many popular movies in its bag including Ashutosh Gwarikar’s Lagaan (2001), Ram Gopal Varma’s Company (2002), Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas (2002), Chandrakant Dwivedi’s Pinjar (2003), Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday (2004), Yash Chopra’s Veer Zaara (2004), Madhur Bhandarkar’s Page 3 (2005), Nagesh Kukunoor’s Iqbal (2005), Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Rang De Basanti (2006), Rakesh Roshan’s Krrish (2006), Sagar Ballary’s Bheja Fry (2007), Abbas Tyrewala’s Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na (2008), Dibakar Banerjee’s Oye Lucky! Lukcy Oye! (2008), Anurag Kashyap’s Dev D (2009), Ayaan Mukherjee’s Wake Up Sid! (2009), and Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots (2009).

The last decade saw an emergence of new generation in the film industry including Vidya Balan, Ranbir Kapoor, Abhay Deol, and Deepika Padokone, and many more.

While Lagaan won the Audience Award at the Locarno International Film Festival and was also nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 74th Academy Awards, Devdas and Rang De Basanti were nominated for the BAFTA Award of Best Foreign Language Film.

This was the time when the growth of Indian cinema, especially Hindi cinema, was seen in the international market as well. The Hindi movies were screened at foreign lands and the box office revenue was increased like never before. Many a time Hindi were screened at any international Film Festival before even releasing in India.

New technologies were used for the production of the movies. Special effects, lighting, camera works, cinematography, and digital sound was improved way ahead from the past few decades. The movies started to be made taking the foreign audience in mind along with the Indian audience.

The storyline, plots, and themes of the movies were different from the movies of the past decades. The landscapes and set ups of the shooting were made keeping in mind the world audience rather than only the domestic audience.

Many foreign production companies either set up their offices in India or collaborated with the already existing production companies in India. These foreign companies include Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Disney, Time Warner, and

Searchlight. The Indian Film industry have overshadowed the other film industries of the world, including Hollywood. It is the most prolific film industry in the world.

If the pioneers of Indian cinema like Phalke, Hiralal Sen, and Save Dada would have seen this development in the industry that they had started, they would have been more than proud of the later generations who had served the industry in the best possible manner.

Commercial Movies

Cinema came to India in a commercial manner. Its sole purpose was not only to entertain the viewers but also to financially benefit from it. Since its inception Hindi cinema was not only entertaining the audiences but also gaining profit from them as well. Movies were always theme based with various plots and sub plots within a single movie. The early movies were based on mythology or historical events. Later on the themes changed to romantic and family based subjects. Soon enough thriller, comedy, mystery, tragedy, and horror also became the basic themes of the Hindi movies.

The Hindi movies have been growing commercially and creatively by producing the most number of movies annually from the rest of the world. Hindi movies are now watched all over the world and is mostly screened at several international Film Festivals around the globe.

There have been many influences and inspirations for the commercial Hindi cinema. One of the major influences were the ancient Indian epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata. The movies were either completely based on one of its stories or the movie’s sub plots, back story, or side story dealt with it. An example of such a movie can be seen in Subhash Ghai’s Khalnayak (1993) and Priyadarshan’s Gardish (1993).

Then there were ancient Sanskrit dramas, often known as natya, where a combination of music, dance, and gestures involved to make a vibrant artistic and dramatic portrayal of the story. This form has been adopted by the Indian cinema particularly in the song and dance sequences.

With the decline of the Sankrit theatre there was the emergence of the traditional folk theatre of India. These theatres belong to many regions of India including the Yatra of Bengal, the Ramlila of Uttar Pradesh, and the Terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu.

One of the major influences the Hindi cinema have was from the Parsi theatre. We can even say that the concept of the earlier Indian films were taken from this theatre. There were several Parsi filmmakers who were among the first to experiment their theatre work into the movies. Parsi theatre was a blend of realism and fantasy, with a tinge of music and dance, and a pint of narrative and spectacle as well. The dialogues and stage presentation helped it to show a dramatic effect of the story giving it a feel of melodrama. It contained crude humour, melodious music, dazzling song presentation, and glamourous stagecraft.

We cannot deny the fact that Hollywood has played a major role in influencing the Hindi commercial cinema. From the 1920s to 1950s, musicals were a popular feature in Hollywood. Later on they completely shunned the idea of including dance sequences from their movies but the Hindi commercial cinema still have the tradition intact.

Also the western musical television have a great influence on the Hindi movies since the 1990s. The camera angels, the lightings, the pace of the songs were similar to those of the western music albums. The channel MTV, i.e. Music Television, played a huge role in influencing Hindi cinema’s dance sequences post 90s. An early example can be seen in Mani Ratnam’s Bombay (1995).

As we see that Hindi cinema was influenced by so many factors, so is the fact that Hindi cinema was an influence for many others as well. The first and foremost, Hindi cinema have a huge influence on the audience of India. Through movies, the cinema had shown its viewers the struggle for freedom, the position of youth in the pre-independence era, the way to live in difficult times, the traditional values of our nation, and the emergence of our country as a global presence.

Hindi cinema was becoming popular gradually since its inception but the recognition it got in the new millennium was much greater than it have had in the past.

It was not long after that Hindi cinema started to influence Hollywood musicals in the 2000s. Baz Luhrmann’s musical film Moulin Rouge (2001) was directly inspired

79 by the Hindi musical movies. He himself stated that he wanted to make a Hollywood musical in a Hindi movie style. He had included a song from the Hindi movie China Gate (1998) in his movie and incorporated the Indian themed play.

The critical success of the movie renewed the musical interest in many of the Hollywood filmmakers who later on made several musicals based on the same line. Some of such movies included Rob Marshall’s Chicago (2002), Joel Schumacher’s The Phantom of the Opera (2004), Susan Stroman’s The Producers (2005), Bill Condon’s Dreamgirls (2006), Kevin Lima’s Enchanted (2007), and Phyllida Lloyd’s Mamma Mia! (2008).

In 2002, the Indian music composer A.R. Rahman was asked by Andrew Lloyd Webber to compose music for his musical Bombay Dreams. But this trend is not just limited to the contemporary era of Indian cinema. Bimal Roy’s Madhumati (1958) was the inspiration for the Hollywood film The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975) by J. Lee Thompson. It surely in turn inspired Subhash Ghai’s Karz (1980) which again in turn inspired the Hollywood film Chances Are (1989) by Emile Ardolino.

Then there was Basu Chatterjee’s Chhoti si Baat (1975) which is believed to have inspired Andy Tennant’s Hitch (2005) which inspired the Hindi film Partner (2007) by David Dhawan in return.

Apart from the Hindi films, the Hindi film music has been inspiring the world over the ages. The Hindi cinema music is fit for all moods and can related to everyone in the world. An American rock band Devo had a hit song in 1988 “Disco Dancer” which was inspired from the title song of the 1982 Hindi movie Disco Dancer. The song “Addictive” which was sung by Truth Hurts in 2002 was lifted by the song sung by Lata Mangeshkar in 1981 from the film Jyoti “Thoda Resham Lagta Hai”. The Grammy Award winning 2005 song “Don’t Punk with my Heart” by The Black Eyed Peas was also inspired by two famous Hindi film songs of the 70s “Ye mera dil pyar ka deewana” from the movie Don (1978) and “Ae Naujawan hai sab” from the movie Apradh (1972).

In 2005, Kronos Quartlet’s album ‘You’ve Stolen My Heart: Songs from R.D. Burman’s Bollywood’ had several re-recorded songs of R.D. Burman compisitions that was sung by Asha Bhosle. The album was nominated for the Best Contemporary World Music Album at the 2006 Grammy Awards.

All in all it can be easily said that commercial Hindi cinema is well-known in almost all the parts of the world. It has been appreciated and awarded by many international film festivals which in return have encouraged the Indian filmmakers to produce more movies that could in turn influence Hollywood and become famous all over the globe.

But commercial Hindi films are being criticised for several reasons time and again. One of such criticisms have been the portrayal of women in the movies. When it comes to represent a hero of the film it is always a brave man with morals and who can fight the villain with valour to save the powerless heroine. Only a few commercial movies have been made with the situation vice versa and those movies can be easily counted on our fingers.

In commercial Hindi cinema, women are always seen as good or bad, the character will be in the shade of black or white there will not be any greys in it. The good woman has to be the heroine of the film while the bad woman has to be the vamp in the film. The heroine would be full of virtues and good values and could never do anything wrong. She is the one who takes care of her family, is good to her parents (and in-laws in many cases), loves her family, and is obedient to her husband no matter what. On the other hand the vamp is evil mouthed and does not care about anyone but herself. Even the dressing sense of the two females would be different from one another.

The women in the Hindi films will have a passive role. The patriarchal order of the society has to play a major role in the production of such movies. The man is always tend to be stronger than the woman in the film. Even in many of the films where issues regarding the females are dealt, including V. Shantaram’s Dahej (1950), A. Bhimsingh’s Gauri (1968), Madhusudan Rao. V’s Devi (1970), J.K. Bihari’s Biwi Ho To Aisi (1988), and Madan Joshi’s Pati Parmeshwar (1990), the main focus was not totally on a woman. The women in such movies were shown as submissive and helpless until the hero comes in and helps them in taking control of their lives and ending the film on a happy note.

81 the movies. They are often sacrificial when it comes to the happiness of their families. They are not seen ambitious and they are devoid of any ego also. For instance, in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Abhimaan (1973) the heroine is a better singer than the hero of the film, which is unconventional. But to satisfy the ego of the hero, the heroine decided never to sing again. Hence, she gives up her passion for singing only to adhere to the traditional values of marriage.

The females in the movie are mostly satisfied to be inside the private sphere rather than go out into the public sphere. Only a few popular movies in the 70s could be seen with females having a job including Jaya Bachchan in Zanjeer as a knife sharpener, Hema Malini in Sholay as a horse carriage driver, or in Trishul as a general manager of a company, Rakhee in Trishul as the corporate secretary, or in Kaala Patthar as a nurse, and Vidya Sinha in Chhoti si Baat as a private firm worker.

Such characters were almost gone in the 90s. The females were seen either a college going student who later on is married off or is seen working nowhere at all. It is only after the new millennium hits in that professional women came into foreground in the Hindi movies including Juhi Chawla being a television reporter in Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani (2000) and an undercover agent for the secret police in One Two Ka Four (2001), Rani Mukherjee as a fashion designer in Chalte Chalte (2003), Rimi Sen as a store worker in Hungama (2003), Gracy Singh as a doctor in Munna Bhai MBBS (2003), Sushmita Sen as an assistant commissioner of police in Samay (2003) and a chemistry teacher in Main Hoon Na (2004), Shilpa Shetty as a worker in an advertising agency in Phir Milenge (2004), Konkona Sen Sharma as a newspaper reporter in Page 3 (2005) and a producer in a radio channel in Life in a… Metro (2007), Bipasha Basu as a vice president of a corporate company in Corporate (2006), Preity Zinta as a fashion magazine editor in Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), Vidya Balan as a radio jockey in Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006), Ayesha Takia as a voiceover artist in Sunday (2008), Priyanka Chopra and Kangana Ranaut as models in Fashion (2008), Kareena Kapoor as a doctor in 3 Idiots (2009), and Kajol as a hair dresser in My Name is Khan (2010).

There have been a change in the portrayal of females in the Hindi commercial movies as earlier females were most of the times shown to lure the audiences into the

cinema halls. Today also this can be said to be the scene in many cases. They are objectified in most of the songs of the movies which are shown before the release of the movies. The scantily dressed females are often painted on the posters of the movies as well.

The themes and the plots of the Hindi movies have always been from a male centric. The movies were always looked upon through a male point of view. The females in the movie are hardly the centre of the story. The role of the female is always chalked around the character of the male protagonist of the movie. Many a times the role of the female is insignificant to the main plot of the film and the female is used only for providing a relief to the audience through the songs and dances in the movie.

For instance in Karan Malhotra’s Agneepath (2012) the role of Priyanka Chopra is totally insignificant to the story line of the movie. Still she is forced into the scene to give the audience some relief from the continuous bouts of anger and fight sequences of the movie. Similarly many other heroines are unreasonably put in the action films where we can see Sunil Shetty, Sunny Deol, or Akshay Kumar being the protagonists.

No doubt there are some contemporary popular female oriented Hindi commercial films including Nagesh Kukunoor’s Dor (2006), Raj Kumar Gupta’s No One Killed Jessica (2011), Milan Luthria’s The Dirty Picture (2011), Gauri Shinde’s English Vinglish (2012), Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani (2012), and Vikas Bahl’s Queen (2013). But Hindi audience is still far away from accepting the action movies having females as protagonists. It will take some time to make a Hindi version of Charlie’s Angels or Lara Croft or SALT. The man is always seen as the saviour for the woman in the film. It is only rarely that we find an opposed situation in the Hindi movies. Even the posters of many of the films display the same meaning, for instance, in the promotional poster of Anubhav Sinha’s Ra.One (2011) the protagonist of the movie, played by Shahrukh Khan, is seen carrying the female lead of the film, played by Kareena Kapoor. It clearly shows how the female is a woman in distress and the male is a brave and dauntless man who saves his girl from all odds. Theatrical Poster of Ra.One

83 According to the popular Indian conventions, an ideal woman represented on the celluloid has to be dutiful towards everyone, sacrificing for her family, obedient for his husband, and full of values and ethics. She was not supposed to do anything wrong and if she does, she must repent and apologize immediately. She was also supposed to wear decent clothes and must not smoke or drink at all.

However, there were no such protocols for the males portrayed in the Hindi cinema. Hence, it was not unusual to see the hero smoking, drinking, or flirting with girls. But there were a few female actors who broke the conventions and came into the Hindi movies setting a different trend of fashion and glamour. Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi were among those actors who portrayed strong women of the 20th century who were bold and beautiful. In fact, Parveen Babi was the first Indian female actor to be featured on the cover of the TIME magazine in 1975.

The female lead of the movie was supposed to be chaste and morally upright unlike the vamp of the movie who had no ethics and were always bolder than the heroine. But the common thing between the two females of the movie was that both of them were objectified for the audiences.

Shoma Chatterji is a film scholar and an author who says, “Women in Hindi cinema have been decorative objects with rarely any sense of agency being imparted to them. Each phase of Hindi cinema had its own representation of women, but they were confined largely to the traditional, patriarchal frame-work of the Indian society. The ordinary woman has hardly been visible in Hindi cinema.”

The commercial Hindi cinema is often known by the word “Bollywood” around the world. But this term is sometimes not even accepted by many of the Hindi actors. Many have showed their displeasure of this term.

Actor Irrfan Khan once openly said in an interview, “I always object to the word Bollywood. I don’t think it’s fair to have that name. Because that industry has its own technique, its own way of making films that has nothing to do with aping Hollywood. It originates in Parsi theatre.” He did not want Indian cinema, or particularly Hindi cinema, to be known as Bollywood as it could lose its identity by merging into another.

He was happy with the fact that the Hindi movies are doing well in abroad and in the nation itself. They are bringing in money and are commercially successful all over the world making not only the Indians but also foreigners its audience. Khan was keen to set up a production company, along with his wife, to bring back the creative spirit and experimental movies that were once initiated by the parallel cinema movement.

Parallel Movies

The New Wave Cinema was a movement which later on came to be known as many names – Parallel cinema, Art cinema, or New Indian cinema. The vitality of themes and renewal of aesthetics came with this movement. This genre is perhaps the foremost reason why Indian cinema is known to the other countries. Before that, only Satyajit Ray was known to the other parts of the world.

There were several artists in the Indian film industry that were associated with the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), which had ties with the Communist Party of India. It had started working in the film industry from the 1940s. Some of these artists included actor Balraj Sahni, director Bimal Roy, and scriptwriter Khwaja Ahmad Abbas. The later was involved in the famous Hindi movie Awara, a film representative of the new drive to combine a social reform perspective with ornate spectacle.

Despite being a structured kind of ‘school’ of cinema, the ‘New Wave’ movement was more of a mainspring of a renewal of aesthetics and vitality of themes in Indian cinema. It is one of the main reasons why Indian cinema is now known to the outside world, with the exception perhaps of Satyajit Ray, who was the only symbol of Indian cinema to those outside India till the arrival of ‘New Cinema’. It was a movement that was distinct from the commercial Hindi movies and was inspired by the Italian Neorealism around the time when the French New Wave and Japanese New Wave began.

For some critics, 1950s cinema was “a transitional period between the popular culture and mixed social audience of the 1930s and 40s and the mass audience emerging from the 1960s.” The parallel cinema popularised during the 1970s was an

85 alternative to the commercial cinema perhaps in the pursuit of western realism. Movies of Satyajit Ray are the best examples of such genre.

During the end of romance and the rise of the violence in Hindi movies were prominent in the 1970s, a need for an alternative to these violent movies was also brewing inside many filmmakers. There was a kind of aesthetic vacuum in the movies of the 60s and 70s. It was not long before the signal to establish the New Wave Cinema movement entered into the Hindi cinema which was a relief from the ‘formula’ Hindi movies. Though this movement was already been started by Satyajit Ray during the 50s in Bengal but it took some time for the Indian cinema to fully acknowledge the fact that it was a useful and developing genre.

This alternative Hindi cinema, which was started by Satyajit Ray, was now finding its way by the Hindi filmmakers. It was further encouraged by the establishment of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in 1961 and the Film Archives in 1964. The institute was specifically made for the professional training of actors, directors, and technicians. Many of which went into the mainstream cinema but some of which were absorbed by the parallel cinema.

However, it was difficult in the beginning to make parallel films but later on the financing was provided by the government funded Film Finance Corporation (FFC) which was later on incorporated into the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC). It finances the low budget films and helped directors to portray their viewpoint through the film with the finances provided by the corporation. The filmmakers could easily experimented with new subjects and themes without compromising the demands of the box office.

In 1970, Mani Kaul made a film Uski Roti which tells about the story of a young woman who used to walk several kilometres every day to deliver the midday meal to her lorry-driven husband. But one day as she is delayed, she is afraid that her husband would leave her. The style of narration and the treatment of the movie challenged the conventional Hindi cinema. Many such experiments by several directors began the new wave in the Hindi cinema that was appreciated mainly by the elite classes.

There were filmmakers who abstain from the conventions of Hindi cinema that include, song and dance sequences, romantic dialogues, unrealistic fight sequences,

86 and a happy ending. The linear narrative and a realistic aesthetic was adopted by the directors of the parallel cinema. Showcasing the social issues and problems of the common man, these directors contributed to this new genre. Some of the parallel filmmakers were Gulzar, Shyam Benegal, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Mahesh Bhatt, Govind Nihlani, Saeed Akhtar Mirza, and Ritwik Ghatak.

The treatment of the theme and the dialogues were much natural than those of the commercial Hindi cinema. Shyam Benegal came into the film industry from the world of advertisement and his first Hindi film Ankur (1974) paved the way for many such budding filmmakers. A simple story of the way lower classes were being exploited was shown in a realistic manner. His movies were appealing to the western educated intellectuals who were finding a reason to appreciate Hindi cinema. The western critics accepted this genre with open arms and till now Benegal’s movies are screened in many of the international Film Festivals.

A new wave of filmmakers came to the forefront when it came to produce parallel movies. This new breed of directors were came to be known as the ‘auteur’ directors. They portray their own points of view while making a movie. The lighting, the camera works, the dialogues, all were synced together to show the perception of the filmmaker.

The stories were simple life stories of the common man. The protagonists were not larger-than-life but were rather the realistic people living amongst us in the country. The lavish houses, the glittery song and dance sequences, and the heroic fight sequences was missing from these movies. The clichéd characters of the commercial cinema, like the evil mother-in-law, or the suffering wife, or the brave man protecting a girl from ten goons at a time were all invisible from the scene.

Such movies were not palatable to most of the movie watchers in the country. The songs in these movies were added only if absolutely necessary. The social and political systems of the society was portrayed in a realistic manner. More often than not the movie ended tragically.

The genre brought many talented actors into the cinema including, Smita Patil, Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Anupam Kher, Pankaj Kapoor, Deepti Naval, Farooq Shaikh and many others. These actors were linked by the average movie goer as the artistic film actors. These movies were gloomy and sensitive in

87 treatment when compared to the commercial movies which were lively and pure entertaining.

When a commercial movie used to preach or gave a social message to the society it was usually in a fun filled way with a solution that was sometimes unrealistic. But whenever these parallel movies showed social evils they never preached anything or concluded the movie by showing a solution to the problem. It mostly only aware the people of those evils and gave a realistic picture through the characters of the movie as to how would a common man face such threats of the society. Many times they left a thoughtful message for the minds of the audience to ponder over it and decide the answer for themselves.

Hence, parallel cinema is more known for its serious content of realism and naturalism than the commercial cinema which was more like a fantasy land meant for pure entertainment.

Though, in the past decade and a half the neat genre distinctions that divided the Hindi film industry into commercial and parallel films have broken down. During the culmination of parallel movies in Hindi cinema which ranged roughly from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, social topics ranging from colonialism, feudalism, gender inequality, westernization, and tyranny of elite traditions formed the narrative whole in a cinema whose visual style was relentlessly realist and explicitly non- commercial. Several movies were made which was self-consciously part of the parallel genre of the Hindi cinema. Some of them were Shyam Benegal’s Bhumika (1974) and Bhumika (1976), Govind Nihilani’s Aakrosh (1980) and Ardh Satya (1983), Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth (1982), Ketan Mehta’s Holi (1984) and Mirch Masala (1987), Sudhir Mishra’s Dharavi (1992), and Vijay Mehta’s Pestonji (1998).

In the late 1990s, some landmark movies in the parallel Hindi cinema were Shyam Benegal’s Zubeidaa (2001) and Hari Bhari (2000), Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya (1998) and Jungle (2000), Mahesh Manjrekar’s Vaastav (1999) and Astitva (2000), Kalpana Lajmi’s Rudaali (1993) and Daman (2001), Sudhir Mishra’s Hazaron Khwahishein Aisi (2003), Mani Ratnam’s Bombay (1995) and Dil Se (1998), and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Parinda (1989) and Mission Kashmir (2000).

There are some differences in the commercial and the parallel cinema. One of the major differences is that of the theme and plot of the movie. Most of the time a tragic

88 real-life situation is shown in a parallel movie. It deals with a social issue that is experienced by most of the middle or lower classes of the country. The pace of the screenplay is also a bit slow as compared to the fast pace of a commercial movie. The song and dance sequences are almost none in the parallel cinema. It mail depicts a real life situation where there is no use of a song.

One more significant difference between the commercial and the parallel Hindi cinema movies is the treatment and portrayal of women in them. The way women have been portrayed in Indian cinema over the years also speaks volumes about their position and power (or the lack of it) in Indian society. Often, Hindi cinema, especially commercial cinema has been put in the dock for objectifying women, presenting them as useless second fiddles, or worse just using them to fill the required song and dance routine.

However, despite its sexist tendencies, Hindi cinema has also succeeded in portraying numerous women characters that were powerful enough to inspire a generation. If Mother India has a profound psychological and emotional impact on its generation, later day movies like Bhumika, Arth, Prem Rog, Damini etc took a more humane and nuanced view of women.

In recent years, a whole lot of female-oriented Hindi films too have asked pertinent questions. Chandni Bar, Lajja, Fashion, No One Killed Jessica, and more recently, The Dirty Picture, Kahani, and Mardaani portray powerful women who defiantly chose their own paths and lived on their own terms.

Though in the past, where commercial cinema used women as mere secondary participants, parallel cinema has always given a fair share to the female actors since its inception. So much so that the initial famous Hindi parallel movies were female oriented and the protagonists used to be females. Some of those movies are Ankur, Arth, Mandi, Bhumika, Fire, Saaz, and more recently Bawandar, Hazaar Chaurasi ki Maa, and Listen…Amaya.

Commercial movies are made mainly for the entertainment purpose and to gain profit out of the commercial success. However, parallel movies are made to ponder over the social issues prevailing in our society and to spread awareness about the various social evils around us. Many of the parallel films may have a preaching style of showing things and many may end with a very realistic and tragic ending.

Hence, commercial and parallel Hindi cinema is different in various stands including not only the treatment of the plot but also the way a theme is selected and presented on screen. The casting of actors and the way they are portrayed are also worth noticing.

The parallel cinema started to decline during the 1990s. The rising costs of the film production and that the investment returns could not be guaranteed for the movies were the main reasons for the decline of this genre. The political and economic turmoil and the underworld financing of the movies were not in favour of the parallel movies. Also the rising trend of television and video piracy were major threats to the cinema, hence, filmmakers opted to close down making parallel films with such high risk factors.

The National Film Development Corporation of India did not take the distribution and the exhibition of parallel films very seriously. The commercial film exhibition system did not take into account these movies as they were lacking in the entertainment content. Hence, only a few movies were shown in cinema halls. Mostly were distributed to the television channels or sold as CDs/DVDs. Because of the absence of any exhibition system many of the films went unnoticed even by the critics.

In the present cinematic scenario, there are people who are trying to make Indian cinema a more real one and making slightly different kinds of films that were usually seen earlier. Some of those filmmakers are Anurag Kashyap, Anand Gandhi, and Rajat Kapoor. These films are no more considered to be included in the parallel cinema but still they are not hard core commercial Hindi films as well.

These young directors considered the new millennium as the resurgence of the parallel cinema where movies like Black Friday (2007), Mithya (2008), Dasvidaniya (2008), Dev D (2009), Ship of Theseus (2013), and Ugly (2014) are not only accepted but also critically acclaimed by many.

Some Early Commercial and Parallel Hindi Movies

As it was discussed earlier that movies having important social issues and dealing with serious topics were not completely alien for the Hindi film industry but it was only after the New Wave that started in the West Bengal that such movies got a

90 term for it which was ‘Parallel’ cinema. Though in Hindi cinema such cinema came almost two decades later than it originally started but it made a niche for itself in the course of time.

Below there are a few commercial and parallel films and briefly they are discussed and analysed to show how the fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters will deal with the comparison and analysis of the movies. Here the characters and the roles of the females in the movies are discussed and also various directorial effects are talked upon.

ANKUR

Analysing the 70s era we can find many movies in the parallel cinema that are worth a discussion. One of such movies was Ankur (1974) directed by Shyam Benegal. The movie basically deals with some of the social evils of the country, namely poverty, adultery, cheating, women subjugation, and slavery. The theme of the movie shows the life of lower caste people in a suppressed way. Particularly the struggle of women is shown in the movie.

The plot of the film consists of a high caste landowner who sent his son to look after their land in a village. A married couple had been looking after their small house but after his arrival they shifted back to their small hut in the fields. The couple was childless and the wife, Laxmi, was yearning for a child.

Unfortunately, after her husband left her, Laxmi started living with the landowner’s son and started having a relationship with him. But when the wife of the landowner’s son came to live with him in the village, Laxmi was forced to move back to her hut alone. She found out that she was expecting a baby but knew that the father won’t accept them. She was willing to raise the child alone and did not leave the village as she had nowhere else to go. This act showed the strength and determination of a lower class village woman.

Laxmi disclosing about her pregnancy to landowner’s son

91 Being a single mother had always been shown as one of the most difficult tasks of a woman. The examples being most of the 70s movies starring Nirupa Roy, who was considered to be the ‘queen of misery’ in Hindi films. Often in her movies she was a single mother who used to face hurdles in her life while bringing up her children.

In movies like Abhinetri (1970), Deewar (1975), and Suhaag (1979) Roy portrayed the role of a single mother who struggled all her life to bring up her children. There were dialogues to support this issue and situations that could back it up. Basically, it was to be emphasised that women when raise children on their own have to face problems and difficulties along the way because they are the weaker sex who are somewhat adhure or incomplete without a male support in their life.

But in this movie, Laxmi was a determined woman who even though knew the repercussions of the situation still wanted to give birth to a love child and stay in the same village and face her fate with bravery.

Miraculously one day her husband returned and knowing that his wife is expecting did not infuriate him rather he was determined to work and earn money for his family. But the landowner’s son thrashed him when he came closer to him thinking that he had come to vent his fury. Though the whole village knew whose child it was, no one dared to speak the truth in front of the landowner or his son only because they were powerful and belonged to a high caste.

The movie clearly shows a picture of how the politics revolves around the caste system in our society and how the position of women in all the castes remains the same. Women are always the sufferer and one time or the other they accept this reality even if it is painful for her.

If we analyse the movie in a holistic way we can see that the portrayal of woman in the film was not that of a very strong one but rather of a realistic one. The initial minutes of the movie showed the helplessness of a woman when it comes to her husband. The landowner’s wife knew that her husband was involved with another woman and that he also had a son from her, still she wanted to keep quiet to maintain the harmony in a family.

Though his son was more vocal about it and expressed his fury even in front of his father still he respected his father and feared him. He could not raise his voice

92 against his father’s will. He wanted to study further but unwillingly married a young girl when his father forced him. He went to the village alone and got attracted towards the lower caste woman who was taking care of his home.

He did not believe in caste system and unlike his father ate food cooked by a lower caste woman, Laxmi. This attitude surprised many others in the village and many started speaking ill about them openly.

He did something that he detested, developing a relationship with another woman being married himself. This showed the hypocrisy around us. What one despises the whole life is was what one ends up doing. It is easy to point out other people’s mistakes and errors but when the same situation is with us, we are unable to find fault in ourselves.

Similarly, in this movie, a very humane approach is made towards a simple story where the viewers could easily connect with the characters. The patriarchal values, the suppressed women, and the caste system is depicted in a realistic picture with no songs or grand settings.

TRISHUL

If we look into the Yash Chopra directorial venture Trishul (1978) we could see a bit of a similarity when it comes to the portrayal of women. Women in this movie is also shown as weak and vulnerable when in the starting of the film we could see how Shanti is seen as a vulnerable female who is abandoned by Raj. Though she decided to give birth to her child but all through her life she is shown as a miserable woman who was not capable enough to bring up her son alone.

Movies are often influenced by real life situations and the patriarchal society is always emphasising on the fact that a woman alone cannot raise a child without a father. Though this is seldom implied by movies where single fathers are shown because in that case fathers are applauded for raising a kid alone and is never portrayed as miserable, vulnerable, or weak.

Shanti on her death bed

Hence, in this movie Shanti is shown to have struggled all her life to give her son a better tomorrow and finally succumbed to her death while suffering with an age old illness.

While Raj is shown being married to another woman, Kamini, she is not seen taken more of the screen time. Chopra concentrated more on the male protagonists of the movie than give screen time to the female ones.

However, there was Sheetal who was seen as a modern woman but she is mostly seen as romancing Shekhar rather than indulging in any other useful activity. She is seen as a confident self-independent daughter of a company’s managing director but her contribution in any kind of business is not disclosed in the whole movie.

Then there was Kusum who was Raj’s young daughter. Though she was seen as a modern liberal girl who drove a car and was a jovial and carefree person still she was seen to be dependent upon the males of her family when it comes to her choice of marriage.

She was secretly seeing Ravi who was working in her father’s company and later on when the affair came on the fore, Raj and Shekhar both went against the decision of marrying them off. Though Raj himself had been in a relationship with a poor woman, Shanti, in the past but from that time also he wanted to climb the stairs of the rich and the famous hence, abandoning her and going for a richer girl instead.

Perhaps, this was the psyche behind not conforming to the wishes of his daughter when she asked them to get her married to Ravi who was economically from a low

94 class. Therefore, it showed how even a liberal and high class woman is dependent for a personal decision of her life, like marriage, on the male members of her family.

Although, there was one more female character who seem to play an important role in the movie about this business rivalry, which was of Geeta. She was the only female lead in the movie who was shown having a role of an empowered and strong woman. Though she was professionally shown to be on a lower position than any of the three male leads of the movie, still she was shown as a stronger character than the other female leads of the movie.

Hence, it can be clearly seen that a similar theme is treated differently in both the genres of the Hindi cinema. Where infidelity was accepted and portrayed in a bold way in the Parallel cinema, the same infidelity was made to appear as the shackles of burden and guilt for a woman in the Commercial cinema.

Moreover, one very interesting thing can be noted in the commercial films of 70s, the image of mother was always eulogised. In this movie also the maternal force had been highlighted more than once. It was simply emphasised that on whoever side was mother’s love would always succeed in life.

The bond between Shanti and her son Vijay seemed a very strong one and that was why Vijay was seen as not only avenging his mother but also getting successful in life because of her blessings. While physically the mother was not present for the most part of the film but still it was shown through the psyche of Vijay. However, most of the other characters of the movie are shown as ‘motherless’ though if not in reality, as was the case of Shekhar and Kusum where they had a mother but their bond was never shown as strong as Vijay’s was with her mother. Hence, whoever have the most love of their mother would be a winner in life.

In this way the position of a mother is exalted in the film by only depicting her through the actions and emotions of her son. Though another son was shown obeying his mother when Raj rejected Shanti and agreed to marry someone he did not love, hence, showing that not always loving your mother would bring someone peace and happiness in life. Therefore, devotion of mother was a small theme in the movie, it also depicted that one could not be happy by blindly worshipping one’s mother rather one has to have the courage to develop one’s own independent thought in order to understand the circumstances that could be favourable for a happy life.

Thus, by exalting the status of a woman as a mother in the movie the filmmaker is also trying to depict the repercussions of such a devotion. Here again women in their highest form, i.e., motherhood, is not considered to be as the most powerful or influential person.

MANTHAN

There are several other movies in the Parallel cinema that take serious subjects and show a real picture to the viewers. One of them is Manthan (1976). Manthan directed by Shyam Benegal was a cult movie depicting the White revolution of India. Verghese Kurien was the pioneer of the milk cooperative movement in India. The movie was jointly written by him and Vijay Tendulkar. Though the main theme of the movie dealt with the White revolution, it also portrayed various other major issues related to poor farmers and politics in villages.

Here, the females are shown oppressed by the sarpanch, as are all the other male members of their families, but they are also shown supressed by their husbands and other male members of the village as well. Females are seen working and also taking care of their children, which is referring to ‘double day’. Whereas males in the village are mostly engaged in the politics and the decision making process.

Cinematographically if we compare this movie to the commercial films of 70s, Manthan has longer scenes with less cuts between scenes, there was less lighting and the filmmaker tried to depict a realistic picture with real locations and properties.

Bindu shown working in her hut

96 Important issues like poverty and caste system was dealt with sincerity in the movie. Life of the uneducated villagers is shown how they follow the powerful people of the village without using their own intellect, which is limited, actually. Women are shown oppressed by everyone, firstly their husbands and then the other powerful people of the village like the sarpanch. A play of power is shown in a subtle way where everyone wants to be the puppeteer so that one could always control the lives of the poor farmers who could make them rich and hence, more powerful.

It showed a realistic picture of how power plays an important role in the society where husbands are powerful over their wives, rich are powerful over poor, and high caste is powerful over low caste. The use and misuse of such power is also shown through oppression of the farmers by the sarpanch and through imbibing the idea of being independent by the men who started the corporate society.

Another important point that the movie highlight was that good and bad people existed everywhere. The group consisting of the veterinary doctor and his team that came to the village was seen as a group of saints who solely came for the betterment of the poor but was soon revealed that a member of that group was no less than the evil oppressors of the village who not only used a girl for his lust but also abandoned her afterwards.

However, an idea of hope was shown at the end of the movie where the power of unity was seen amongst the villagers. The villagers have been living in fear and oppression for too long that they forgot what exactly they could do if united. It was only Bhola, the leader of the Harijan community, who reminded them of their powers and showed them that being dependent on the powerful people would not make them happy, rather they would have to take matters in their own hands. In this case, the corporate society was their own and for their own good.

The women shown in the movie were in the most pathetic condition than the males. They were seen taking care of their family and also working outside their houses. A feisty young woman Bindu was seen taking care of her house, her son, and her cattle alone as her husband had run off on her. But once her husband came back, she became a submissive person. She was uneducated and hence, was used as a tool by her husband to earn money from the sarpanch while accusing the doctor of molesting Bindu.

Even till the end Bindu was unaware of the fact that her husband had made her put her thumb print on a paper that could damage the image of the doctor. She remained confused as to why the doctor had been avoiding her.

In the end when Bhola was convincing everyone to reopen the cooperation society and run that themselves, the women were more than willing to agree with him. Perhaps it was because they had been suffering for too long in the hands of the sarpanch and they wanted to believe Bhola when he said that “yeh sisoty apdi cheh” (this is our society) refereeing to the cooperative society made for the farmers.

If we look at this movie with reference to the theories of feminism, we can clearly say that Marxist Feminism is seen in this one. In 1859, Marx developed ‘Historical Materialism’, a theory that recognises various ways in which the economic and social structure of the society forms the base of any society. This base determines a range of systems which favours a few people who in turn are in power and oppress the other weaker sections of the society. According to Marx, these people in power try to maintain their power in order to increase the class conflict through which they could continue ruling over the low classes and remain in power.

Similarly, the movie showed how sarpanch always wanted to divide the village on the basis of the higher caste and the Harijan community. Basically he wanted to rule over the villagers for long and that was the reason he contested for the head of the cooperation society as he knew that it could bring him more monetary profit in the future.

BHUMIKA

Bhumika (1977) is another film directed by Shyam Benegal that is considered to be one of the masterpieces of the Parallel genre. The film shows how women are supressed and cheated by males. Oppression of a woman by her own husband is depicted from the forefront but it has deeper and more serious issues in its depth.

The plot revolves around a famous actress who is not free to make her own choices. She is unhappy with her marriage and she goes around in the search to find love and true meaning of her existence by leaving her husband and daughter but in the end had to return to her depressing life without any meanings found in the whole journey. Certain symbols and directorial touches can be seen even from the initial

98 minutes of the movie. The symbolic scene in the beginning showing the poster of a movie saying “Agnipariksha” shows how the life of a woman is no less than a test. A woman keeps on toiling for her family but still her loyalty is questioned at every step.

Poster of a movie shown in Bhumika

As a young girl, Usha is seen to be a very sensitive child. In one of the scenes from the flashback showed that she could not bear the killing of a chicken for food rather she was hiding with it so that her mother could not cook it. It shows how innocent and soft-hearted soul was she. Throughout the movie, couple of flashbacks were showed to unfold the childhood of Usha in a glimpse.

The control of a male over a female’s life is shown through various situations. She was not able to make decisions regarding her work. She could not even take control over her body or over her reproduction. She was forced to abort her child due to the male oppressor she had married. This showed how even by being famous and rich she was dependent on her husband for some of the major decisions of her personal life.

Though she was a famous and wealthy movie star, still she was helpless and unloved. She used to find the lost love in other people when she could not find it in her husband. She was not only trying to find the physical form of love, she was also searching for an emotional and spiritual connection with someone with whom she could spend the rest of her life. This quest brought her face-to-face with many males in her way but every time she had to be disappointed as no one stood firm on her standard.

A realistic picture is shown with Usha wearing less make-up or sometimes no make- up at all when she was not performing on stage. In the age where fair and beautiful girls played the lead role in movies, Smita Patil being a dark skinned one played the lead in many of the Parallel films. Hence, the Parallel cinema tried to break the

99 trends set by the Commercial cinema by showing realistic locations and realistic characters where not only fair girls could be the centre of an important story.

The movie is an example of how it is always the woman who is seen compromising. In the initial scenes of the movie Usha’s mother was seen compromising her daughter’s future because they were financially unstable. She was young and immature and could not take her own decisions. Her mother decided her fate of making her a film star though she herself was against it but Keshav, who was the only male they thought they could trust, skilfully moulded their decisions for his own good.

In this movie, there were many important dialogues and gestures that showed how women used to suffer in the hands of their male counterparts from ages and how they have started to accept all those oppressiveness with ease.

A powerful dialogue in the movie was, “Mardon ke mukhote badalte hain, mard nahi. Aur kitna bathkegi tu?” Showing that all males are alike when it comes to supressing women and showing their power on them. Usha changed several partners but no one was different from the other when it comes to care and love. In the end all of them liked having control over her independence, her body, and her decisions.

In the quest of love and peace Usha had simply destroyed her life. All she wanted was to have control over her life and her death but she was unable to even die when she wanted to. Life was not fair to her because she was unable to decipher the meaning of life. She did what she thought was the right thing to do but have always been wrong by trying to expect truth, loyalty, and love from the males around her.

Usha came a whole circle in her life in the end

100 In the end she was completely depressed and traumatised due to the long journey of her life and wanted peace and loneliness in order to ponder over where she went wrong. But the last scene showed a phone call from her previous life, the life where she was a popular film star, and all the memories came racing back to her. She knew she could never run away from her past nor could she ever be able to forget all that and so she reluctantly accepted the ugly truths of her life.

NISHANT

Nishant, a painfully dark film by Shyam Benegal with a hard hitting storyline dealing with the atrocities of the lower class people by the upper class powerful goons. A painful picture of how women are just regarded as objects of lust and are used and thrown by such people.

In the end though a very strong point was being emphasised through the eyes of Rukmini when the angry villagers stormed inside the zamindar’s house. Rukmini kept on watching them beat her brothers in law from her room’s balcony even though she knew that eventually the villagers would climb upstairs and her life could be in danger. But the wrath in her heart was immense and she always wished these evil people to have the worst end ever. She could not help herself but vicariously felt pleasure in watching them bleed to death in the hands of the innocent villagers.

Such an act is somewhat normal for persons who have seen and felt the sufferings for too long. She has always been helpless and was not treated as equal after Sushila had come along. The satisfaction in her eyes in that scene depicted the way a sufferer forgets about everything when looking at their oppressor suffering for the evils done.

And the last scene where Sushila was certain of her death showed that anguish and distress of a mother that she would not be able to see her child ever again. The pain and grief in her eyes was not because she was going to die by the hands of the furious crowd of villagers rather she secretly wished she could see her son for the last time as the only word uttered by her in such a stressful moment was ‘Munna’ showing that a mother could never forget her child even in situations as bleak as this.

101

Sushila waiting for her death

Hence, a very realistic picture of the emotions and the feelings of a woman is shown through the representation of these two women, i.e., Rukmini and Sushila. Though both had different social backgrounds and belonged to different classes still their struggle to life was somewhat similar.

The filmmaker established the theme of the movie when it showed how the sons of the zamindar treated the villagers and how women were asked to show up at their house every now and then. The atrocities on villagers were caused by the higher class zamindar only because he had money and power. This power could be seen when even the police and the collector did not help the schoolmaster when he complained after the abduction of his wife.

Such a bleak situation can be seen in every society where the people with power suppress those who are weak and vulnerable. Though the movie was set up in rural area, a similar picture could be seen in every era whether in a rural or an urban setting.

PURAB AUR PASCHIM

Manoj Kumar’s movie Purab aur Paschim (1970) is based on this concept of contrast between the East and West. The movie put a contrast between Preeti, an Anglo-Indian girl brought up in UK, and Gopi, a traditional Indian girl. Both are competing for the love of Bharat (literally meaning India), an Indian man who is a son of an Indian freedom fighter and had a heart full of Indian morals and ethics.

102 Bharat met Preeti when he went to London and saw that though Preeti’s father is an Indian she was ignorant of anything about India. Bharat told her many things about the ‘real India’ in a melodramatic song. Subsequently Preeti fell in love with Bharat and asked to marry her but Bharat put one condition that he would go back to India with Preeti. Reluctantly Preeti agreed and went to India as an ideal wife. She gave up her ‘evil westernised’ habits of drinking and smoking and shed her mini-skirts for a sari. Preeti was understanding Indian traditions

These were some highly sentimental dialogues of the movie showing an emotional picture of India. It asserted Bharat’s vision of India as a spiritual and a backward one only in the things that do not really matter. Whereas, Preeti’s change of heart showed the superiority of Indian culture and tradition.

SHOLAY

The greatest blockbuster hit of the 70s, Sholay (1975), directed by Ramesh Sippy ruled the hearts of the audience even till today. The movie was first of its kind where one can find comedy, tragedy, romance, emotions, drama, and action all packed in

10 Geetanjali Gangoli, p. 152, Bollyworld

103 one. It was what critics would call a complete masala movie that contains all the flavours of a commercial cinema.

The movie set records for several things but only a few noted the way the movie portrayed its female leads. Somehow the filmmaker contradicted his own viewpoints when it came to women.

On one hand he portrayed Basanti, a garrulous village girl who was self-dependent as she rode a tonga for a living while on the other hand he depicted Radha, a widow who kept silent for the most part in the film only because she was totally dependent upon her family for happiness. Hence, he wanted to show the two extremes of women but ended up showing that both are dependent on men in some way or the other.

The movie was completely projecting a masculine overtone where strength and power were the vital themes. Revenge, violence, and several action sequences were a proof that it was movie meant for the male audience. The movie in no way showed women as object of lust for the most part but still the vulnerability of each women is depicted vividly through one or the other sequences.

Basanti offering Jai and Veeru a ride to Ramgarh in her tonga

A famous song of the movie ‘Mehbooba oh mehbooba’ became very popular among the movie goers and the song clearly depicted a scantily dressed woman dancing between a gang of men providing them phallic pleasure. The song was included in the movie to let the audience breathe in between the violence and tragedy. It did not help in building the pace of the screenplay of the film still the dancing girl gave relief and pleasure of gaze to the males while watching the film.

104 Moreover, the movie showed a patriarchal view where Radha is married to a man she had never met so she hardly had a say in the matter. In a way it was shown how upper classes had restrictions on women. Whereas, Basanti was a woman but a bread winner and it did not matter to her because it was a survival tactic. She was seen fearless, independent, and impulsive. Although if we look at Radha, she was taught to be restrained and sacrificing by the society that terms such women as ‘good’ ones.

In this was Sippy had portrayed two ends of a looking glass, one bold and unrestrained and the other calm and cautious. But even the bold one became the damsel in distress by the end, which highlights that women are powerless in front of men and they would always need a man for safety and security.

Basically, the issue in the commercial movies if simply put is the way the story is written and the screenplay is developed. Most of the times it is written for the males and the female lead(s) are simply added around the male protagonists to fit in the movie. The narrative of the films are constructed by men for men and that is the main reason why females are always represented from a male point of view.

AMAR PREM

Shakti Samanta directed movie Amar Prem (1972) was about the eternal love between various relationships. Two kinds of love are shown in the movie, one is the platonic love that could be seen between Pushpa and Anand babu and the other is the motherly love that existed between Pushpa and Nandu. Though the eternal love, i.e., Amar Prem, could be seen in both these cases.

The film depicted the concept that females were supposed to live in their husbands’ home till they die. The concept of ‘doli ka jana and arthi ka uthna’ is always projected in the Hindi movies. When Pushpa was thrown out of her house by her husband and his new wife, she was not welcomed at her own home by her mother. Before even listening to the whole story her mother started blaming her that she must have done something wrong in order to get thrown out of the house. Though Pushpa told her mother that her husband had remarried but not even once did her mother cursed or said any ill about him.

It was difficult to side with a woman in a world that was ruled by men, as in one instance when a boy tried to have a deal with Pushpa for an illicit relationship, the

105 boy’s sister in law complained about Pushpa to her mother without confronting her brother in law and once again Pushpa’s mother blamed her without listening to her side of the story and threw her out of her house.

It shows how women are always blamed when a man is involved. Men can behave badly with a woman but it will always be the woman who will be looked down upon even by her own family.

Even when Anand’s wife did not like him to continue meeting Pushpa, her brother came to Pushpa instead of confronting Anand himself because she was the vulnerable one. There is always a relationship between the powerful and the powerless in the world. In this case also we could see Pushpa as a powerless woman while the males were strong and powerful in the eyes of the society.

This was a story of a powerless woman who was kicked out of her home from her husband and then from her own mother and was tricked into prostitution. Though she ended up as a courtesan who sang for her customers but Hindi cinema always had this blurring representation of a courtesan and a prostitute. Hence, in this movie people always refer to Pushpa as a prostitute but only a few people who were close to her knew that she was a lady with a heart of gold.

Pushpa and Nandu bonding

The relationship of Anand with his wife was seen as not of a happy one. She has been seen as someone who did not have the time for her husband and spent most of

106 her time outside her home in parties and with friends. It has been established that women were considered to be maids at home. Men were happy to work as a machine the whole day but wanted their wives to be available for them when they want to and work for them at home.

According to them, traditional wives must be at home all the time to entertain their husbands. They were not supposed to groom themselves in a saloon rather be at home cooking food. They have to stay inside the four walls and were not supposed to step in the public sphere where men were supposed to work and connect with people.

Moreover, this was a story of three lonely people namely Pushpa, Anand babu, and Nandu who found solace in each other’s company though they did not share any kind of blood relation. Pushpa’s motherly affection for Nandu is often compared by the goddess Durga as in the end it was being depicted when Nandu was taking her home and the idol of Durga was passing by them, depicting that the mother, as Durga is often called ‘maa’, was going home.

Such a unique bond that they shared was referred by Anand in a dialogue when he said, “Koi agar apna naa ho ke bhi bahut apna ho, to isse kya kehte hain? Bahut pyara rishta na?” (If someone is bound to you without being related to you, then what is it called? A very pure relationship, right?) And he also knew that society would never understand such a platonic relationship.

The society in which we live always needed a name of the relation. They tag people on the basis of a relationship and without a name no relation is complete. And that is why the society often behave badly and foul mouth people they think did not conform to the social views and standards of the society. A song in the film depicts such a condition in an apt way “Kuch to log kahenge, logon ka kaam hai kehna”. In this song Anand mocked the way in which society passed the moral judgement on people without looking deep into anyone’s soul.

One major observation of the film states that both men and women were not treated as equals even if they perform the same activity. While prostitutes like Pushpa were considered filthy by the society, men like Anand were not treated on the same scale. Though brothels are made because of such males in the society but it is always the

107 woman who has to suffer. This shows the hypocrisy and patriarchal views of the society.

These are only a few parallel Hindi movies that were produced during the initial years of the New Wave Cinema in the Hindi film industry. Along with them the commercial Hindi movies were also being produced with different themes and also a different portrayal of female characters than the parallel ones. This brief comparison throws the light on the fact how differences in the representation of female characters became distinctly prominent in these two genres of the Hindi cinema.

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CHAPTER 3

THEORIES:

FEMINIST THEORIES AND FILM THEORIES

Theory is not an idea for researchers to understand rather it is the way that they interpret the facts. However, feminism means to value women and their contributions to the society. Feminism has many political agendas, ideologies, values, and viewpoints. It analyse the past to understand the old patriarchal values and the way it has subordinated women.

The society never guaranteed to give all the rights to the women let alone any kind of privileges that are considered appropriate to the status of being a human. Liberal feminists have this view that whatever a man is given by the society, the woman is always given less than that. If in any culture one has to see what it values less, one simply has to look at what it leaves or gives to the women. In the societies where skirt were prestigious to be worn, it were worn by men. Women are not given any kind of power, property, pleasure, or prestige. Even these deprivations do not fall equally within women in the same society or different ones.

Feminism needs to willingly work for it with a better historical knowledge so that we could stand up on behalf of all the women who are facing misogyny every day and who do not want to hear “be nice” every time.

When the feminist movement started in the United States, the activists promoted the male ideology and oppression of females more than the feministic ideology and significance of equality. it somehow presented the feminist movement in a negative light highlighting the fact that feminists were ‘male-haters’ and want to dominate them.

The age old oppression and exploitation of women resulted in a rift between the two sexes. It gave rise to sexist discrimination in every field and feminist movement could easily offer an ideological space for a transformation. It could transform the feelings of hatred and competition with feelings of mutuality and camaraderie.

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Unfortunately, these positive outcomes were ignored by the feminists and bourgeois white women in America narcissistically focussed on the problems that involved themselves rather than focussed on the issues regarding all the females in general. Leaders convinced many women who were not white and who did not belong to the bourgeois but only a few joined them initially. Feminist activists did not explain the significance of the movement to the masses which in return created several wrong perceptions about it. They were mostly seen as radicals who want to live in a utopian world and want to exterminate all the men and dominate the world themselves.

Even today it is a common belief that feminism deals with hatred of males and a wish of female domination. The clouds of misconception of the movement is still hovering around the earth and it seems to be very difficult to make the masses understand the purpose and need of feminism which basically involves the end of sexist oppression and not female domination over males.

It is believed by many feminists that sexist oppression must be eradicated as it is the cause of all the other oppressions. Racism and classism all have been stemmed out of sexism. However, it is also believed that sex role divisions were existing from ancient period and the earliest civilizations has been discovered to be in Africa where there was no distinction between the sexes and their roles in the society. The issues regarding sex, race, and class can be seen in the Western culture which resembles the systems globally. In almost all the cultures and societies of the world, the Western culture and tradition is imitated. Although, all kinds of oppressions and subjugation is supported by the Western traditional thinking.

In the book Cultural Basis of Racism and Group Oppression: An Examination of Traditional “Western” Concepts, Values, and Institutional Structures which Support Racism, Sexism, and Elitism by John L. Hodge, Donald K. Struckmann, Lynn Dorland Trost, the authors discussed how the “Western religious and philosophical thought is the ideological basis of all forms of oppression in the United States.”

The sexist oppression must be given importance not only because it is the basis of all the other kinds of oppression but because most of the people experience this practice of domination either by playing the role of the discriminator or of the

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discriminated. This is a practice which most people are brought up to accept without consciously knowing about the other forms of oppressions. Eradication of sexism will not necessarily eliminate all the other oppressions but it would surely play a major role in initiating the elimination of other oppressions.

It is something most people observe in their homes. Both the roles – that of the oppressor and the oppressed – can be seen in most of the households. We unknowingly accept and instil these roles within us according to what we experience and observe since childhood. It is in our socialisation process and we do not feel that it has anything to do with domination or subjugation of any kind. In a family we are socialised to accept and support all kinds of oppressions.

As John Hodge has argued, “The traditional Western family, with its authoritarian male rule and its authoritarian adult rule, is the major training ground which initially conditions us to accept group oppression as the natural order.” We are always taught love and care in the families but are often taught how power is also important to have and, hence, the elders are often dominating the younger siblings as they are being dominated by the adults of the families.

The patriarchal state wanted family members to support the hierarchical control and authority and politically vested interest in depicting that feminism may destroy the family values and would result in disastrous household situations. A collection of essays edited by Barrie Thorne with Marilyn Yalom, Rethinking the Family: Some Feminist Questions, in 1982 argued that family life supported by feminist activists has been used in political campaigns by the New Right groups saying, “Of all the issues raised by feminists, those that bear on the family – among them, demands for abortion rights, and for legitimating an array of household and sexual arrangements, and challenges to men’s authority, and women’s economic dependence and exclusive responsibility for nurturing – have been the most controversial.”

Feminist activists want to improve the family conditions by eradicating authoritarian rule of the males in it, whereas, many people have the notion that anti- feminism is a way of improving family life. However, this is not the case. Sexist oppression is the cause of several family disputes and disastrous living conditions especially for females. It has to be replaced by shared responsibility and mutual

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flexibility. This movement will change the social demographic which in turn strengthen and sustain family relationships and ties.

A political conscious person has to recognise the need to struggle against all kinds of oppression, including the fight against sexist oppression because this fight has a grave political significance. Feminism is not a movement confined for women only as it focusses on the liberation of people from the bonds of sexist oppression and even males can play a vital role in spreading awareness and liberating people.

The different theories and definitions of feminism shows the diversity amongst feminists. The beliefs and ideas of feminism are somewhat different in various branches of feminism. It has been a primary source of conflict in the feminist movement as well. Feminists do not fit themselves into the beliefs of any of the branches of feminism. They just believe in the idea of equality of men and women and how could they make a difference in the present scenario to fulfil this goal. They believe that people must be politically, economically, and socially equal to one another and practice feminism in their own way. However, according to various ideologies feminism has been divided into different theories. There are many kinds of feminism but in this study we will discuss only a few of them.

FEMINIST THEORIES

Liberal Feminism

The earliest form of feminism is the Liberal feminism. It is basically an individualistic form of theory where the focus is on the ability of women to maintain their equality with their own actions and choices. The main aim of these feminists was to acquire gender equality and spread awareness of the same. Liberal feminists demanded equality in access to education, equal pay for equal work, better working conditions, and to end job segregation.

During the civil rights movement in the United States in 1960s, liberal feminists drew parallels between the race discrimination by the system and sex discrimination. To encourage others to speak up for women’s rights, many groups emerged during this period. Some of such groups were National Organisation for Women, National Women’s Political Caucus, and Women’s Equity Action League.

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Mary Wollstonecraft and Abigail Adams were involved from the start to argue about equality for women. Liberal feminism was one of the earliest kinds of feminism. It was started during the first wave of feminism. The earliest demand of the liberal feminists was that of suffrage, franchise, and right to vote. They wanted women to gain education, to have job opportunities, and to take part in the political system of the society by being an active participant. They believe that God has created men and women equally, hence, both must have equal rights in all the spheres of life. In a few words, liberal feminists want to free women from the bondage of performing gender roles. Whatever privileges a man enjoys, the same must be given to a woman without getting discriminated on the any basis, especially on the basis of sex.

Other important issues that the liberal feminists focussed upon included the reproductive rights and abortion access. But it was not limited to only these rights, they also concentrated on sexual harassment, voting, education, compensation for work, affordable childcare and healthcare for all, and wanted to throw light on the sexual and domestic violence prevailing in the society against women.

Mary Wollstonecraft has always been very influential through her writings. Her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman encouraged women to speak up against patriarchy that was holding their voices for so long. Wollstonecraft wanted “personhood” for women and denied the popular belief that women are by nature more gentle and giving than men. She argued if men were confined to the same limitations as women, they too would develop these traits.

Another important writer during the first wave of feminism who was a liberal feminist was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She played a major role in orchestrating the Seneca Falls Convention, which was the first women’s rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York in July 1848.

Stanton was involved in many women’s movements not only limited to the suffragist movement but also the ones including employment and income rights, women’s parental and custodial rights, birth control, and divorce laws. She also has an equally talented and influential partner with her, Susan B. Anthony. They fought for the linguistic shift in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments together to

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include “female”. Moreover, in 1890 she founded the National American Women Suffrage Association and remained the president of the association for two years. She did not author any feminist text as such but have produced a large number of speeches, letters, calls, and petitions which helped in lighting the torch of the first wave. She even paved the way for the Married Women’s Property Act of 1848 by collecting a huge number of signatures.

Another important figure in the liberal feminism is John Stuart Mill. He believed that both men and women must have equal rights and that law must be equal for both the sexes. He argued that both the sexes must be allowed to develop and use their faculties freely. Mill often spoke about the “unselfishness” that men have while they provide necessities to their families. By this unselfishness he meant the one “that motivates people to take into account the good of society as well as the good of the individual person or small family unit.”

Apart from these feminist, some famous 20th century liberal feminists include Betty Friedan, Hillary Clinton, Rebecca Walker, Naomi Wolf, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the largest Liberal Feminist organisation in the United States. Currently their focus primarily is the Constitutional Equality Amendment but they also deals with the issues related to female reproductive rights and abortion access. They also focus on ending violence against women, racism, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender rights (LGBT).

In the United States, three years after the right to vote was introduced, the Equal Right Amendment (ERA) was also instigated. While the Amendment has been introduced after that into each session of the United States Congress, it has been facing opposition from the initial stages. It was approved after a lot of pondering and voting over the Amendment. Though, in 1970s when the Congress passed the Amendment to the states, the text of the ERA was classical liberal feminism, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”

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However, in 2008, the ERA was stopped three states short of ratification. The National Organization of Women holds the view that gender and racial imbalance in the legislature is the main problem for this result.

In 1995, American women’s organisations introduced the Constitutional Equity Amendment (CEA). It contains all the vital issues covered by the two year study of NOW and other groups including ERA. But there were a few points that ERA missed and CEA emphasised. They were:

 Women and men shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place and entity subject to its jurisdiction.  It guarantees rights without discrimination on the basis of sex, race, sexual orientation, marital status, ethnicity, national origin, colour or indigence.  It prohibits pregnancy discrimination and guarantees the absolute right of a woman to make her own reproductive decisions including the termination of pregnancy.

Though like all the theories, Liberal Feminism has also been criticised by other feminists and scholars. One of the major criticisms it faced was that Liberal Feminism focuses on the individual which clearly disregards the importance of a community as a whole. According to another critique, it somehow focuses into the metamorphosis of a woman into a man where the significance of the traditional role of the woman is lost.

A Radical Feminist, Catherine A. MacKinnon, argues that liberalism and feminism were not compatible at all because liberalism offers women a “piece of the pie currently and poisonously baked.” Other critics, including the post-colonial feminists and black feminists claimed that liberal feminism mainly reflects the values of the middle-class white women ignoring the women of other races, ethnicity, and class.

Radical Feminism

Radical feminism is basically the breeding ground of most of the ideas that feminism holds today. However, today it is not accepted as the term to define feminism and it has just become a branch of feminism.

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Many ideas arose from radical feminism which were later on been shaped and pounded out in many other branches of feminism. Basically this was a feminist movement that started during the civil rights and peace movements in 1967-68. The label of “radical” to this group was given for its main focus on the oppression of women as the most fundamental form of oppression. It is the kind of oppression that ignore the boundaries of race, culture, and class.

It was developed in the United States during the women’s liberation movement in thd 1960s. it is mainly seen in the context of the second wave of feminism that was started in the early 60s. Some of the pioneers of the second wave of feminism included Shulamith Firestone, Kathie Sarachild, TiGrace Atkinson, Carol Hanisch, and Judith Brown.

Radical feminism developed in the United States as a response to the failings of some political organisations and feminists organisations including Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and National Organization for Women (NOW). Initially radical feminists concentrated in big cities like New York, Chicago, Boston, and Washington DC but later on it spread across the country during 1968 to 1972.

Ellen Willis characterised the New York Radical Women as “the first women’s liberation group in New York City”. Radical feminists were the ones who declared that “personal is political” and “sisterhood is powerful”.

Soon after in 1969, New York Radical Women fell apart in what was known to be the “politico-feminist split”. Here the “politicos” saw capitalism as the main source

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of women subjugation while “feminists” saw patriarchy as the reason for the oppression of women worldwide. The feminist side of the split soon emerged with a new organisation, Redstockings. By the same time a second organisation was formed when Ti-Grace Atkinson made a “radical split-off from NOW” and emerged with a new organisation, The Feminists.

During this time, many feminists’ works were being published including Anne Koedt’s essay The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm (1970) and Kate Millet’s book Sexual Politics (1970).

Radical feminists believe that patriarchal values must be condemned and oppression of women could diminish through this way. They believe in a movement of social change that has to be quite revolutionary in nature.

Radical feminism questions gender stereotypes and its impact on the society. This theory wants to free males and females from the bondage of the characteristics and attributes imposed on them on the basis of their genders. This theory tries to differentiate between biologically adopted behaviour and cultural adopted behaviour. It shows how different we could be biologically but how we are made different culturally by labelling us under masculine and feminine.

It wants to show how narrow gendered roles are and how vast the possibilities are for us to break free from these roles and explore the things we want. The status quo has always been important in the society but what if we do not want it? We are not given a choice because we are labelled as males and females and we are supposed to act in a particular manner whether we like it or not.

Radical feminists want to put an end to gender stereotypes and choose our own way to behave without any kind of imposition from the society. They believe that equality is all in the way we want to behave but fear the society to judge us in a negative manner.

Radical feminists basically wants a radical reordering of the hierarchy in the society. They want to eliminate the male supremacy from political, economic, and social contexts altogether.

It is a philosophy that emphasised the subjugation of women by men from time immemorial. It focuses on the patriarchal roots of inequality between men and

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women and how women have always been exploited by men. This theory argues that patriarchy has always divided rights, privileges, and power according to gender favouring males over females. Hence, females have always been a target of biasness by the males of the society.

Providing privileges to men have always resulted into oppression of women. Radical feminism wants to eradicate such division on the basis of gender. Radical feminists have always been impulsive and rude in nature than that of the other kinds of feminists.

This branch of feminism basically opposes the existing political and social institutions as they believe that these are inherently related to patriarchy. These feminists are sceptical of political action of the current system and demand a cultural change within the society that favours patriarchy and hierarchal structures.

But it has to be clear that radical feminists oppose patriarchy not men in general. To say that radical feminism is all about ‘man-hating’ will be a wrong interpretation of this branch. One must not make the assumption that patriarchy and men are philosophically or politically inseparable.

Radical feminists wants to equate men and female in a political and cultural scenario without any difference. They want equality for all on the basis of their potential and not on the basis of their gendered roles in the society.

They believe that male supremacy is the root cause of the subordination of women. They want to eliminate this idea of male as a superior being than females from the context of politics, culture, or philosophy.

Marxist Feminism

This branch of Feminism mainly focuses on the investigation and explanation of the ways in which women subordination takes place through system of capitalism and private property. It was a movement that was started in the late 19th century. The foundation of the earliest discourse relating the capitalist system and oppression was initiated by the influential works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels through The Communist Manifesto (1848) and A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859).

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In 1859, Marx developed ‘Historical Materialism’, a theory that recognises various ways in which the economic and social structure of the society forms the base of any society. This base determines a range of systems which favours a few people who in turn are in power and oppress the other weaker sections of the society. According to Marx, these people in power try to maintain their power in order to increase the class conflict through which they could continue ruling over the low classes and remain in power.

Marxist Feminism have risen from the doctrines of Karl Marx. The theory does not focus on the material aspects of life but on the social aspects. The division of labour is one of the central issues in this theory that is evident from the capitalist systems. Hence, the Marxists oppose any social or political action that encourage enslavement or oppression on the basis of work division.

The Marxist Feminism explains that the current capitalist economy do not appreciate or compensate women’s labour. They attribute the oppression of women to the capitalist/private property system. Moreover, they insist that the only way to end this kind of oppression is to overthrow the capitalist system from the society. It is a movement that was meant to liberate women by improving their material condition. The capitalist drive for profits is responsible for the second-class status of women in the society. It is also responsible for other kinds of oppression such as racism and homophobia. Women workers are exploited at workplace more than male workers, and coloured women face even higher level of exploitation than other women.

One of the earliest works in this field was that of Friedrich Engels when he published ‘The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State’ in 1884. It deals with the issues of class, women subjugation and private property. According to Engels, patriarchy created a capitalistic society where women have very less or sometimes even no share at all. Because of no property of her own, she has to be dependent upon the male pillars of her family which in return results in her subordination.

Engels argues that social relations are the major causes of women subordination and it has nothing to do with the biological disposition of a woman. He further states that gender oppression is closely related to class oppression. In a society, the

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relationship between a man and a woman is similar to the relations between proletariat and bourgeoisie. Men have always oppressed women and have maintained the practice because it is useful for their power and they remain in the ruling class. It clearly divides men and women where men are provided with all the privileges and women are deprived of any kind of monetary help for their domestic labour assigned.

Many Marxist feminists argue that female oppression originated from being forced into the private sphere. They proposed that conditions of women could improve only if their work was recognised and valued in the public sphere. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a socialist writer who worked on this issue and wanted to end women subordination by influencing people to appreciate female housework and promoted his message in academic and public domains.

Another important issue that the Marxist feminists raised was that of sharing the responsibility of reproductive labour. They wanted to liberate women from their forced connection to reproductive labour. Women have always been responsible to take care of the private sphere including their children. Even when women moved out to the public sphere to compete with men, they still have the responsibility for maintaining equilibrium with their private sphere, whereas, men have no such obligation. They are responsible for only one sphere, i.e., public sphere.

Marxist feminists proposed a solution to gain equality amongst men and women that there has to be sharing of responsibilities within the spheres. The Marxist feminists argue that now when women are working in the public sphere as well, they still have to bear the burden of unwaged labour which is in the private sphere. Silvia Federici explains that such a condition results in a “double day” for women where she has to take care of both the spheres.

Clara Zetkin and Alexandra Kollontai are not in favour of the kind of feminism which reinforce class status. They argue that there is no possibility that women are united on the basis of economic inequality. They think it is difficult for an upper class woman to understand the struggle of a lower working class.

Dora B. Montefiore was a British feminist who after becoming conscious about the conditions of women around her became a radical socialist and fought for women’s rights. As a warrior for women’s rights, she soon became a warrior against

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capitalism and opposed all its inequalities. Marxism was making a new start in Great Britain and Montefiore took advantage of the same by campaigning for the equality of women when it comes to capitalist wage slavery.

George Bernard Shaw has written political works and most of his literary works had political themes. His works mostly dealt with women’s issues or other social ones. He was one of the influential figures dealing with Marxist Feminism through his works.

The commodification of women have been seen from ancient times when women have no say in any major or minor decision making process. Women have often being seen as a property by the husband. Domestic violence is also one of the causes that originate from such a case. When a husband stops seeing his wife as a human and starts treating her as his property, he does not feel any wrong in misbehaving with her. He feels it to be his right to scold, mock, beat, or even rape his wife. There have been instances where husbands trade their wives in order to earn money.

Socialist Feminism

During the 1970s, a new wave of writing began to circulate. It was the emergence of the socialist feminism which came about without any affiliation from a national organisation but from the grassroots of the society. One of the most important things in these writings were the debates that were later on came to be known as dual systems theory. Several socialist feminists argue that there are two interlocking and interdependent systems of oppression, one being patriarchy and other being

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capitalism. They also made analysis which addresses Marxism’s class analysis and feminism’s class analysis of the patriarchal oppression.

The debate often points out that Marxism’s class analysis does not address women’s oppression under capitalism satisfactorily. They argue that there are various facets of women’s lives and theories related to only class analysis could not explain them fully, for instance, domestic violence, rape, objectification of women’s bodies, and the power dynamics of gender and sexuality. They further discuss that capitalism and patriarchy are the two kinds of social systems which are neither identical nor are they autonomous.

Socialist feminism is somehow influenced by the radical feminism as well where the subordination of women by men is seen as an overarching reality in the women’s history. While radical feminism focuses on the patriarchal oppression of women, socialist feminism emphasised on the importance of class inequalities while they also use class as a concept in a different way. They admit that they have gained enlightenment from Marxist’s way of explaining class and many a time use its way to explain social relations in that term as well. But more often than not social feminists tries to focus on the relation of class analysis to gender inequality. They see class as an adjunct to gender inequality and often refer this term to describe the differences between men and women.

Still the concept of women being the oppressed and men being the oppressors has seen many criticisms as one cannot be sure that all women share a common oppression. Feminists have been arguing over this problem since the 1980s. There has been an increased attention to women’s diversity since, and they are unable to identify how capitalism plays an important role in such a diversity. They are unable to provide a common ground for all the women to unite them to fight for social justice.

Several such debates that have been prominent during the past three decades in socialist feminism have now been diminished but such complex dimensions are evident in the social analysis that has become an important part of women’s studies.

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According to Rosemarie Tong, socialist feminism ‘seeks to explain the ways in which capitalism interacts with patriarchy to oppress women more egregiously than men1.’

The term ‘class’ that is used in this theory describes the relation of classes as the oppressive social practices which is similar to that of sex and race oppressions. Here class is a kind of cultural system and a set of status distinction where distribution of resources marks the ‘privileged ones’.

Several socialist feminists argue that household labourers are not considered to be ‘productive’ in a sense but when they are working on wage-purchased goods, their labour becomes a part of the concealed labour included under the labour power. Hence, socialist feminists even initiated campaigns for wages for housework. They further explain that women as housewife labourers are a part of capitalistic class as their work is also contributing to the labour power.

For socialist feminists, class is one of the vital dimension of patriarchal forms of oppression. They analyse theories of Marxist ideology and subjectivity to theorise women’s subjectivity in a better way. Socialist feminists in the initial second wave feminism look at women as an oppressed ‘class’ that is being exploited by the structures of the capitalist patriarchy. After several analysis, the most acceptable model of subjectivity the feminists made available was that of false consciousness. It is an effect of the capitalist ideology according to the Marxist theory where the working class is prevented from perceiving and challenging the exploitative nature of the capitalist society. When look at it through the lens of feminism, false consciousness is seen as the effect of patriarchal society.

However, in the 1970s, the socialist feminists soon moved on beyond the false consciousness and developed more complex theories of subjectivity through the works of Althusser, Freud, and Lacan. Though the Althusserian model of subjectivity explained in his essay On Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses: Notes towards an Investigation (1971) was highly influenced by Lacanian psychoanalysis.

1 Tong, 1998:119

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Some of the famous social feminists include Johanna Brenner, Barbara Ehrenreich, Clara Fraser, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Emma Goldman, Silvia Federici, Donna Haraway, Selma James, Sylvia Walby, and Nellie Wong.

Barbara Ehrenreich was a prominent figure in the Democratic Socialists of America during the 1980s and early 1990s. She was also the honorary co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America during the 2010 onwards. She is an acclaimed columnist, essayist, and have written about 21 books.

While socialist feminists were developing Marxist theory according to their concepts in order to understand patriarchy in a better way, other feminists were trying to develop different forms of radical and revolutionary feminism concepts where patriarchy was seen as the power of the privileged ones and women’s subjugation was its primary purpose.

Socialist feminism focuses on both the public as well as the private spheres of a woman’s life. Socialist feminists argue that women can only be liberated if they work to terminate the economic and the cultural sources of women’s subordination. Socialist feminism includes the vital concepts of both the Marxist and Radical feminism. It explains the role of capitalism as a factor for women’s oppression and also argues that gender and patriarchy are the reason for the subordination of women from time immemorial.

It is one of the main theories of Western feminism where they believe that women are second-class citizens in the patriarchal society that depends on the exploitation of working people for its survival.

Amazon Feminism

This kind of feminism is to give an image of a female hero in fact and fiction. It is mainly expressed in art in literature in physiques and feats of female athletes, and in sexual values and practices. In Amazon feminism, the focus is given to the equality of physical attributes of men and women. It oppose to the idea of gender role stereotypes and discrimination of women on the basis of their looks which are assumed to be weak, passive, and physically helpless.

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The first time this concept of Amazon feminism was brought up by the writings of Ayn Rand. Her philosophy was highly influenced by the Greek knowledge and her concepts had a number of intriguing historical connections from the Greek mythology as well. Rand once compared her female protagonist to a Valkyrie who was a powerful Amazon feminist symbol.

But it was Thomas Gramstad who coined this term in his essay The Female Hero, a Randian Feminist Synthesis. He tried to bring together the concept introduced by Rand and the modern concept of female heroism.

Thomas Gramstad define Amazon feminism as a branch of feminism that is “concerned about physical equality and is opposed to gender role stereotypes and discrimination against women based on assumptions that women are supposed to be, look or behave as if they are passive, weak and physically helpless.”

Although it was Gramstad who coined the term but it was Gloria Steinem who was the first to draw attention to a character that would become iconic in Amazon Feminism when in 1972 in her Ms. Magazine she introduced “Wonder Woman”. Wonder Woman was also sometimes referred to as the “Amazing Amazon” in pop culture.

Moreover, the inception of the character dates back to the 1940s when Dr. William Moulton Marston, who was a psychologist and a feminist, wrote in The American Scholar about the negative impacts of gender stereotyping on youth, “Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power… Women’s strong qualities have become despised because of their weakness. The obvious remedy is to create a character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman.”

Amazon feminism rejects the idea of women being physically weak and the assumptions that certain traits are inherently masculine or feminine. It shows a whole new perspective to the heroic womanhood to the society.

It emphasised on the female physical prowess as a solution to achieve gender equality. Several members of the suffrage movement used violent forms to protest in the political scenario and many newspapers and books referred to them as ‘Amazons’.

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Amazons were basically female warriors according to the Greek mythology. There has been several queens of the Amazons that participated in Trojan War and other such mythological wars. The Amazons were since then became associated with such females that were physically strong and powerful. Hence, Amazons were a race of female warriors as told in myths and legends.

Amazon feminism deals with the image of a woman who is physically strong shown in literature and arts. She is seen strong in physiques and feats and in sexual values and practices as well. This branch of feminism deals with the physical equality of females and shuns the idea of women being passive, weak, and submissive. Amazon feminism breaks down the prejudiced idea about women being physically helpless and timid.

Amazon feminists does not accept the idea that certain traits and characteristics are inherently masculine and are instinctively in males. They believe that females are strong as well but are stereotyped by the patriarchal society. Amazon feminism celebrates the vision of heroic womanhood and supports female physical strength, athletes, martial artists, soldiers, and powerlifters.

Amazon feminism believes in the principle of heroism conceived and expressed in a female form. It refers to a strong and powerful woman, mostly in terms of physical strength.

To sum it up, Amazon feminism is about the ability of a woman to view herself as the captain of her own ship who could not only face the hurdles of the life but also could resolve them. It means that a woman refuses to view herself as a victim of the patriarchal society. The woman separates herself from the common people and seems like a warrior who is willing to face and overcome all the conflicts along her way.

Eco Feminism

The term ‘Ecofeminism’ was basically used for the first time by a French feminist philosopher, Francoise d’Eaubonne in her book Le feminisme ou la mort (1976). She explained that balance between the environments is closely related to the end of patriarchy. She even linked in a critical manner the degradation of environment and

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the population growth with the patriarchal view of women as mere reproductive bodies.

Though the term was introduced by d’Eaubonne, it became popular after a number of protests against the environmental destruction because of the ecological disasters during the 1980s.

It was the meltdown at Three Mile Island that provoked a huge number of women in the United States to organise the first ever ecofeminist conference in March 1980 at Amherst – ‘Women and Life on Earth: A Conference on Eco-Feminism in the Eighties’. This was the conference where several links of feminism and militarisation in context to the ecology were explored.

A feminist economist Professor Mary Mellor define ecofeminism as a “movement that sees a connection between the exploitation and degradation of the natural world and the subordination and oppression of women. It emerged in the mid-1970s alongside second-wave feminism and the green movement. Ecofeminism brings together elements of the feminist and green movements, while at the same time offering a challenge to both. It takes from the green movement a concern about the impact of human activities on the non-human world and from feminism the view of humanity as gendered in ways that subordinate, exploit, and oppress women.2”

A feminist writer, Lynn Wenzel, wrote “Ecofeminists say ‘no more waiting’,” in one of her essays Genesis II – An Ecofeminist Reclamation Project. She further added “We are in a state of emergency and must do something about it now… around the world, economics, cultures and natural resources are plundered, so that 20 percent of the world’s population )privileged North Americans and Europeans) can continue to consume 80 percent of its resources in the name of progress.”

Ecological feminists or Eco feminists argue that there is a close link between ‘the unjustified domination of women, children, people of colour, and the poor and the unjustified domination of nature.’

Karen Warren in Ecofeminist Philosophy (2000) pointed out several connections between women and nature. She explains certain existing dualisms in western philosophy as a source of conceptual and practical domination.

2 Introduction to “Feminism & Ecology” by Mary Mellor, New York University Press, 1997, p.1

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This kind of feminism is more of a spiritual type rather than a political of theoretical one. It argues that a patriarchal society will exploit its resources without giving a thought to the long term consequences of the exploitation. It directly emphasised on the attitude portrayed by the patriarchal or hierarchical society of the world.

Moreover, there are parallels drawn from the exploitation by society of environment, animals, and resources with that of its women. The patriarchal society is treating women in a negative way without regarding the future consequences of such subordination.

This theory of feminism argues that the patriarchal philosophies are harmful not only for women but also for children, animals, and environment as a whole. Eco feminists believes that patriarchal society dominate the unruly females and the unruly wilderness. They view patriarchal society as a structure that has developed over the past 5,000 years.

The Introduction to Ecofeminism by Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva (1993) clearly says that “Wherever women acted against ecological destruction or/and the threat of atomic annihilation, they immediately became aware of the connection between patriarchal violence against women, other people and nature, and that: In defying this patriarchy we are loyal to future generations and to life and this planet itself. We have a deep and particular understanding of this both through our natures and our experience as women.”

Cultural Feminism

Cultural feminism is a theory that eulogises the differences between men and women. It was developed from Radical feminism but has many opposing views. It holds an ideology that tries to revalidate the underrated female characteristics.

It is also said to be a feminist theory of difference where positive traits of a woman is praised and appreciated. Cultural Feminism glorifies and applauds what seems to be the positive attributes of a female.

Josephine Donovan says that Margaret Fuller, who was the nineteenth century journalist, critic, and women’s rights activist, has highly contributed to the Cultural feminism. According to her, Fuller’s Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845) was

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the book that initiated this tradition of Cultural feminism. The book shows an emotional and intuitive side of knowledge that defines a world which is quite different from the mechanistic view of the rational people.

Once the movement of Radical feminism phased out Cultural feminism came into being. Although many of the feminist who were in the former moved to the latter. But still the ideology of both the movements were quite distinctively different where radical feminism wanted to transform the society, cultural feminism was more like vanguardism that wanted to build a women’s culture.

As many of the movements for social change were unsuccessful, many feminists found it difficult to change the society as a whole. Hence, they started to build alternatives for the same which was why this transformation from radical to cultural feminism came into being.

This theory believes that there are fundamental differences between men and women and that those differences must be celebrated by women. They believe that there are certain biological differences between these two races and instead of trying to gain equality we must celebrate these differences. Cultural feminism supports the differences that make a woman unlike a man and wants to highlight the special traits that women have against men.

They believe in the popular notion that women are kinder and gentle than men. They want to overcome sexism by celebrating these qualities a woman has and believe that women are better than men in many ways.

Cultural feminists want to give equal value to the jobs a female does including taking care of children and home, cooking food for the family, so that people could learn to respect females just as they respect males. Feminists use a phrase “essential differences” in this kind of feminism in order to refer to the belief that gender differences are an essential part of males and females and it cannot be disregarded in any way. Such differences are a part of a person’s life and one should learn to accept and appreciate these differences.

Hence, cultural feminism is seen as an ‘essentialist’ where differences between a man and a woman cannot be overlooked and the essential nature of women is unique to the female sex. Many a time cultural feminist were being criticised for

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being ‘separatists’ when they tried to make a separate lane for women’s music, women’s art, and women’s studies from the mainstream culture.

Cultural feminists were unhappy with the way the society kept encouraging masculine traits. They started a movement to encourage feminine traits instead for the betterment of the society.

FILM THEORIES

If we look into the history of cinema, French philosopher Henri Bergson’s Matter and Memory (1896) was the work which anticipated the development of the film theory. Bergson argued about the new ways people would look at films and cinema. To him, this could become a great movement to which he gave terms like “the movement-image” and “the time-image”.

However, a few decades later a philosopher, Gilles Deleuze, took Matter and Memory as the basis of his analysis of film theory through Cinema I and Cinema II (1983-1985) and keenly observed Bergson’s philosophies and concepts.

The earliest film theories emerged in the silent era of the cinema where it was mainly concerned about the vital elements of the cinema. Film theories arose from the works of some famous French and Russian filmmakers including Germaine Dulac, Louis Delluc, Jean Epstein, Sergei Eisenstein, Lev Kuleshov, and Dziga Vertov. It further evolved from the works of some famous German film theorists including Rudolf Arnheim, Bela Balazs, and Seigfried Kracauer. All of them emphasised on the fact that films are different from reality and they should be considered as an art form. However, the French film critic and theorist Andre Bazin disagreed with this statement as according to him film is basically a reproduction of reality and it cannot be separated from real life.

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It was during the 1960s and 70s that film theory became a part in academia and it started importing concepts from some of the established disciplines like gender studies, linguistics, semiotics, psychoanalysis, anthropology, and literary theory. But it was not until the early 90s when film theory became an important discipline in the American universities where auteur theory and humanistic approaches were dominating the cinema studies.

In the early 1970s after the work of Laura Mulvey, the critics explored many other aspects related to the ‘gaze’ in the cinema identifying the viewer’s perspective with the camera vision.

Auteur Film Theory

Auteur film theory explains that the director is the author of the film and the film reflects his personal creative vision. The word ‘auteur’ is a French word for ‘author’. A French film director, Francois Truffaut, who was also a film critic and one of the founders of the French New Wave, said that, “There are no good or bad movies, only good and bad directors.” He wrote an essay A Certain Tendency in French Cinema in 1954 where he argued that films are a great platform for any director to showcase his/her personal ideas and hence, he could easily be regarded as an ‘auteur’.

However, this viewpoint was criticised by many still it was regarded as an important aspect while interpreting many movies. Later on it was associated with the French New Wave and many critics used to review films using this method in the French film review periodical Cahiers du Cinema. After a few years, auteur theory was developed in the United States by a critic Andrew Sarris.

The theory came into the fore when a group of film enthusiasts stressed on the fact that a director must reflect his/her own personal views in the movie. Alexandre Astruc was a film director and critic who further argued that a director must use the camera as a writer uses the pen while portraying his/her vision to the audience. This notion came to be known as ‘camera-stylo’ or “camera-pen”.

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Andre Bazin, a film theoretician, further explained that by auteur theory one reflects one’s personal viewpoint in an artistic way to portray it through a movie to the audience. One set that as one’s standard of reference and it may continue or progress from one film to the other.

Though it was criticised and several controversy arose due to this theory when people argue over the fact that who would be called the ‘author’ of something which is a result of a team. When it comes to a painting or a book, one can easily point out to the author, but when it comes to a film it is difficult to identify whether it shows the personal vision of the director, the writer, or someone else’s. Even when it comes to a music the composer can be referred to the auteur but what about the music while performing with an orchestra?

Although a film needs an author if it has to qualify for an “art” but every director may not be the auteur of his/her film. Hence, there are many Indian filmmakers who uses this technique to portray their own visual perceptions through their movies. Some of them are Guru Dutt, Satyajit Ray, Raj Kapoor, Mani Ratnam, Mani Kaul, and Shyam Benegal. There are female directors as well like Mira Nair and Aparna Sen and some contemporary ones including Ram Gopal Varma, Nagesh Kukunoor, and Kiran Rao. Moreover, Yash Chopra is said to be an auteur producer and there are screenwriters as well who are included in this theory like K.A. Abbas, Salim Khan, and Javed Akhtar.

Alfred Hitchcock was an English filmmaker who popularised Auteur theory through his films. He mostly made suspense-thriller movies and used camera as his weapon. His innovative camera work was famous and that gave birth to the ‘Hitchcock zoom’ in his film Vertigo (1958). It is a dolly zoom where the subject is kept as the same size throughout the shot but the camera angle is put in such a way that the background changes its size.

Many parallel films are said to be following this trend of being the creative vision of the director himself. The director is without any doubt the creator of the film but many times during the production of the film, the director’s vision is blurred or mixed up with other points of views. Hence, all the films cannot be clubbed under this division. A director brings a movie to life by expressing his own personal views

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and thoughts to it and by using different other methods of production like lighting, camerawork, cinematography, and editing. He uses all these techniques to add to his vision.

From the initial stage of its inception, this theory has faced a number of controversies and critical comments, perhaps that is the reason why this theory was readily accepted into the film journalism. Often it is taken for granted for the directors of serious cinema or popular films as well to be primarily responsible for the movie. It is also described by some that 1960s was the period where directors were the superstars of the films, not only in Hollywood or Europe but in cinema all over the world.

Perhaps that is why when in earlier movies it was said in the credits with a neutral “Directed by Satyajit Ray” gradually replaced by “A Film by Satyajit Ray” or “A Satyajit Ray Film” where the implications of authorship is clearly seen.

Psychoanalytic Film Theory

As the digital revolution took place in the cinema after the 90s, many new aspects were introduced in film theory. One of the major concepts developed was the concept of “gaze”. It has been, since then, used in several contemporary film analysis.

This concept was initially introduced by Laura Mulvey in one of her essays in 1975, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. She was a second-wave feminist who introduced this concept of the ‘male gaze’ highlighting the asymmetrical gender power shown in the films. Although this concept was already present in the early studies but it was Mulvey who threw light on it with reference to cinema. Mulvey

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argued that women are objectified in movies because men are in control of the camera.

Psychoanalytic Film theory had occurred in two different waves, one in the late 1960s and early 1970s and the other during the late 1980s and the early 1990s. Jacqueline Rose is associated with the second wave of psychoanalytic film criticism which gave emphasis to the missing object of desire from the spectators’ point of view. Elisabeth Cowie stated, “The pleasure of fantasy lies in the setting out, not in the having of the objects.”

Presently, Psychoanalytic film theory has become one of the most widely practiced film theories although it was developed in a relatively later years than most of the other film theories.

Though many films were incorporating psychoanalytic elements in the earlier films, this theory did not came to the fore before 1960s. Major reasons for this could be that film studies was not recognised as an academic discipline until recently and also that when film studies emerged as a discipline it coincided with the revival of the psychoanalysis, which was a new approach brought up by French cinema.

Henceforth, when the early cinema started to develop in a recognisable manner all over the world, psychoanalysis was rekindling its theory as a part of the film studies.

In psychoanalysis film theory, phenomenon of cinema and elements of a particular film are shaped by the unconscious. Critics have divided this ‘unconscious’ into four distinct categories; the filmmaker’s unconscious, the character’s unconscious, the audience’s unconscious, and the unconscious of the cinematic discourse.

1. The Filmmaker’s Unconscious: Just like a patient’s unconscious includes the manifestations of his/her mind combined with dreams, slips of tongue, and neurotic symptoms, films were considered to be the manifestation of the unconscious part of a filmmaker’s mind. Though it was used earlier quite a lot but now it is out of fashion.

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2. The Character’s Unconscious: Another psychoanalysis that is still pertinent in the film theory is to analyse the behaviour of the characters of the movie. By noticing the nuances of the dialogues, body language, and attitude of the character, one could intercept a few traces of the character’s unconscious. However, once this approach was used a number of criticisms came in its way arguing that though the characters in a movie are fictional they are not supposed to be treated as real people having a mind of their own, hence, no issue of noticing their unconscious part of the mind. 3. The Audience’s Unconscious: Once the character’s consciousness was criticised by many sceptics, the new stage of development for the psychoanalytic film theory surfaced with the viewer’s unconscious. While the audience quietly sit and watch the movies, there are certain characters and scenes which may attract or distract the viewers. Such scenes or dialogues unconsciously identify with the audience. The audience unconsciously projects their own fantasies, fixations, and phobias with the film or parts of the film. Sometimes one may get too attached to a particular character of the film depending upon the unconscious attraction with the character while some characters could even act as an aversion for someone. 4. The Unconscious of the Cinematic Discourse: This is one of the most recent version of the psychoanalytic film theory. It involves the form of a film as to how through editing or cinematography it has developed a form to create an impact on the unconscious. There may be a case where the actual incident is not shown in the movie still its effect is resonating throughout the movie. Here the unconscious that is shown is not on the part of the filmmaker, the character, or the audience, but on the part of the discourse of the film itself.

There have been many films that have drawn upon the psychoanalytical concepts of unconscious, dream work, Oedipus complex, and psychoanalysis techniques itself. As Lacan would have said about the psychoanalytic film theory that its land has “shifted from the axis of the symbolic order and the imaginary to that of the symbolic order and the real.” The main source of both the waves of the psychoanalytic film theory has remained Jacques Lacan and to a certain extent Sigmund Freud.

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Marxist Film Theory

A situation in Gauri Shinde’s English Vinglish (2012) shows the protagonist, Shashi, who used to make laddoos and sell them in the city from her house, was never appreciated by her husband. In fact, at many occasions he used to mock her publicly and degraded her work. Though this was not the main plot of the movie but in bits and pieces the movie clearly showed how women even nowadays and in high classes are also being treated as inferior to their male counterparts. Being a wage earner for the family, along with her husband, Shashi never got the respect which she deserved.

This was a Marxist approach the director took in order to portray the position of a female in her house. Even though she manages the responsibilities of her private sphere properly, when she tried to step out into the public sphere by selling home- made laddoos, her husband instead of applauding her work for balancing the two spheres all by herself, never appreciated or acknowledged her hard work.

Another issue regarding the Marxist theory is the sharing of responsibilities by both the spouses to maintain an equilibrium between the two spheres – public and private. In Mansoor Khan’s movie Akele hum Akele Tum (1995) it was shown how a husband puts his own desires before his wife’s. Tolerating such an attitude for several years, the wife finally left her husband’s home and told him to take care of their only child too, leaving everything behind. It was a bold step taken by a woman to go into the public sphere without taking any responsibility of the private sphere.

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This clearly shows how the two spheres were contrasted and how a woman was not able to balance both of them. Instead, she shook off the burden of responsibility from her shoulders and gave it to her husband who took a lot of pain to make a harmonious balance within the spheres.

Commodification of women is also one of the results of capitalism. Many filmmakers have shown this aspect in Hindi cinema. One of the examples is of Madhur Bhandarkar’s Chandni Bar (2001). In the movie a young girl, Mumtaz has lost her parents in communal riots and moves to Mumbai with her paternal uncle who had forced her to dance in a bar until he gets a job. One day he was drunk and raped Mumtaz, showing the ultimate subjugation of a woman in the hands of a male.

On a similar note, Pradeep Sarkar’s Laaga Chunari Mein Daag (2007) showed how a girl came to find a job in a metro city and ends up being a call girl. It all started because of the dominance of a male in a workplace showing that a woman is less powerful when it comes to the public sphere.

The absence of having a share in the property makes a woman helpless in several ways. An example of such a case is Nagesh Kukunoor’s Dor (2006) where Meera is a widow who is trapped in the meaningless traditions of the society. She does not have any share in her deceased husband’s property. She lives with her husband’s parents who treat her as their property. She even loses her value when her father-in- law sells her to a man in return to keep their haveli with them. This clearly shows how down trodden women can be in the hands of patriarchy when they do not have any share in capital or private property.

B.R. Chopra’s Nikaah (1982) also shows how women are mistreated before men. It is disheartening to see how no explanation or clarification is needed from a woman when major decisions are concerned. The movie shows how a man divorces his wife in his fury and after realising his mistake how he again wants to bring her back into his life. However, in the movie the woman questions the man on treating her like a property rather than as a human. Traces of Marxist feminism can be seen in certain situations in this movie.

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The ideology of Marxist feminism can be seen in several women oriented Hindi movies. The subjugation of women is due to many reasons and the Marxist feminists argue that the main reason for that is the capitalistic society of the patriarchal dominance.

Many other filmmakers have also expressed ideas of Marxism through their movies. And not only in Indian film industry but also in Russian, American, British, and French film industries we can find episodes or complete movies based on this ideology.

However, in the Hindi film industry, Marxist feminism is shown not only in the commercial movies but also in the parallel ones as well. In fact, the parallel movies mostly portray the real-life situations.

Feminist Film Theory

It is a kind of film theory that has emerged from the feminist theory and the feminist politics. The development of this theory began during the second wave of feminism and with the emergence of women’s studies during the 1960s. Feminist scholars started to analyse films with a feministic point of view and pointed out certain distinct features that has been playing major role in supporting the patriarchal society all along.

Films were criticised on the basis of trivial roles given to the women, stereotyping of the female characters, and giving less camera space and screen time to them as well. Marjorie Rosen’s Popcorn Venus: Women, Movies, and the American Dream (1973) and Molly Haskell’s From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in Movies (1974) helped in analysis of the female characters of the cinema whether they were active or passive in the films and what kinds of stereotyping was done to them.

While analysing through this theory the focus was on “the production of meaning in a film text, the way a text constructs a viewing subject, and the ways in which the

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very mechanisms of cinematic production affect the representation of women and reinforce sexism.”3

Laura Mulvey’s famous essay Visual Pleasures and Narrative Cinema clearly describes how women are depicted as passive characters in films mainly providing the visual pleasures through voyeurism. She further adds that females in the movie are objectified in a way that they are put at exhibit for the viewers with a strong visual and erotic impact which results in women being the “bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning” in the film.

Though Laura Mulvey has certain strong feministic points in her essay, she also included certain elements of psychoanalytic film theory influenced by Lacan while defining the spectatorship through a psychoanalytic point of view.

Mulvey defines the ‘gaze’ towards the female character of the film in three different ways – one is the look of the male character in a way how he perceives his female character, the other is the look of the audience towards the female character portrayed on the screen, and the third is the combination of these two where the male viewers look at the female character through the eyes of the male character as they can identify with him.

Mulvey wanted to free women from this objectification in the films by destruction of the modern film structure. She argued to remove the voyeurism that creates a distance between the male audience and the female character of the movie. She also emphasises the fact that man needs woman to showcase his supremacy over her and that is one of the major reasons why female characters are shown in a low light in front of the male characters. According to her, females are the reason for the patriarchal order of the society.

During the second wave of feminism where equality was being demanded by the feminists, Mulvey demanded equality of females at workplace and, hence, her work reflects the major points of the arguments of the second wave of feminism. She wanted to eliminate women objectification in order to give them a space beside the male characters of the films where males are free of objectification.

3 Erens, Patricia. "Introduction", Issues in Feminist Film Criticism. Patricia Erens, ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. pp. xvii.

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Feminist film theory was started to motivate people to portray women in a more realistic manner in films and documentaries. The growing female presence in the film industries was seen as a positive effect towards this issue. This could eventually help in giving females strong roles and better projections.

Although in Hindi cinema there is no assurance that female filmmaker will result in a strong female character in the film. Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om (2007) was a huge hit at the box office and was one of the most successful films of 2007. Though the title of the movie was taken from a song of the 1980 film Karz, still it clearly suggests how the male protagonist is stealing the limelight by having his name twice in the title, that is, “Om”. The movie showed how a successful Hindi film actress was weak and submissive when it comes to her married life. Though she was a confident and professional woman but when in distress Om, a man, helped her out. The movie though directed by a woman, shows the age old concept of portraying a damsel in distress rescued by a dauntless hero.

The main problem of the cinema and its portrayal of women was that the narrative of a cinema is constructed by men and that is why the representation of women is always from a male point of view.

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CHAPTER 4

FILM ANALYSIS:

THE 1980s

The chapter will highlight some of the major films from both the genres from their thematic, aesthetic, and individualistic point of view. A few films are taken from the decade of the 80s when the Parallel cinema was at its peak in the Hindi cinema and when an era in the Commercial cinema was also changing its popular films due to the change in attitude of the audience of the country.

While new artists were shaping the New Wave Movement including Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Farooq Sheikh, and other theatre artists, commercial cinema was also booming with the concept of ‘angry young man’ and ‘dream girl’. Although the contrast between the two genres of the Hindi cinema was quite distinct still both the cinemas were somehow moving parallel with each other for straight two decades, which is the 70s and the 80s.

Media has always been criticised of their sexist representation of women and neglecting the core feministic issues in their contents. Women have been portrayed mostly in a negative light in movies, and when it comes to commercial cinema there is always a kind of victimisation of women whether depicting them as protagonists or as small characters. Julia Lesage once analysed a sexist film, Broken Blossoms (1919) by D. W. Griffiths, and said, “How is it I can be emotionally involved in a work that victimises women? As a woman I must ask how the media can so seduce me that I enjoy, either as entertainment or as art, works that take as one of their essential ingredients, the victimisation of women.”

Similarly a book by Germaine Greer, The Female Eunuch (1971), highly criticised the mass production of romantic fictions for women that falsely show women utopian world and let them believe into heterosexual fairy tales and romance.

However, once we move on to the movies in the New Wave Cinema, particularly known as the Parallel Cinema, we can see that equal screen time is devoted to the female characters. They were more realistic and females were given strong and

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powerful roles. They were not only used as objects, rather they were dealt as subjects in a movie.

Women are generally associated with nature and are considered as passionate. Many feminists, including Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvoir, argue that female roles are limited to be linked with animal functions and nature. Whereas many other argue that a female’s role is associated with nature as it is constructed from a particular political vantage point.

Many Cultural feminists argue that it is the male viewpoint that decides the position of a female in a society. Apparently that is the main reason why feminine characteristics are undervalued. Though in the present scenario, Cultural feminists appreciate those feminine characteristics in their own ways, for instance, a female’s passivity becomes her peacefulness, sentimentality becomes her tendency to nurture, and her subjectivity becomes her advanced self-awareness. Hence, the Cultural feminists have not stopped defining women but they have only changed the definition given by men.

Therefore, Cultural feminism is an ideology where female characteristics are re- evaluated with a viewpoint which is not male oriented. They try to revalidate the undervalued feminine characteristics and attributes. They believe that society and economic institutions are not the only enemy of females, but in many cases it is the backwardness and the biased beliefs of males that are responsible for negating feminine traits.

An Australian feminist scholar, Dale Spender, while discussing the patriarchal society where males are dominant and females are muted or suppressed said, “it has been the dominant group – in this case, males – who have created the world, invented the categories, constructed sexism and its justification and developed a language trap that is in their interest… The group which has power to ordain the structure of language, thought and reality has the potential to create a world in which they are the central figures, while those who are not of their group are peripheral and therefore may be exploited.”

Gender division occur in every society in different ways. However, many feminists disagree with the concept of essentialism which “reflect and reproduce dominant cultural assumptions about women, which not only fail to represent the variety in

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women’s lives but promote unrealistic expectations about ‘normal’ female behaviour that most of us cannot satisfy.”

Movies also reflect the doctrine of essentialism where heroines are depicted in a particular manner and the audience are influenced to socialise their daughters and females around them in the same way. Electronic media, especially films are supposed to provide women with positive and liberating role models rather than stereotyping them into categories of good or bad girl.

Feminists often argue that films should portray the reality of women on the screen but they are divided among themselves when it comes to discuss exactly what the reality of a woman’s position and nature is. Therefore, even before the media could show the reality of women, it has to be defined in an unbiased way what that reality is for the feminists.

Charlotte Brunsdon once said, “For feminists to call for more realistic images of women is to engage in the struggle to define what it meant by ‘realistic’, rather than to offer easily available ‘alternate’ images. Arguing for more realistic images is always as argument for the representation of ‘your’ version of reality.”

Laura Mulvey has written her article Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema which was published in 1975, it was the most reprinted article in film theory. It is also been called ‘the founding document of psychoanalytic feminist film theory’. It instantly became popular during the 70s and 80s and there were hardly any feministic analysis of films without having a psychoanalytical approach. This article helped in exploring the media construction of women as spectacle, the gender of gaze and voyeuristic pleasure.

Mulvey says that cinematic construction of female characters is directly related to the patriarchy. She further adds, “Film reflects, reveals, and even plays on the straight, socially established interpretation of sexual difference which controls images, erotic ways of looking and spectacle.”

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the recent times. At first the movies revolved around the struggles of common man but then gradually the focus shifted to romance, action, and then comedy.

Cinema expresses a complete mixture of myth and reality when showing fiction or non-fiction. Since the time of its inception, cinema must have entertained more than millions of people all around the globe. Though, Indian cinema is said to be a reflection of its culture and ethos many a times Indian cinema is criticised for becoming an escape mechanism that is not at all closely related to the reality. Much of such depiction is based on the filmmakers and their way of direction.

The female protagonists, however, also kept changing since then but on a rather slow pace when it comes to their depiction as characters. Female protagonists in Hindi commercial cinema were depicted in a stereotypical way. The good girls are fully clad wearing beautiful ornaments and are shy and obedient. Whereas, if you see a girl wearing short skirt and is not loyal or obedient, she either needs to be tamed by the male hero or will die till the end. Though, in the past few years the roles of females in Hindi movies have taken a full U-turn in terms of treatment and characterisation.

Veteran actor Shabana Azmi when asked about the changing trends of the Hindi film heroines said, “In the 1960s, there was a film called Main Chup Rahungi, which in indicative of the nature of heroines till then. In the 1980s there were vendetta films like Zakhmi Aurat and Sherni. It is only recently that meaningful roles are being written for women and heroines are coming into their own.”1

Although the movie Main Chup Rahungi depicted a female who was passive and servile and any feminist would become repulsive towards such a depiction but it can also be seen as an important statement of protest. The protagonist chose to remain silent purposefully to make her position visible. Also as Indians we are aware of the Gandhian demonstrations which clearly stated that silence is the most potent weapon of resistance, and who would know that better than Shabana Azmi who in her first movie Ankur, where she was given only a few dialogues with a deaf and mute husband by her side, brought about a whole new revolution in the world of cinema.

1 Asian Age, 27 March 2005

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1970s was the decade where objectification of women was at its peak. Though there were several movies in the past decades where women were only shown as flesh around the men, 70s was an era where such things moved a few steps ahead.

An American film producer, Hunt Stromberg, once famously quipped, “Boys, I’ve got an idea. Let’s fill the whole screen with tits.”

Apparently some Indian filmmakers took this phrase quite seriously. One of them was Raj Kapoor, who made a number of films in his career and during the 70s used women as mere objects for the audience to lust for. Mera Naam Joker (1970), Bobby (1973), and Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978) are some of his movies where he has made full use of women and their bodies.

The way female protagonists were dressed in the movie was something that was completely new to the Indian cinema. Simi Grewal when seen in a soaking wet dress in the movie Mera Naam Joker, the audience could not stop lusting for her in the cinema halls. In the same movie Padmini’s shirt was seen torn and half of her breast could be clearly seen in a glimpse. And if that was not enough of flesh seen in the movie, there was again Padmini seen in a blouse-less and bra-less saree which was soaked in water, showing more than what was intended.

Same goes with Bobby where for the first time a teenager was seen wearing short skirts and hot pants throughout the movie. Dimple Kapadia was even seen in a tiny two piece swimsuit and whatever was left to imagination was clearly be imagined with the help of the famous song “Hum tum ek kamre me band ho, aur chaabi kho jaye…”.

Similarly, movies like Hare Rama Hare Krishna and Satyam Shivam Sundaram showed Zeenat Aman scantily clad or wearing tight fitting clothes that could easily reveal her assets.

The 80s, however, was an era that was brimming with parallel movies. Social issues were dealt with precision and were appreciated by the audiences as well. Here are some of the commercial and parallel movies of the 80s and the details about the female representation in each one of them.

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Film Analysis

LAAWARIS

The movie Laawaris (1981) directed by Prakash Mehra depicted a story of a young man who was an orphan and tried to find the meaning of his life through the various tests of life. He stumbled on his way to find out the truth about his parents and wrestles with life all through his youth.

While the movie opens with an independent female singer who in the beginning itself is criticised. It is shown that if a woman is single and earning, she would not come under the societal norms of being a ‘good girl’ as was shown in the movie of her having illicit relationship with Ranvir.

Then on the other hand when the character of Mohini is shown it was being criticised on the grounds that if a woman is rich, she would be spoilt and can become a better person only when domicile.

In both these avatars, women shown in the movie are pathetic and weak since their existence is based on the acceptance of a man, either acceptance as a wife, or as a mother, or as a girlfriend.

Since the starting of the movie it has been established that the child is parentless but still it is mostly emphasised that he is fatherless, not once was he unhappy for the fact that he did not have a mother too. Several times in the movie the dialogues implied the importance of a father in child’s life. The filmmaker did not care to show the importance of a mother as well.

The only mother shown in the film was Mahendar’s mother played by Bindu but she was an insensitive and selfish mother as shown in the movie. Other females that were shown in the movie were not given much importance, including the main lead, Mohini.

In a particular scene, Heera ill-treated Mohini but was not shown as a villain because he got a justification of being called a ‘lawaaris’ by her first. He was seen as an emotionally hurt person who tried to show his pain and sufferings to Mohini in a harsh way. Though one cannot justify misbehaving with a woman still the filmmaker showed Heera in a strong light by depicting the female as the one who was wrong.

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Heera and Mohini

He blamed Mohini for judging him too quickly even getting to know him. He said, “Har gunah ke peechhe gunahgaar kaun hai, yeh koi nahin janta” (No one knows who is behind an evil action) depicting how easy it is to judge people before one got to know the whole story behind the circumstances. In this way he justified his actions of misbehaving with her while complaining about how rough life has been to him.

Mahendar’s sister was also seen longing for her brother’s love which was given by Heera and not her own brother. And another female, Shanno, who was the potter Ram Singh’s sister, was also seen as a fragile and vulnerable one who committed suicide after Mahendar raped her. Females in the movie are shown in a weak light where they were dependent upon the males for their security.

As it has been a common notion of the society that a woman cannot protect herself and she would always need a male for her security and protection. This movie is also propagating the same notion throughout the movie by depicting the vulnerability of women in every step.

BAZAAR

In 1982, Sagar Sarhadi directed Bazaar, which literally means ‘marketplace’. The movie was a crude description of how the patriarchal world uses its phallic power in controlling and oppressing women all over.

The movie had some many realistic dialogues and one of them was uttered by a character Nasreen when she commented, “Aap log to ladkiyon ko aise dekhte hain

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jaise nilaam me samaan” (Boys look at girls as if they are objects for sale). It describes the gaze of the boys and the way women think that they are considered as no more than mere objects in front of them.

It is a beautiful movie depicting how cheap a woman in our society is. She can be given to anyone for free but if someone bids for her all the people who have daughters were willing to sell them as they have needs and what is a girl for them? Only a way to fulfil their needs.

One of the main characters, Najma also said, “Aap ke bazaar me sabse sasti koi cheez hai na, to woh hai aurat” (The cheapest thing in this market is a woman) referring to the status of women in the society.

Najma is seen as a strong woman from the outside but from the inside she is afraid to be let alone in the big bad world. She has lost some of the best years of her life to an ungrateful man and now when she is nearing the end of her youth she did not want those years to be regarded as wasted.

However, she was as guilty as the other men who were involved in this bidding game of women but she had a selfish reason of making Akhtar happy who will in turn make her happy by marrying her.

Saleem was a voice of a realist. He criticises the ugliness of the patriarchal world and the males who has made such societal norms which are in their favour and has to be followed by everyone. He said, “Shaadi jism bechne aur khareedne ka woh pesha hai jise kanoon aur samaaj ki himayat hasil hai.” He knew the hypocrisy of the society and on every step kept on commenting on it and criticising it.

Saleem and Naghma

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Saleem encouraged Najma to stop depending on others for happiness. He gave her strength and determination that she could make a mark of her own if she broke the shackles of bondage that were put by people like Akhtar who had been falsely promising her for years that he would marry her.

Najma in the end seemed to have taken Saleem’s advice and took a brave step by leaving Akhtar once and for all. She had been with Akhtar because she did not want to demean herself by being a sex worker as her mother had suggested. But with Akhtar also she was not more than that. He had been using her for years and Najma thought one day they would get married and the society would accept them as their own.

Najma was seen here as not more than a woman who was been raped by a man on the pretext of getting married to her one day. Such a notion is nowhere in any religion but the society often accepts a person if he raped a woman and then marry her afterwards. It shows as a kind of atonement for the crime. Many a time rapists have offered their victims to marry as an extra legal step which is not mentioned anywhere in the law. This idea is welcomed by many including the victims because the internalisation of stigmatisation for life is deeply ingrained in the victim and they thought that by marrying their rapists is the only way out.

However, in reality it is the victimisation of the victim all over again. The act of marrying a rape victim is also favourable for the rapist because the woman would withdraw her allegations and the rapist could go scot-free. While this act has been rooted in the ancient history and it is more of a gender issue than a religious one. Susan N. Herman, who is the professor of Law in Brooklyn Law School once wrote about it that “In some ancient societies, women were treated as a form of property and rape was defined as an offence against the property owner – the woman’s father or husband – not against the woman herself.”2

Hence, some are lost in this bazaar while some abandon it for good. But overall it showed the reality of the people around us and how the social norms are skilfully moulded by its makers who are mainly the patriarchal rulers for centuries now.

2 Herman, S. N. (1995). Crime Control and Civil Liberties, Criminology: A Contemporary Handbook. Belmont, California: Selected Works.

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ARTH

Mahesh Bhatt’s directorial venture Arth (1982) basically deals with marriage, infidelity, and divorce. Although all these subjects were dealt with sincerity and the characters were realistic in their portrayal. The movie revolved around a couple, Pooja and Inder, where Inder’s infidelity was exposed and Pooja tried to hold her ground by struggling to find the true meaning (arth) of her life.

Two sides of the story is represented in the movie and surprisingly both the sides are shown through two different females’ point of view. The movie depicts women in a very influential and strong light. While giving advice to her maid of leaving her alcohol ridden adulterous husband, little did Pooja knew that soon she would also be suffering in the same way her maid had suffered. And showing the world how brave she was, Pooja left the house she had decorated herself only because it was bought by Kavita, the actress who was having an affair with Inder.

It was her new friend Raj who had helped her in getting a job so that she could earn money for survival in this ugly society with respect and honour. Pooja found a new meaning in her life and though she had been hurt by her husband on more than one occasion, still she continued to smile and decided never to give up. It was her strong will and determination that was highlighted throughout the whole story.

On the other hand the guilty conscience of Kavita was making her into a psychological patient because she could not bear the burden of living with a man who once was happily married. Her paranoid nature was a proof that she always had an unconscious anxiety of being in Pooja’s place in the future if Inder would leave her just as he did to his wife.

In the end, Kavita could take no more and frantically asked Inder to end the relationship which was unbearable for both of them. Inder, having a common notion of this patriarchal world, thought that he could go back to Pooja and they could start afreash by forgetting this whole episode. But unfortunately Pooja had moved on and simply asked him what if she would have done all that what he had done to her and then have returned to him, would he be able to accept her? And he realistically replied that he would not have accepted her. It clearly showed the hypocrisy of males in this society where males are always accepted but it is the females that have to suffer and face the hardships.

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The movie was from the genre of the parallel cinema but the treatment of the movie was not like the ones from the 70s. This new era brought about some new changes in this genre. The introduction of songs/ghazals can be seen in these films. Also the lighting and camera angles of the scenes became similar to those of the commercial films. In one of the ghazals in the movie, ‘Jhuki jhuki si nazar’, the focus on Pooja’s eyes were made through the lights in the room which was a commercial tool to highlight the effect of drama.

Lighting effect shown in the song

Though in the beginning of the movie Pooja was seen a submissive person who cried and begged her husband to stay with her was in the end became a strong person who was ready to take life as it comes and did not want to be dependent on any other male for that matter. She kindly refused Raj’s proposal because she was not ready to surrender her feelings for another male even if he was as good as Raj was.

Her self-sufficiency was not limited to her own self, she even promised her maid to take care of her daughter as well after her maid killed her husband and went to jail. This showed her building self-confidence and her willingness to do good to others who have been suffering in the hands of fate for too long just like

Pooja with her maid her.

It was Raj who accepted the rejection open heartedly and said, “Jo saahas tumhare andar jaaga hai wohi jeevan ka sahi arth hai” commenting on how brave a simple girl had become and supporting her in her endeavours.

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MIRCH MASALA

Ketan Mehta’s Mirch Masala (1987) was a movie set during the pre-independence era of India where the local tax collector or subedar was flawlessly shown with all his evil power intact within.

The story depicts a typical low caste rural area where women have no say in the state of affairs and girls were not allowed to go to school with the boys otherwise “Saare ladko me ek ladki, phir isse byah kaun karega?” A mentality of uneducated and illiterate villagers were predominant in almost all the scenes in the movie.

The patriarchal society with its tentacles all around the place was shown from not only prohibiting girls to study but also from making their own decision to get married, or having a say in spending the night with other men. However, men used to consider it as an honour to have satisfied more than one woman even if his own wife is against it, a case with the village chieftain or mukhiya and his wife.

Though the subedar exploited his power in every possible way but still his male ego was not satiated until he got a girl of his choice, Sonbai, for him. Her intelligence, beauty, and confidence intrigued him which made her irresistible.

Sonbai preparing food in her dilapidated house

Sonbai, on the other hand is seen as a traditionally perfect wife who loved her husband and was emotionally dependent on him. She was not pleased at all when he decided to go to the city for a job. Though he was seen weaker than the subedar or the mukhiya, he did not want to stay in the same position for ever. He wanted a positive change in his life for the betterment of his family. It showed his futuristic

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vision of contentment that could only be possible after leaving a place that was ruled by the evilness of subedar and the injustice of the mukhiya.

Subedar was a man who could not settle for a ‘no’ for an answer and it was shocking for him when his advances towards Sonbai was rejected with a tight slap on his face. This hurt his fragile male ego and the only revenge he thought would be to disrobe Sonbai of his honour which would be the ultimate humiliation she could suffer. And this could also make him victorious in this play of power.

To make his power more prominent, Subedar artfully asked the villagers to give him Sonbai as she had insulted him which has to be punished. He even tactfully threatened them to expect dire consequences if his wishes are not met.

Here the selfishness and self-indulgence was highlighted at its best. All the villagers were thinking about their own safety rather than the black hole in which they were about to throw Sonbai. Not only did the villagers had this thought in her mind but all the other women that were locked inside the chilli factory, where Sonbai took refuge, were also forcing her to surrender otherwise they would face the same fate afterwards.

The only few persons who were openly supporting Sonbai’s decision were the school master, Mukhiya’s wife and brother, and the gate keeper of the factory, Abu miyan. These few characters were shown to describe the fact that not all people are similar but there are always a selected few who could bring about a change in the society.

The scene where Subedar got the school master tied up to a log on which two more were already tied up was an attempt to stop him from putting ideas into the mind of the villagers. But when the school master tried to uproot the log with all his might, it could be seen how his effort was an inspiration for the other two persons as well. Together the three of them dislodged the log and went running towards the villagers in an attempt to stop them. The scene may seem trivial but it had an impact in a way that is showed how the strength of one person can be infectious if he was on the right path. Though he could not be able to stop them still his effort was commendable.

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Same was the case with Mukhiya’s wife who collected a group of village women but her battle was short lived as her husband and the husbands of all the other women manhandled them and forced them back into their homes.

While Mukhiya’s brother was also in favour of Sonbai’s decision of not giving into that pressure of Subedar, he did not make any kind of attempt to stop the villagers or mould their decisions in her favour. It seemed quite questionable as to why he did not try to make any attempt. Perhaps because he did not whole heartedly believe that Sonbai was correct or perhaps he had only expressed his views because he had promised his beloved who was also locked up inside the factory.

The strongest male character of the movie was shown through the depiction of the gate keeper of the factory, Abu miyan. He was determined to protect Sonbai till his last breath and that was exactly the case with him. When the Mukhiya came to the factory asking Abu miyan to open up the gates so that they could take Sonbai with them, he surprisingly commented, “Tajjub hai, saare gaaon me ek bhi marad nahi mila jo is aurat ki madad ko aaye… Marr jaunga lekin zulm me bhaagidari nahi karunga. Jao keh do us Subedar se ke gaaon me ek to mard maujud hai, jawan naa sahi budha sahi, jab tak who zinda hai zulm ki marzi nahi chalegi.” Faces of disappointed villagers could be seen as they knew they had been selfish but they were not admitting it outwardly.

Abu Miyan checking for people outside the factory

Further when Mukhiya said that his decision was sheer madness, Abu miyan proudly said, “Agar aap log jo kar rahe hain wo samajhdari hai, to mujhe apna yeh pagalpan manzoor hai.” It shows that majority is not always right. What we see as

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normal and acceptable could be unacceptable and abnormal from a different angle. For the villagers, their own safety was first but for Abu miyan all women had a right to make their own decisions and he respected the fact that Sonbai was not giving up herself to injustice.

Very conveniently Sonbai was told that the villagers would have convinced her husband to take her to the Subedar had he been in the village but Sonbai was determined not to kneel before the vicious game that Subedar was playing.

The end of the movie was a striking paradoxical to what was built up during the entire course of the movie. The women who were ready to give Sonbai up only for their own security gathered courage to fight the one person they started to loathe during this whole episode. They attacked the Subedar by throwing a handful of mirch masala (red chilli powder) onto him. His shrieks of pain and defeat was enough for the whole village to understand what a few women could do when angered.

NAMAK HALAAL

Prakash Mehra’s Namak Halaal (1982) came into the era of Amitabh Bachchan’s angry young man’s age but surprisingly it showed a different side of Bachchan with ease. The movie, as the name suggests, deals with the loyalty of a servant towards its master with a lot of twists and turns in the course of time. The movie was a blockbuster hit of its time, which was not uncommon to the Bachchan films at that time.

However, the movie revolved around the two male protagonists of the film, while the female protagonists were kept in the movie to provide some relief from the next dramatic episode of the movie and for having an excuse to include some song and dance sequences.

The character of Savitri was a loyal one who was not used to express her feelings to others. Hence, when his father-in-law blamed her for betraying his son and his master she was not able to defend herself rather thought it to be his duty to silently fulfil her dead husband’s promise of protecting their master’s son while deserting her own. This showed the highest level of loyalty of a woman who could left her own son only to take care of another one whom her husband had asked her to. This

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loyalty was not only for her master but for her husband who is considered to be pati parmeshwar (husband – the god of a woman’s life) by traditional wives.

The initial minutes of the movie showed the first loyal (namak halaal) character of the story, which was Savitri. But unfortunately the director conveniently shifted the focus from her all too quickly to the other loyal servant, Arjun Singh, a character played by the superstar of the time – Amitabh Bachchan.

The movie had been telling the story through the eyes of Arjun and the female characters in the movie were not given more of a chance to show off their acting skills at all. Surprisingly, it was the time when Smita Patil was shining like a star in the Parallel cinema but in this Commercial movie she was not given her due share at all.

Still from the song “Aaj rapat jaaye”

The song ‘Aaj rapat jayein’ was the worst kind of humiliation for an actor like Patil. She was not even seen dancing properly with Bachchan rather she was been used as a prop and Bachchan was only tossing her like a doll.

Her character Poonam, though, was shown independent enough to earn money and make her own decisions still showed a true state where even an independent woman was afraid of stalkers and strange suitors, hence, that was the reason she told Arjun Singh, “Mera koi intezar kar raha hai” when he asked her to walk her home.

On the other hand there was another female character, Nisha. She was seen as a vulnerable person who was scared and traumatised by her past. She had absolutely no idea what her future might hold for her and had a very low self-esteem yet she put a faker mask of confidence and shrewdness to make Raja Kumar like her. She was

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clever when it comes to her profession of cheating Raja but on a personal level she was a mere puppet in the hands of some male goons.

If compared these two female characters with one another, Poonam seemed to be more confident and smart than Nisha. Poonam had more brains and did what she want to do. She was the one who alerted Raja about the plans of Arjun. But Nisha was not allowed to even use her brains despite the fact that she had to entice Raja with her sexuality. She always did what she was told to do.

Arjun giving a piece of his mind to Raja sahab

Hence, the movie being a blockbuster hit of its time had nothing to offer to its female audience. It was clearly made to entertain the male viewers by showing the macho men with the help of a few fight sequences and later on by saving the damsels in distress in the end.

MANDI

Shyam Benegal’s Mandi (1983) was a black comedy with some brilliant performers including Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Om Puri, Neena Gupta, Pankaj Kapoor, Amrish Puri, Soni Razdan, Saeed Jaffrey, and many more.

The movie depicts some light moments of laughter with its message well intact in the background. A realistic tale of a group of prostitutes in a brothel led by Rukmanibai and their struggle against some of the high classes that forced them to leave their place and make room for the so-called development in that area. The movie depicts the relationships of all the characters intertwined.

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Benegal showed a very realistic picture of a brothel and its residents unlike a glamorous portrayal of it as shown in most of the Hindi movies. Here was an authentic representation of not only the brothel and the girls inside but also of the neighbourhood and its residents.

The most obvious and close relationship could be seen between Rukmanibai and Zeenat. Rukmanibai treated Zeenat as her daughter and always gave her special treatment from the rest of the girls. This angered some of the girls but nobody dared to ask the reason. Still when Zeenat was seen gaining some maturity and showed interest in leaving the brothel for good, Rukmanibai felt threatened and tried to coax her into discarding her plans.

The movie clearly showed the hypocrisy of the patriarchal society. It can be observed that brothels are made for the pleasure of males only. But only the females who work there are blamed and frowned upon. This thought was very well said by Rukmanibai in one of the scenes as “Mard khareedta hai tab hi to aurat bechti hai apne aap ko, aur kharaabi sirf aurat me dikhti hai mard me nahi.”

Bonding between Rukmanibai and Zeenat A number of males were seen drooling over the girls of the brothel but when it comes to the disastrous situation of their displacement, no one came to the rescue. Apart from Dungrus, all the other males who entered the brothel had their lustful reasons behind them.

Then there was another female character, Shanti Devi, who was a social worker and was willing to throw those filthy women from anywhere near the city. Being a

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woman also never helped her look into the hearts of those women who worked in a brothel for a reason. She gladly asked the girls inside the brothel to give up the lowly work they were doing to which one of them asked, “Arey to phir roti kahan se khayenge?” and Shanti Devi replied, “roti hi sab kuch nahi hai zindagi me” to which again the girls responded, “Mufat ki milti hogi tereko.”

The fate of these women kept on dangling between these powerful people who just thought about their own good and development including the feminist social worker who could not relate to these hapless girls and their struggles.

The character of Rukmanibai was not like a master to her servants, rather she was a caretaker or a mother to all. She cared about all the girls as her own as she addressed them every now or then as ‘beti’. She was a strong woman who had control over all the lives living under the roof of her brothel.

Zeenat on the other hand was just like that parrot in the cage who was ignorant of the world outside it. She was always been kept under the safety and protection of Rukmanibai and knew nothing about other emotions when Susheel came along disclosing his love for her. She may be infatuated with him but she had experienced it for the first time and thought that this could be her chance to fly away from her cage. After knowing the truth about Susheel, she still fled with him only to leave behind all the filth she had been through all her life.

In a subtle way the movie projects how these people who were morally policing the entire city were themselves shallow and morally lacking people. And how those women who were considered filthy by everyone were the most realistic in nature without any pretentious acting like the others and were bound by morals.

PREM ROG

In 1982, Raj Kapoor produced a movie Prem Rog that dealt with the social evils persisting in our society regarding women. It mainly showed the double faced men residing around us and preaching about the injustice done to women.

Devdhar or Dev was a symbol of enlightenment as during his sojourn in the village he tried to make people have a broader look at life. It showed how education can change a mind-set.

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Virendra Singh was seen as a hypocrite as he was against the remarriage of a widow but himself was engaged in an illicit relationship with a woman of lower caste. He proudly announced to her one day that “Samaaj ke banaye niyam aur kanoon ki raksha hum jaise zamindaar aur khandani log hi karte hain.”

The class difference was shown in a genuine way. The way higher classes treat the lower classes was shown in a realistic way. People with power and monetary strength always used it as a tool to humiliate those who are lower to them.

The helpless and dependent lower class woman is shown in the character of Radha. Her only reason to get married to a man double her age was to feel safe and secure. She was well aware of the fact that if she would not get married soon she would be used as the other lower caste girls of her age were being used for the pleasure of the high caste people.

The depiction of the uselessness of women is shown in one of the scenes where a married couple came to the Pujari asking about turning their bad luck into good fate for the husband. Pujari deviously told them that he could take some of the living years of the wife and add them to that of the husband’s to which both of them agreed but afterwards the husband came back to the Pujari asking him to give a little too many years of his wife’s to him because “Woh aurat zaat zyada din jee kar ke kya karegi.”

The dialogue vividly showed that selfishness can be found everywhere, even in a pious relationship that is between a husband and a wife. And one most important point that has been emphasised here was the fact that men think women are useless and their life is not much of a worth than that of the men. Once again degrading womenfolk in the eyes of the patriarchal community.

The director showed the misuse of religion in maintaining the superstitions of the uneducated villagers by the people who were said to be the care takers of religion. They are the persons responsible for lighting the flame of superstition in their minds and deviate those innocents to the wrong path.

Manorama or Rama was seen as an immature girl since the start of the movie and through the course of time her mental development could be gradually seen. Rama

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had to learn the seriousness of the life in a very harsh way. Gradually she learnt about the ugly truths of the world and its people.

The oppression of women was shown since the start of the movie and throughout the movie it had been intended every now and then that women were inferior to men in every way. Rama’s sister in law had expressed her sorrow when she expressed that “Janam se yehi to sikhaya gaya hai ke pati parmeshwar hota hai, bhale wo aurat ko paaon ki jooti samjhe ya apni jayedad.” Showing the manner in which a woman is always subjugated in her own house.

The superficial rites and rituals of a so called reputed clan is portrayed throughout the movie. Even the eldest of that clan Bade Raja Thakur knew that what they were doing in the name of rituals were wrong but he kept his mouth shut to survive in the society where he had a name. He embarrassingly told Dev, “Hum log dohri zindagi jeete hain, dusron ke liye aur apne liye kuch aur.”

It was only Dev who could see the injustice prevailing around him and pointed out this hypocrisy of the patriarchal society when confronted his maternal uncle saying “Ye kaisi doghuli naitikta hai aap logo ki, mardon ke liye kuch aur, aurton ke liye kuch aur?”

Devdhar disclosed the hypocrisy of those rich and powerful people and said, “Beti ki izzat ki khatir tum nahi aaye ho yahan. Duniya ke samne apni jhooti shaan aur unchi naak banaye rakhne ke liye aaye ho. Jab saara gaaon use vidhwa keh kar muh ghuma liya karta hai usme izzat nahi gayi tumhari, aur maine zara si izzat deni chaahi use to tumhari izzat kharab ho gai?”

He raised his voice against the inhuman treatment of Rama after widowhood and blamed him saying, “Ye ghair insani taur tareeke tmhare bade gharon se shuru hote hain aur phir reet riwaj aur niyam bann ke saare samaj me phail jaate hain.”

Though looking at the thematic sense, it is obvious that the movie deals with a subject that was completely women oriented. But still no woman is seen raising her voice against the injustice. It was only in the end when Chamiya snatched the mask off the face of Virendra Singh for being an honourable person that some woman was seen standing up against inhuman behaviour of women by the hands of men of high

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class. But that dialogue was short lived as Virendra Singh shot her down just after that.

Dev lecturing the villagers in front of a temple Nowhere in the movie was the character of any woman seen powerful or strong headed even when the film deals with a very serious subject of oppression of women. In such a movie we can see how males were fighting and how one of them, Dev, stood up in favour of those suppressed women whole heartedly, perhaps only because he had seen the life of one such woman very closely. Despite mocking the age-old traditions and customs on several occasions no woman ostensibly expressed the frustration or wrath of such customs in public.

RAM LAKHAN

Subhash Ghai’s blockbuster movie Ram Lakhan (1989) was about the story of two brothers and how they avenge their mother in their own ways. The movie had an ensemble cast that easily attracted the audiences into cinema halls. It was soon a blockbuster hit and made the male duo, Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff, sign several more films with each other.

The movie opened with a tragedy where a woman was thrown out by his brothers in law and she was left with her poverty and two young sons. Since the beginning of the movie, Sharda was seen as a dependent woman. She was initially dependent upon her husband and later on it was her sons on whom she depended.

Females in the movie was not given an equal status and it could be easily said by observing the introductory shots of each main character. Both the heroes of the

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movie were introduced in a very dramatic way. They were seen from the back, then the eyes were shown, then the face, and then the whole body. Whereas, both the lead females were introduced in a simple way without any dramatic effect. It clearly showed that the filmmaker wanted to emphasise the importance of the male characters over the female ones.

Dependency of Sharda was seen throughout the movie. She even threatened her brothers in law by saying, “Ram Lakhan ek zakhmi aurat ke do hathiyar hain.” It showed that she had her sons as her protector and as a weapon against those evil brothers who had killed her husband. She was bringing up her sons in a way to take revenge from people against whom she felt herself weak and feeble.

Sharda feeling proud of her two sons One of the female leads, Geeta, was shown as an educated girl of a well off family. Still she was not given much of a screen space when compared to her male lead. Apart from shooting from a gun in the end there was no work in the movie that showed her strength or mental power.

The other female lead, Radha, was the most pathetic character in the movie. Her role was required only to add a comic or a romantic interlude in the movie. She was only used to sing and dance in the film. She was the most useless character shown in the movie. She was seen even more dependent than Sharda in the movie.

At first Radha was dependent on her father. She was not able to even look out the window without the permission of her father. And later on she was seen emotionally dependent on Lakhan. During the song ‘Bada dukh deena tere Lakhan ne’ we could see that she was complaining about her beloved to his elder brother Ram, which again showed her dependency on Ram who was in a position to punish Lakhan because Radha was not in an equal status with Lakhan in that manner.

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Radha singing in front of the guests

Moreover, before the song when Radha was performing at the mansion, it was emphasised that a few prostitutes had come to perform in a gathering of noble and honourable people. Clearly here the filmmaker wanted to emphatically display the degradation of females, including Radha, and on how embarrassed and ashamed she was feeling at that moment. A hypocritical patriarchal society is represented when no one even tried to interrupt Bhishambar Nath when he openly insulted the females present there to perform by calling them prostitutes which was obviously the lowest form of females referred to in the society.

It is, however, heart breaking to see that the profession of prostitute is considered to be degrading to females as this profession is alive only because of the satisfaction of the males in the society. It represents the double faced people who use females for their purpose and then announce them to be the filth of the society.

Thus, in every way the movie showed a heavily weak and fragile picture of females in the society and in the family as well, be it a lover, a wife, or a mother. The songs and scene that are remembered by the audience only involve the male protagonists of the film depicting that no scene held an impression of the female leads.

All these movies that were dealt in this chapter have different settings, be it domestic or official, and have different characters depicting various personal attributes, moral values, wearing different costumes. For instance, the movie Bazaar and Mandi might sound similar but they have a totally different outlook on life. Where one dealt with women as mere toys in the hands of the males of the society, the other showed how moral values are played by people who are said

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to be respectable. Though both have a domestic setting but still they are different from one another because of the characters involved in them.

In Arth and Namak Halal women are shown both in a domestic as well as a professional setting. In a way the filmmakers wanted to show the confident and optimistic females who were independent and took decisions for themselves. But somehow the commercial movie depicted here lack the total freedom of a woman. Where Arth showed a woman and her transformation from being a timid person to a strong one after her husband left her, Namak Halal portrayed a woman who suffered sexual harassment but was too weak to protest against it and was finally saved by a man. Hence, the reaction of both the females may differ from one another as their characterisation was being penned in a particular way.

The dressing of a character also depicts a lot about the person. The movie Prem Rog made use of the dressing sense in this manner. Rama was shown as a careless person who always dressed neatly with fine jewellery. She was seen in a lehenga before she got married. Afterwards she wore heavy embroidered clothes to depict that she was married into a well off family. And when she became a widow she was seen dressed in white sarees with no jewellery and very less make up to show the desperate conditions she was living where she was not allowed to wear anything colourful.

Therefore, every movie showed various kinds of set ups and the characterisation of females in them were different according to the set ups. Though mostly in parallel movies the female characters were strong willed and confident than that of those shown in the commercial films.

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CHAPTER 5

FILM ANALYSIS:

THE 1990s

The chapter will highlight some of the major films from both the genres from their thematic, aesthetic, and individualistic point of view. A few films are taken from the decade of the 90s when the Parallel cinema was at its demise in the Hindi cinema and when an era in the Commercial cinema was also changing its popular films due to the modernisation in the attitude of the audience of the country.

It is interesting to notice the difference in the trends that were prevailing in parallel and commercial Hindi cinema. While more harsh and serious topics were being chosen by the parallel cinema, commercial cinema was making blockbuster hits one after the other by showing the same theme of romantic comedies through different storylines and screenplays.

This was a decade of globalisation and many Hollywood movies were easily accessible to the Indian audience through their dubbed versions. A change in the course of Hindi commercial movies was immensely influenced by this globalisation that was prevailing in this decade. Hence, a lot of college romances, including Indra Kumar’s Dil (1990), Sandesh Kohli’s Phool Aur Kaante (1991), Mansoor Khan’s Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992), Abbas Mustan’s Khiladi (1992), David Dhawan’s Shola Aur Shabnam (1992), and Karan Johar’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), were setting new trends in the Hindi cinema but with a hint of Hollywood picturisation as well.

As far as the commercial movies in Hindi cinema is concerned, 90s was an era of exotic locations, chiffon sarees, dreamy song sequences, beautiful love stories, and melodious songs with some of the unforgettable playback singers. While the productions techniques were going through a change by adapting new ways of camera handling, editing, and lighting, the stories were becoming more fairy tale- like to please the youth and teenagers.

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While the male leads have also undergone a huge change since the inception of the Hindi cinema till the 90s. There was a lot of method acting done by Raj Kapoor and Rajesh Khanna which was later on changed into the style of the angry young man avatar of Amitabh Bachchan. But during the 90s there were more romantic heroes than ever including Amir Khan, Salman Khan, and of course Shahrukh Khan. The feeble female leads became headstrong and decided for themselves of course by keeping in mind the values of the Indian society. The villains were not wigged, cigar smoking men with a punchline after a powerful dialogue, rather in the 90s sometimes the protagonists were themselves the antagonists, like Shahrukh Khan in Baazigar (1993) and Anjaam (1994), and the characters displayed grey shades instead of displaying the black and white traits that were common before the era.

The filmy parents had also undergone a drastic change in the 90s. When there were mothers who used to pray for their child’s wellness and cried in their losses, we got fathers who were more than a friend for their children, like Anupan Kher in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), and mothers that took their children’s side for their happiness, like Farida Jalal in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995).

Parallel cinema, however, was at a decline in the Hindi film industry during this period but was still surviving thanks to some of the directors like Deepa Mehta, Govind Nihalani, and Sai Paranjpye. The commercialisation of Hindi films and the cost of production was on a rise in the 90s and it was adversely affecting the parallel cinema. Popularity of cable television, underworld financing of movies, and piracy were some of the major problems faced by the parallel filmmakers in the Hindi cinema.

Hence, the demise of the parallel cinema was unfortunately seen near the end of the decade with only a few movies that were seen and appreciated by the audience. Many of the parallel movies were even forgotten and not even mentioned when talking about the genre, including Tapan Sinha’s Ek Doctor ki Maut (1990), Sudhir Mishra’s Is Raat ki Subah Nahin (1996), and Sai Paranjpye’s Saaz (1997).

Though the parallel cinema also started to incorporate the actors from the commercial Hindi cinema perhaps to gain popularity that was enough for more audience to get attracted. The trend of including ghazals in the movie was now changed to film songs in the parallel movies as a gimmick. Still all of these new

167 experiments were not enough to stop the declination of parallel cinema in this decade.

Film Analysis

RUDAALI

Rudaali (1993) was directed by a feminist film director Kalpana Lajmi. The movie was based on a short story written by Mahasweta Devi, a famous Bengali writer. The movie received several critical accolades including the national award for Dimple Kapadia portraying the role of Sanichari.

The movie was set in a backdrop of Rajasthan where lower castes women are hired to mourn on the death of higher caste males. Such women were called ‘rudaali’. Their main job was to express grief on behalf of the family members who could not publicly show their emotions due to their social status.

The director made use of brown and dark tones in the cinematography. Realistic locations are shown and the language used in the movie have a Rajasthani touch to it. The characters are wearing less or no make-up at all unless it is needed.

The title of the movie was an ironical take on the protagonist. Sanichari have been seen the unluckiest person in the village but she never shed a single tear on her miserable life. Her mother had run off just after giving birth to her, her father had died in her childhood, her mother-in-law also succumbed to a long time illness, and later on she lost her husband to cholera. She was left with her only son, Budhwa (Raghubir Yadav) who also left her after a rift between Sanichari and his prostitute wife Mungri (Sushmita Mukherjee).

The movie depicted the struggle of Sanichari to live a peaceful live. But poverty being her only fault, she was not able to find happiness for more than a few days every time. The film moved in flashbacks in most of the first half. In the present scene Sanichari was old and depressed over her past. A rudaali from another village Bhikni (Rakhee) was staying at her home because she was a nomad and used to go from one village to another when called due to her profession.

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Relationship of Sanichari and Bhikni Sanichari told Bhikni about her unfortunate past and came closer to her as she thought her to be her confidante. She had lost everyone in her life and now in such an age she wanted someone to be there with her, hence, she even asked Bhikni to stay with her. Though Bhikni did not stay but in the end Sanichari came to know that Bhikini was actually her mother who had left her years ago.

Sanichari was seen throughout the movie performing her duties sometime as a daughter-in-law, sometime as a wife, and sometime as a mother. She never thought about her own comfort or good. Even when Thakur Lakshman Singh (Raj Babbar) asked her to leave her home and live with him, she was confused because she did not want to leave her home which, even though she did not care much about her husband, she thought was her duty to serve.

She did not care much about her alcoholic husband but she was pretty close to her son. When Budhwa came home with his wife Mungri who used to be a prostitute, Sanichari feared the reaction of the society. She did not have any personal grudge or hatred for the woman. In a scene where the village pandit and the shopkeeper were looking at the prostitute unaware of her relation with Sanichari, they were laughing and teasing the prostitute. The pandit did not even fear that his position is a sacred one and he must not differentiate amongst the people made by God but still he was having fun with the shopkeeper and passing crude remarks to the woman. When they came to know that the woman was Sanichari’s daughter-in-law, both started accusing her of having a bad conduct and even talked of throwing them out of the society only because she had a prostitute living in her home. This clearly

169 showed the hypocrisy of a patriarchal mind set. While they were teasing the prostitute they thought it was their right to do so with a filthy woman but when they came to know that someone in the village is sharing their shelter with the same woman they started talking about the traditions and values. Sanichari even defended her son’s noble act by saying, “Maare chhore ne ek ko nark se nikala, ghar diya, ijjat di… maare chore ne jo bhi kiya mard ki tarah seena thok ke kiya.”

She could have also blamed his son in front of the society but she was strong enough to defend him in public by highlighting his noble actions and showing people the mirror by telling them to be coward who could only talk bad about people’s virtuous act as they are unable to do such brave things themselves. However, she scolded her son at home and had a dispute with his wife as well but she did not want to show her problems to people outside her home.

The character of Sanichari was that of a strong woman who bore the burden of bad luck and unhappiness throughout her life. She was unable to cry because she had always seen grief and misery from a close proximity.

It was Bhikni who told her to vent all her frustrations through tears by becoming a rudaali and by crying at someone else’s death. At first Sanichari laughed at the thought as she had never cried but in the end when she came to know that Bhikni was actually her mother who had abandoned her years ago, she could not stop herself from crying after hearing about her death. After the incident, she became a rudaali who used to cry her heart out at others’ funeral to make her heart light and to earn money as well.

FIRE

Deepa Mehta’s Fire (1996) was one of the first Indian movies that dealt with the idea of lesbianism. It not only just touched the subject but treated it in a very sensitive and realistic manner. The movie was mainly about relationships and how two women are tried to find companionship when they are not truly accepted by their husbands.

The film was mainly described as a lesbian film, and after almost two decades the film is still synonymous to the subject of lesbianism though the director was frustrated with this view and said, “lesbianism is just another aspect of the

170 film…Fire is not a film about lesbians,” but it is actually about “the choices we make in life.”1

Though it was an Indian movie but was originally released in English language. The movie not only appealed to the Indian audience but was also appreciated on a global level. The poignant portrayal of such complicated relationships is commendable.

The movie revolved around the lives of two women Radha (Shabana Azmi) and Sita (Nandita Das) and their struggle to fit into the lives of their spouses in vain. The movie showed how two females found peace and solace in one another’s company and it rejects the idea of male control over female sexuality. Is depicted how women came together to fulfil their passions not by choice but because of the lack of acknowledgment from their spouses.

There was a scene where Sita said that her mother used to tell her the importance of a woman by saying that “A woman without a husband is like boiled rice, bland, unappetizing, useless.” But instead of agreeing to the statement, Radha unappealingly said, “I like being boiled rice.” Which means she would have liked if she was without a husband rather than with one who did not reciprocate her feelings.

At the occasion of karvachauth when Radha saw how Sita was influenced by the modern mentality and thought fasting for husbands just an old age ritual for the bondage of women she said, “You don’t have to keep the fast if you don’t want.” But Sita laughed at the idea and replied, “You must be joking. My mother would kill me, and biji, she’d never stop ringing the bell.” (Biji, their mother in law, was a mute old woman who used to ring a bell when she wanted to communicate and usually ring it several times when was angry or disagreed with someone.)

This dialogue showed that the customs and traditions that one used to follow in the past have just became meaningless rituals that one has to blindly follow no matter if they want it or not. And in this movie, Sita was keeping the fast because of the societal pressure and not because she cared for her husband. She did not even know the mythological story behind the ritual. It was only after this scene that Radha

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_(1996_film)

171 explained to her the importance of this fast and how it came into being in the first place.

Finding solace in each other The concept of marriage is argued and discussed more than once in the movie. It was a vital aspect of the movie and it showed how women are bound by marriage to do and not to do certain things. The servant Mundu (Ranjit Chowdhry) puts it in a statement in the film, “Once you’re married you’re stuck forever, like glue. Sad but true.” It was basically meant for women who have no choice left after their marriage. They have to work it out somehow. Though there is no such compulsion for the man. He could do whatever he wanted to and could even keep doing what he used to do even before marriage. Like in the case of Jatin (Javed Jaffrey) he was seen having an affair with an Indo-Chinese girl and even after his marriage to Sita he continued having the affair with full knowledge of his family.

The friendship of two sisters in law were meant to be when no one else were paying attention to them. Sita was a 21st century modern girl who followed rituals just for the sake of it and did not hesitate to say what was in her mind while Radha had been accustomed to the routine life for so long that she had suppressed all her feelings until the day Sita accidentally kissed her.

Radha found a new meaning to her life and she was able to prod her voice against her husband as well. It had shown in the movie that Biji was an invalid and only the women of the house were supposed to take care of her. But in one scene when Ashok (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) ordered Radha to feed Biji, she retorted by saying, “Why don’t you feed Biji tonight?” and he reluctantly agreed. Radha was surprised to find the courage to say ‘no’ for once what her husband ordered her to do.

172 The main reason for Radha’s bold reaction was that she no longer thought herself as a slave to her husband. She could well knew that she had her own identity and she could survive without her husband now.

The movie was a breakthrough in portraying positive female characterisation. The movie in no way promotes lesbianism. It showed how women could find solace in the company of people who could understand them. As the end of the movie suggested that there was an ocean of opportunities for Radha but she was not looking further enough.

There have been some mainstream movies regarding the concept of LGBT but most of them have dealt the subject as a mockery or in a light vein, including Nikhil Advani’s Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), Tarun Manukhani’s Dostana (2008), and Karan Johar’s Student of the Year (2012). It was Karan Razdan’s Girlfriend (2004) that dealt with lesbianism but it showed a lot of stereotypical portrayals which were not accepted by the society. The movie was a complete failure at the box office as well.

However, it clearly showed that parallel cinema was way ahead of its time in comparison to the commercial cinema when it comes to exploring new subjects and dealing with sensitive issues.

1947 EARTH

Deepa Mehta made a profound movie on the partition of India 1947 Earth (1998) depicting intense emotions and some marvellous acting by the main leads. The story was shown through the eyes of a crippled Parsi girl Lenny (Maia Sethna) and how she perceived the partition where once Hindu, Muslims, and Sikhs were friends but later on became barbaric during the holocaust of partition.

The first half of the movie is simple and showed how Shanta (Nandita Das), a Hindu ayah was enjoying her friendship with two of her Muslim suitors, Dil Navaz (Amir Khan) and Hassan (Rahul Khanna) and how Lenny was trying to figure out what could be the result of the partition as it was the talk of the hour everywhere.

The second half depicted the catastrophic destruction of faith, religion, and humanity as a whole through the actions of people who were once the best of friends. And all of that was witnessed by Lenny whose mind was scarred because of the devastation.

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The narration throughout the movie was through the adult voice of Lenny, lend by Shabana Azmi, explaining the confusion and the clarification the mind of a young girl could fathom at that age.

The subject of partition have been shown on the celluloid before through movies like M.S. Sathyu’s Garam Hawa (1973), Govind Nihalani’s Tamas (1988), and Pamela Rooks’ Train to Pakistan (1998) but the storyline and structure of the movie is completely different from the previous partition themed movie.

It gave importance to the female characters of the movie as well. Firstly, the movie was shown through the view point of a girl rather than a phallocentric viewpoint. And secondly, Shanta was depicted as one of the main protagonists in the movie that triggered the animosity between the two friends of the same religious community, Dil Navaz and Hassan.

Lenny and Shanta The director did not take any sides in the movie while depicting the horrific event. She showed how religion began to colour relationships with a blunt but compassionate gaze. The theme of partition was dealt with a humane touch that was sympathetically understandable by the viewers as well.

The movie displayed the human sufferings that was divided in the society not only because of the religious preferences of a person but also because of the gender of a person. It showed how a woman’s body became a territory for the males of the society who act out their aggression on it.

Hence, the movie showed how women’s bodies were used to inflict atrocities on them with a particular kind of violence, i.e., rape, not only to degrade the females but also to humiliate the community to which they belonged. Thus, women were

174 abandoned by their own community only to be victimised by both parties during the riot.

While Dil Navaz was in love with Shanta, his feelings were not reciprocated by Shanta in the same way. And when he watched Shanta having sex with Hassan, he could not control his angst and fury anymore. Once again the thought of man marking his territory by consummating over a female’s body was predominantly highlighted through his expressions. A woman’s worth has always been seen through the penetration of males on her body and that was the reason why Dil Nawaz handed Shanta, a woman he once loved, to his frenzied people of the community in order to take revenge from her for rejecting his proposal and to teach her a lesson for having a relationship with someone other than him.

The movie showed the ugly reality of the time during the partition through the eyes of a young girl and her surroundings. It also showed how the disastrous calamity was destroying the unity of most of the men around the country was also uniting the women who were sharing the same pain. Lenny’s mother Bunty (Kitu Gidwani) became stronger during the riot, the fallen women in the camp bonded over their shared agony, and Shanta refused to become a victim anymore with the support of other women, including Bunty.

The relationship between Lenny and Shanta was shown as more of a girl and her ayah, it was more intense and emotional one. Hence, when Lenny was tricked into betraying Shanta, she lost faith in herself and was unable to overcome her everlasting guilt.

Lenny tricked by Dil Navaz

175 Bunty’s transformation as a stronger and braver woman was also shown in the movie. When in the initial part of the movie she was seen a simple homemaker who dotes over her daughter, soon after she became a protector and a rescuer throwing the garb of a simple weak woman that was seen at first.

The director magnificently captured the horrific details on the screen not by exactly showing them but by implying them through brief sights and sounds. The use of sound effects and dialogues with the accompaniment of the characters’ expressions were displayed leaving the graphic details to the imagination of the audience for comprehension of the results of the terrible fates of the people, especially women. However, these women were the innocent victims who had nothing to do with the instigation of the riot but they were the most helpless people during the riot.

HAZAAR CHAURASI KI MAA

Govind Nihalani directed the movie Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (1998) that was based on the novel ‘Hajar Churashir Maa’ by famous Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi. The movie dealt with the subject of Naxalites and their ideologies. For the first time in Indian cinema this subject was taken in the Bengali movie Seemabaddha by Satyajit Ray in 1971, which was based on the life of an upper class family during the Naxalite Movement. Commercial Hindi movies took this subject as their core storyline in the early 2000s but the parallel films were way ahead in portraying the important issues prevailing in our society.

It was only during the early 2000s that the commercial Hindi cinema took this subject seriously in their films. Some of the films include Tango Charlie (2005), Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi (2005), and Chakravyuh (2012). Thus, parallel cinema has always taken serious subjects as their storylines before any commercial movie.

Nihalani showed in this movie how a mother lost her son during the Naxalite movement and how she struggled to find out the truth behind his death. She was seen to be just another middle aged mother that we see in our daily life but the transformation from a simple homemaker to a rebellious woman was shown in the film.

Sujata (Jaya Bachchan) was living her routine life and trying to balance the family when she got a call in the middle of the night about her son’s death. Brati (Joy

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Sengupta) was a free soul who had a rough relationship with his father Dibyanath Chatterjee (Anupan Kher) and his siblings. Sujata was the only one in the family with whom he was emotionally close. After Brati’s death, Sujata went into a slumber as she was shocked with this incident.

The director showed a realistic picture of the relationship of a mother and son where love and care were received and reciprocated equally. Where everyone in the family were ashamed of Brati, Sujata was appalled at their indifferent behaviour. She was his mother and was not ashamed of her son. Though his father and brother immediately started hiding his photos and other belongings so that they could not be related to him in any way but she thought of him as a kind soul who could never harm anyone.

Sujata was not only disturbed but also intrigued to know the truth behind such an incident. She was brave enough to find out the truth about Brati’s death. She went to her son’s friend’s home to know what exactly happened at the night of his death. She later on met Nandini who loved Brati, she told Sujata all about the ‘Naxalbari’, a militant leftist group.

Nandini was brave and full of valour. She loved Brati and his death did not weakened her instead it made her stronger and braver than ever. She was strong enough to recall all what happened to her and narrated all the details to Sujata.

There was a new found courage in Sujata’s behaviour after listening to Nandini. She was fed up with all the lies that were in the form of relationships around her. When she could not take any more she finally vent all her frustrations on her husband, Dibyanath by simply telling her to let her be alone and leave her the way she wanted to live.

She even refused to put sindoor which is considered to be a vital identification mark of married women in Indian culture. When asked why was she being so rebellious in her attitude she said, “Ek din Brati ne mujhse pucha tha ‘Maa, tum itne samay se itne saalon se apna farz kaise nibhaye jaa rahi ho?’ aur maine kaha tha ‘Bachpan me yehi sikhaya gaya hai ab to aadat si pad gayi hai.’ Ghar, ghar, aur ye ghar. Chaubees ghante ye ghar. Kabhi iske liye kabhi uske liye, kabhi kahin koi naraaz naa ho jaye, koi bura naa maan jaye, koi cheez toot naa jaye, kuch bikhar naa jaye, har pal maine is toote hue ghar ko sambhala hai aur pal-pal kar ke kab meri zindagi

177 phisal gai mujhe pata hi nahi chala. Bekar, ekdum bekar. Aur isi me maine Brati ko bhi kho diya, aj hi ke din… ab mai ye sab nahi karungi, mujhse nahi hoga.”

Sujata refusing to put sindoor

This dialogue showed all the pain and agony a woman feels when she is not given the importance and respect in her home. It is important for a woman to give equal status at home but when she is suppressed by her husband and is not taken care of by the other members of the family she becomes mentally weak and melancholic.

The more she learnt about her son and his ideologies, the more she wanted to bring justice to his cause. Despite the fact that Brati’s father, brothers, and sisters were not in favour of him or his lifestyle, Sujata kept her feelings intact and never tried to force them to like or understand Brati. She was inspired from her son’s bravery and in the end though she was a retired woman of more than 60 years of age, she did not tolerate the injustice done in front of her when two goons killed Brati’s friend and tried to escape. She could not fight with them because of her physical condition but she did not leave one of the goons till the other people came to her rescue. This showed her determination to fight against the injustice prevailing in our society.

The movie was being shown through the perspective of a mother and the two most strong characters in the movie were women, one being Sujata and the other being Nandini, who did not break even after getting tortured by the police. Though the journey of Sujata was shown in a detailed way, Nandini’s journey was shown in a brief way. However, it was shown that Nandini did not need a man in her life to feel

178 complete because she was happy to work for a cause. It showed how free spirited and independent a woman can be if she is determined.

On the other hand, Sujata was different from Nandini because she kept on fighting for the cause at her personal level and tried to cope with her family issues as well. Though she was shown to be a weak woman who was bound with the various responsibilities of a mother and a wife but in the end she broke all the shackles and emerged as an independent woman who was not unhappy for her loss but rather was glad that her son would always be there in her thoughts to inspire and influence her to do good deeds till the end.

HUM

Mukul S. Anand’s Hum (1991) was one of the most popular films during the early 90s and regarded as one of the best performances by Amitabh Bhachchan who played the role of Tiger/Shekhar in the film. After this movie Bachchan announced his temporary retirement from films, which lasted for about five years.

The movie showed two different stories of two different areas and in the end was knotted together to make a complete film. The first half of the movie dealt with the workers of the docks and their cruel ruler Bakhtawar (Danny Denzongpa). It showed how the workers were treated as slaves and how Tiger extorted money from the workers though not agreeing with this regime.

It basically showed the rifts between Tiger and Bakhtawar with the backdrop of the love story of Tiger and Jumma (Kimi Katkar). The only females who were shown in the first half, who had some kind of an importance in the movie, were the characters of Jumma and that of Tiger’s step mother.

However, both the females were seen as helpless and oppressed but so were most of the male characters in the first half of the movie. Jumma was mostly used as a glamorous object for this part of the film where most of the time the screen was filled with dark coloured docks and men wearing dark blue or black outfits. Jumma was used to provide a brief relief from the dull and dark scenario hovering in the movie. She was the only one who used to wear read coloured gowns and stood out of everyone as a pretty doll.

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The famous song “Jumma chumma de de” showed a room filled with males where only a single female, Jumma, was dancing around in stockings and a red dress that was later on torn by the men leaving her with only a small piece of red cloth, that too a wet one, around her. The song Jumma chumma de de

Thus, Jumma was used in the first half to take the minds off of the audience from the dark story and the regular action sequences of Tiger.

The first half of the movie was cinematographically shown as a nightmare to the audience with dark colours and contours of black and brown scattered everywhere. Thus, the second half of the movie started with a startled Tiger who had woken up from a nightmare.

Hence, the second half of the movie was full of colours and bright light all over depicting the transition of Tiger, who was now referred to as Shekhar, into a dream like reality where he was surrounded by his family’s laughter and comic episodes.

Aarti, Kumar, Shekhar, Vijay, and Jyoti in the second half of HUM The second half of the movie opened with a song showing the only female in the household, Aarti (Deepa Sahi), who was struggling hard to please everyone in the family by giving breakfast to one, getting flowers for the puja to another, and searching for the clothes for her husband. She was seen as a perfect housewife but

180 at the end of the sequence she broke down and apologised for not being perfect for them. This was the cue for the family when they started singing a song to cheer Aarti up reminding her of all the good things she had ever done for the family.

Here, though Aarti was seen as a homemaker still she was helped and thought about by everyone in the family. In a scene where the younger brother Vijay (Govinda) was betting in a gambling house for money, he openly announced that with the winning money he would gift her sister-in-law a new pressure cooker. Though the gesture was a small one but it showed the care of a brother-in-law towards his sister in law.

The portrayal of women within the movie differed from the first and second half of the film. While the first half of the film dealt with action and aggressive dialogues where women have only a few dialogues, the second half dealt with a homely picture of family drama where women had a better screen time than the previous part of the movie.

Though despite the fact that in the second half females had more dialogues (and songs) with the males, still the overall portrayal of women were that of the weak, submissive, and dependent persons. While Aarti was dependent upon her husband Kumar (Rajnikant) and his brothers, Shekhar and Vijay, Anita was seen dependent upon her father General Rana Pratap Singh (Kader Khan) as she was not even able to choose her spouse without the consent of her father. This also depicted the fact that even if a girl is educated and belong to a reputed family, she cannot make a choice for marriage for herself though it is her personal matter but the family interference is always apparent in such cases.

HUM AAPKE HAIN KOUN..!

While Parallel cinema was booming with new concepts and filmmakers were experimenting with innovative ideas, commercial cinema was trending with family dramas and inculcating morals and values in Indian females. Sooraj Barjatiya’s Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994) initiated a trend of celebrating family functions with extravaganza around the country.

The movie gave a loose portrayal of women in many ways. Though the two main female leads of the film Pooja (Renuka Shahane) and Nisha (Madhuri Dixit) were

181 shown as modern girls of today’s age, none were seen studying or professionally involved in a job anywhere. However, both the male leads of the movie Rajesh (Mohnish Bahl) and Prem (Salman Khan) were seen engaged in their family business throughout the movie.

It was also shown that Nisha was studying computers as a subject but she was never seen going to a college/university or trying to pursue any job. Rather she was always seen doing household chores and making halwa for others. Nisha made halwa for Prem

A very homely picture of women was seen in the movie where they were engaged in kitchen and were mostly taking care of the family members or having fun by playing cricket and antakshiri.

In the initial minutes of the movie Pooja was seen interested in painting and pursuing her hobby passionately but after her marriage she was only seen engaged in performing her house work and pleasing the elders. There was no room for her hobby or any other creative interest in her home.

It was also surprising to see that Nisha who was pursuing computers in her college was never seen attending classes or preparing for any kind of a test. While in the movie her father, Prof. Siddharth Choudhury (Anupam Kher), was not able to attend the function meant for their elder daughter’s child due to the exam season on those dates but they readily accepted the invitation to send their younger daughter Nisha to attend the function. There was no mention of any kind of exams or preoccupation of Nisha for her studies anywhere.

Moreover, both of the female leads were seen educationally qualified and well-read but after her wedding, Pooja was never seen involved in her husband’s family business. She was never asked for any opinion nor did she give any kind of advice to her husband regarding the business.

182 A stereotypical patriarchal environment could be seen in the movie where women are required to attain good education only for the purpose of marriage. They are never given their due regarding their hobbies or passions afterwards. They are not even asked to help or support their husbands in business.

A picture of homely wives who are caring and loving to everyone and who are loved by everyone was depicted in the movie. They were required to stay up late when someone was working late in the office and it was labelled as their love for the person.

However, in the end when Nisha came to know that she was being married off to her dead sister’s husband Rajesh and not Prem, she readily sacrificed her happiness only because to make the elders pleased. And later on when everyone came to know of the truth they were glad to see her sacrificing her happiness saying that this was the way she showed her love towards everyone.

Women are always seen as the ones who are flexible and make marriages work. They are the ones who are supposed to make all kinds of sacrifices and they are not required to demand anything. They are seen to be satisfied with what they receive without any question.

This kind of a mind-set is prevalent in most of the societies in the world and the movie depicted a utopian scenario where women are already tamed and performed their jobs according to the wishes of their families and husbands. Perhaps this was the reason why the movie remained one of the major hits for all these years because it satiates the ego of the patriarchal mind in every way.

DILWALE DULHANIA LE JAYENGE

Aditya Chopra’s Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), popularly called DDLJ, was not only a blockbuster hit but was a milestone for all the romantic movies that came afterwards. In Bollywood's Top 20: Superstars of Indian Cinema, Namrata Joshi said Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge "reinvented Bollywood romances so decisively that we can neatly divide them into two eras—before DDLJ and after DDLJ".2

2 Joshi 2012, pp. 235–236.

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It was a simple love story of a young boy and a young girl with a twist that they did not elope when they knew that the girl’s father would not marry them off, rather they fought for their love and tried to persuade him to give consent for the marriage.

One of the common themes of the Indian movies since the pre-independence era was the portrayal of Indian men as the hero and western men as the villain. But this movie showed the opposite by portraying the protagonist, who was an NRI and was influenced by the western culture, Raj (Shahrukh Khan) as the hero who had goodness instilled in him even though he was brought up in a western society, and showed an Indian man, Kuljeet (Parmeent Sethi) as the anti-hero who was brought up in Indian society but was arrogant and haughty.

The movie, however, was a simple love story but somewhere the role of the male lead overshadowed the female protagonist of the movie. As Raj was shown a jovial person who was smart and attractive, Simran (Kajol) was seen as a meek and disciplined girl who had never done anything against her parents’ wishes.

A scene in the movie showed how the two sisters were enjoying dancing on a western song when they heard their father’s footsteps and changed the song to an old Hindi song and pretended to study instead. This showed how the girls were forcefully put into a disciplined life while they had desires to dance freely and enjoy life.

In another scene, Simran was afraid to ask her father, Chaudhary Baldev Singh (Amrish Puri) if she could go on a Europe tour with her friends because her father did not think it was appropriate for girls to travel without the accompaniment of a family member as it was against the traditions and values of an Indian society. But on the other hand Raj was comfortable to tell his plans of vacationing with his friends to his father, Dharamvir Malhotra (Anupam Kher) who in fact encouraged him to live his life to the fullest because he had not. It showed how the upbringing of both the protagonists were paradoxical in nature and the characterisation was, hence, influenced by these scenes where Raj was a carefree and impulsive person but Simran used to think before deciding anything in life.

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Lajjo having a heart to heart talk with Simran

Another scene depicting a deep conversation between Simran and her mother Lajwanti (Lajjo) Singh (Farida Jalal) showed the patriarchal mind set of the Indian society. In the scene Lajwanti said, “Jab mai chhoti thi na, tere nana mujhe sikhaya karte the ke aurat aur mard me koi antar nahi hai, jo ek ka haq hai wohi dusre ka haq hai. Pura bachpan me is baat ko sach maan kar jeeti rahi, lekin jaise jaise badi hoti gayi samajh me aata gaya ke kitna jhoot hai. Meri padhayi rok di gai isliye ke mere bhaiyon ki padhayi zyada zaruri thi, wo thi meri pehli qurbani. Phir uske baad har mod par kabhi beti ban kr, kabhi behen, to kabhi biwi ban kr apni khushiyon ki bali chadhati gayi. Par jab tu paida hui aur maine pehli baar tujhe apne in hatho me liya tha to apne aap se ek waada kar liya tha maine ke jo mere sath hua wo meri beti ke sath nahi hoga, wo beti, behen, biwi ban kar kadam kadam par apne aap ko kurbaan nahi karegi. To kya hua agar wo ladki hai wo zindagi apni marzi se jeeyegi, use apne hisse ki har khushi naseeb hogi. Magar mai ghalat thi Simran, main to ye bhool hi gayi thi ke aurat ko waada karne ka bhi koi haq nahi hai. wo to paida hi isliye hoti hai ke mard ke liye kurban hoti rahe kyunki mard to aurat ke liye kabhi kurbani deta nahi aur naa hi kabhi dega.”

This dialogue could be well summarised as the crux of the typical patriarchal ideology that existed in our Indian society. Everything related to girls is thought to be unimportant be it education or job but when it comes to boys people think otherwise. This unequal distribution of fulfilling the desires starts from the very beginning of a child’s age. It is only the woman who is supposed to make sacrifices

185 for the family and be flexible to maintain the equilibrium within a family. The emotional expectations for a woman is always higher than that of the man.

This movie showed how Lajjo was desperate to make Simran’s life better than hers. She tried to explain the ugly truths of life to her in order to make her forget about Raj and compromise with the life her father had planned for her. But then when she came to know about Raj that he had been living with them she asked both of them to elope so that at least her daughter could live the life she had always desired.

It portrayed the love and care of a mother for her children. She wanted her children to live happily on their own terms without any of those restrictions that she had faced herself. But here again she was helpless in front of her husband Chaudhary Baldev Singh as he was not only the head of the family but all the decisions whether important or trivial were have to be passed through him only. Lajjo being the mother had the responsibility of only bringing up her children but all the other decisions whether it is regarding their studies, or the European tour that Simran wanted to go for, or the children’s marriage were to be taken by only their father, Baldev Singh.

Even the end sequence, where Lajjo took Simran to the railway station and wanted her to leave with Raj, showed how a decision that was very important to Simran was taken by her father. He was the one who held Simran’s hands and watched Raj in the eye to judge him if he genuinely loved his daughter. Here again neither Lajjo nor Simran had a say in her personal matter. It was only when he was satisfied that he released Simran and told her “Jee le apni zindagi.”

BORDER

J. P. Dutta directed the movie Border in 1997 and it became a huge box office hit. It was a war drama story based on the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971. However, the casualties shown in the movie were highly exaggerated because the filmmaker wanted to emphasise on the fact that wars do no good to humankind and it is only the people who are left behind that are the sufferers. The movie had an ensemble cast that included Rakhee, Sunny Deol, Sunil Shetty, Akshaye Khanna, Tabu, Pooja Bhatt, and Jackie Shroff.

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Because of the subject of the movie was related to the war, the involvement of female characters in the movie was of little or no use. The main screenplay dealt with the different lives of the soldiers and how valiantly they fought in the war. Only when the family background of any of the soldier was shown, the females made an appearance. Even the most famous songs of the movie “Sandese aate hain” had only a glimpse of the females of the movie and the whole song was sung and picturised almost entirely on the males of the film.

A still from the song ‘Sandese aate hain’

The movie showed the first helpless female through the character of Kuldeep Singh’s (Sunny Deol) wife Preeti (Tabu). She was desperate for not letting her husband go to the warfront as she was afraid of the out comings. However, she pleaded but in vain as Kuldeep Singh did not want to step off from the duty that he had assigned for. For him, his country came before family.

The other helpless woman that was shown in the movie was Dharamvir’s (Akshaye Khanna) blind mother (Rakhee). She had already lost her eyesight and her husband to a war and was afraid to lose her son in the name of the country. Dharamvir was engaged to a girl from her village, Kamla (Pooja Bhatt) but when on their engagement day a call of the mobilisation order came for Dharamvir, he immediately left for the border leaving these two women in tears. Though his mother was reluctant to let him go but Kamla was optimistic that she would soon see him once they will defeat the enemy in the war.

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Dharamvir with her blind mother with Kamla at the back

Another woman that was shown in the movie was Bhairon Singh’s (Sunil Shetty) wife played by Sharbani Mukherjee. She also saw with teary eyes that her husband bid her farewell on their wedding night when he was called back to his post.

All these women that were shown in the movie were to emphasise on the emotional quotient of the movie. The problems that a soldier has in his family could be seen through the way his mother, sister, or wife, in short any woman of his family goes through.

The movie basically deals with war, but the audience could not stay in the cinema hall to watch a three hour war movie which is full of action and fighting. There has to be some songs and a bit of entertainment in the movie to let the audience stay for a while. Hence, the role of the women in the movie not only gives an emotional quotient to it but also provide a romantic angle to the film.

The movie showed these flashbacks of the soldiers for the audience to get them emotionally attached with them so that the filmmaker could emphatically make his point that wars could never do any good to humankind. Even though if one of the parties win the war, the grief for the martyrs would always weigh more than the accolades they get for winning.

Hence, in this movie also the director showed females during short intervals to give the audience a break from all the war drama which could be a bit depressing for them as well. Females in the movie were used as objects of entertainment and the story only consisted of the males in the army and how they struggled to win the war for their country.

188 The era of 90s was changing trends in the face of Hindi cinema be it for parallel movies or for commercial ones. In these films it is clearly shown how the family set up was changed from rural to urban setting in the parallel films and how middle class families were changed into the upper class families in the commercial films.

Globalisation was setting in India and several new trends emerged because of that. In the movie Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa the topic of Naxalite was dealt with care and caution while in Fire not only lesbianism was shown but also the interdependency of women and how they dealt with it was portrayed in an artistic manner.

Urban culture and modern families were shown in Hum Aapke Hain Koun! and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Though such family dramas have always been a part of the Hindi commercial cinema but the thematic aspect and the storyline was fresher than those of the family dramas of the 70s, 80s or before that.

Yet more or less the representation of females in parallel and commercial cinema were different in terms of moral values, personal attributes, costumes, and the role in addressing the social issues being discussed in the films.

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CHAPTER 6

FILM ANALYSIS:

THE 2000s

The new millennium saw an emergence of new themes and new plots in the Hindi film industry. A twist in the tale happened when there was a resurgence of the parallel cinema, a genre that was thought to have reached its extinction in the previous decade.

Indian cinema finally found a balance between its two main genres in the 21st century. Meaningful cinema was commercially successful and this gave boost to many new filmmakers for making experimental movies. Movies like Lagaan (2001), Zubeida (2001), Devdas (2002), Koi… Mil Gaya (2003), Black Friday (2004), My Brother Nikhil (2005), Wake Up Sid! (2009), Dev D (2009), and Peepli Live (2010) were critically acclaimed and commercially successful as well.

Hindi movies became globally known and making their entries in various International Film Festivals have now became a common trend. Lagaan (2001) was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 74th Academy Awards and won the Audience Award at the Locarno International Film Festival. Similarly, Devdas (2002) and Rang De Basanti (2006) were nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

New entries of a fresh batch of actors, both male and female, came pouring into the Hindi film industry including Kangana Ranaut, Hritik Roshan, Ranbir Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan, Amisha Patel, Abhay Deol, Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Sonam Kapoor, and Anushka Sharma.

Global cinema was calling onto the Hindi cinema to join hands. After several decades mainstream Hindi cinema caught the fancy of International audience. Global markets were now demanding Hindi movies to be distributed in over 90 countries. So much so that Road Movie (2010) by Dev Benegal was sold for international distribution before it was even sold in India.

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The quality of filmmaking improved immensely in terms of acting, editing, lighting, special effects, cinematography, storyline, and content. Earlier the movies were made by keeping in mind the Indian audience but now filmmakers were also thinking about the international markets and their prospective foreign audiences.

Many old production studios including Yash Raj Films and Dharma Productions gave themselves a makeover to fit into the new and young cinema goers’ preferences. Many foreign companies either set up their offices in India or entered into partnerships with the existing production houses of India including Time Warner, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, and Disney.

Film Analysis

MONSOON WEDDING

Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding was released in 2001 and just like the monsoon rains that temper Delhi’s summer heat, the movie also gives subtle surprises throughout. Though the movie holds a wedding as the main event, small episodes of events related to the lives of all the family members came to the fore every now and then.

This movie is a comedy of manners but in an Indian style. The movie is an interplay between tradition and modern culture. It subtly portrayed the differences between the North Indians and Bengali culture by showing the families coming together to evolve into a completely new relationship. However, the movie was started with a few caricatures that could be seen around our daily life with cartoony strokes to them but gradually they evolved into the real people that one can easily relate with.

Moreover, the technique of the handheld camerawork adds a layer of realism to the movie that easily connects the viewer to the family. Thus, the five intertwined love stories that ended with a wedding amid the monsoon are dealt with unbelievable skill.

The setting of a wedding with all its functions and decorations were quite realistic. The characters of a father worrying about the expenditure in the wedding, Lalit Verma (Naseeruddin Shah) and the anxiously nervous mother who tried to make everyone comfortable as a host, Pimmi Verma (Lillete Dubey) were seen as the people one usually sees around the neighbourhood. They were such a realistic couple that from the very first scene in the movie the audience got connected to them.

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The cousin of the bride, Ria (Shefali Shah) was an unmarried girl and the relatives were often concerned for her as the bride, Aditi (Vasundhara Das) was a few years younger to her and the ladies of the family wanted Ria to get married soon before she is past her marriageable age. During the engagement ceremony of Aditi, a female relative asked Ria, “Tumhara mann nahi karta shadi karne ko?” exhibiting the typical mind set of people thinking that a woman is not complete without a husband and that there is a particular age up to which a girl must get married.

An aunt asking Ria if she doesn’t feel like marrying

Another startling dialogue of the movie that showed how Indian society looks at women was the one when Lalit confided in one of his friends that he was having some monetary issues and another friend simply spoke, “Haan bhaiyya, beti ki shaadi mein aisa hi hota hai” and the other one exclaimed, “Thank God I don’t have any daughters yaar, nahim to meri to band bajj jaati.”

The director depicted how is the mentality of people regarding daughters. They look at them as some kind of a burden and their wedding is regarded as a strained responsibility put on the parents. This is also one of the major reasons why female foeticide is higher in our country. And it is not only prominent in the lower classes but also in the middle and upper classes as well. In the movie, Lalit Verma was a respected member of the society who belonged to the upper middle class, had lakhs of money to spend on his daughter’s wedding and played golf with his friends. But still his friends had a mentality that showed they preferred boys over girls when it came to their children.

A typical nature of a mother is projected through Pimmi’s character where she was showing sarees and other things to her husband declaring that she was collecting all

192 those things since her daughter’s childhood to one day give all of them as a dowry at her wedding.

The characters were woven in such a realistic manner that we could easily identify people from around us that resembled them.

There was another character of Varun Verma (Ishaan Nair) who was the younger brother of Aditi and wanted to become a chef. Lalit was unhappy of his choice and was keen on sending him to a boarding school because according to him he behaved in a feminine manner by wanting to cook and happily dancing in weddings. He thought that in a boarding school boys of his age would inspire him to make more masculine choices in life.

It showed how certain professions and activities are labelled as masculine and the others as feminine. Now when we are in the twenty first century still we are holding to an age old mentality where we do not look at both the genders on the same plain rather we judge others on the basis of their choices and often condemn them as well. Lalit was not satisfied with his son who did not behave like a conventional boy who would play sports and dream of becoming a doctor or an engineer. For Varun, what gave him pleasure was what all he wanted to do in life.

Moreover, Aditi was also somewhat like her brother when it comes to making choices. Though she was in love with a married man, she chose to marry Hemant (Parvin Dabas) because she could not wait any longer for his lover to divorce his wife. It was only a convenient choice that she made by choosing to have an arranged marriage. And though it was a foolish act of hers that she did not break up with her lover at first, it was still a bold enough step for her to tell the truth to Hemant in order to start a relationship with truth and honesty. A positive character was clearly depicted through this action.

The movie was not only about love, lies, and weddings it also dealt with some of the serious issues our society is facing like child abuse. It showed how courageous a woman can be when it comes to the safety of others. Ria was being molested in her childhood and did not speak about it to anyone but when she saw that her uncle Tej (Rajat Kapoor) had taken hold of his new victim, Aliya (Kemaya Kidwai) who was just in her early teens, she could not stop herself from taking off Tej’s humanitarian mask from his face revealing the ugly soul that was hidden within. Her courage

193 saved a young girl’s life and made her confident to face the world with new inspiration.

Family is not about blood relations and performing the duties to fulfil each other’s basic needs, it is much more than that. Family is about loving, caring, and forgiving each other. Family is about supporting in bad times and keeping secrets of one another. Family is about boosting one’s morale and being there in hard times. The movie clearly depicted all these nuances through the characterisation of all the cast of the movie.

PHIR MILENGE

Revathi made a movie Phir Milenge (2004) that dealt with a serious topic of AIDS. The movie had a female protagonist Tamanna Sahni (Shilpa Shetty) who was shown to be working in a popular advertising agency. She was not only a dedicated worker at the company but was also one of the most famous one as well.

The movie depicted a successful woman who was good at her job and her personal life both. Tamanna’s sister Tanya (Kamalinee Mukherjee) was seen as a popular radio jockey. Hence, the movie focused on not one but two empowered women.

Tamanna and Tanya The director did not only showed the love life or the romances of the women in the film, in fact the film dealt with a very serious topic of AIDS in the film. This was one of the earliest films in Hindi cinema that dealt with the subject of AIDS.

Though the movie had commercial actors playing the lead roles still the treatment of the movie was more of a parallel one. The movie had dialogues in Hindi and English both. However, after the 90s the term parallel cinema was hardly used for Hindi

194 movies, it was more talked about as an off-beat film. Hence, Phir Milenge was an off-beat film that had the traits of both a commercial and a parallel movie.

Actor Salman Khan who played the role of Rohit in the movie said the film was a mixture of both parallel and commercial Hindi cinema that had a message and star value attached to the movie. He further added, “This film is like a slap on the face of those who think that parallel cinema and commercial cinema are different, that parallel cinema is something that nobody watches. This film is a commercial film of that genre, which is brilliant. If you want to give a message your theatres should be full, if you want to make money then also your theatres should be full. This film has done both.”1

The storyline dealt with how Tamanna became an HIV positive patient and then how unjustly her employer fired her from the job stating that she was incompetent in her work when on the contrary the reason was only because of her medical condition.

She hired a lawyer Tarun Anand (Abhishek Bachchan) who had the typical misconceptions about the disease that were clarified in the movie itself only spread awareness to the audience.

Tamanna was seen as a determined woman who had decided to fight for her right and thus was ready not to lose hope in life. She had seen death from a very close sight and still only because of her younger sister she thought to live just like before and make her life normal like it was earlier.

She was a workaholic by choice because as she said in the movie, “My professional life was my personal life. That was my only life.”

A strong headed character who was willing to fight with her employer to get justice and to show the world that she was not weak to forego all that she had struggled for in her life just like that. Of course there were some men in her life who helped her as well, one of them was Advocate Anand but it was only Tamanna’s will power that kept her going even only after having such a traumatic experience with her disease.

The movie depicted the hypocritical work culture in the Indian scenario. Phir Milenge was not only a sensitive handling of such a delicate subject but was also a milestone in the Hindi cinema that not only aware the audiences about such an

1 http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//RTV/2004/06/01/405270054/?s=ghosh

195 important issue but showed an empowered woman in the Indian culture and how her struggle inspired so many of the Indian female audiences.

Such a strong female character that was set up in the Indian work culture was rarely seen in the Hindi movies before this film. Shilpa Shetty had done justice to the role of Tamanna and she was critically appreciated and applauded for her realistic depiction of the character who did not fall apart because of the social stigma related to the disease she was suffering with.

15 PARK AVENUE

Aparna Sen’s 15 Park Avenue (2005) dealt with a story of two sisters, Anjali or Anu (Shabana Azmi) and Mitali or Meethi (Konkona Sen Sharma) and their struggle to survive through realistic and delusional support respectively.

While Anu was shown to be a professor of physics and a practical woman, soon after a few minutes one could see the paradox in her character. She was emotionally attached to her younger sister Meethi who was a schizophrenic and lived in the home. Their ageing mother Mrs. Gupta (Waheeda Rehman) was also seen disturbed by the condition of both her daughters as one was suffering from a psychological illness and the other was deprived of happiness because all she could think was about her sister and her well-being. Mrs. Gupta worrying

Though there were many commercial Hindi films that focused on the psychological illnesses of humans in the past several years that included Rakesh Roshan’s Koi… Mil Gaya (2003), Harry Baweja’s Main Aisa Hi Hoon (2005), and Priyadarshan’s Kyon Ki? (2005) but Sen’s idea of depicting a movie on illness was not mended around a few songs or wanted the audience to have pity for the sufferer. Rather it demanded the audience to empathise with Meethi and vicariously undergo the emotional stress that Anu was going through. And the movie beautifully and artfully achieved what it was meant for.

196 Though it was explained in the movie that Meethi was a loner during her childhood as well, it was only during her 20s when she got an assignment at work that led her to be gang raped by some political goons that worsened her condition and pushed her into her schizophrenic world forever.

Meethi had completely lost her connection to the real world after the traumatic incident. It was even aggravated when her fiancé Joydeep (Rahul Bose) left her because he was unable to deal with her condition anymore. In response to all the misfortunes she had face, she created an imaginary world of her own where she was married to Joydeep whom she dearly called Jojo, had five children, and lived at 15 Park Avenue, Kolkata. She was living in a delusion that her family was holding her back and did not want her to live with her family.

Though Meethi was suffering from an illness, she was determined to unite back with her family someday. This hope was her inspiration to carry on her life forward otherwise perhaps she would have succumbed to severe depression or even death for that matter.

The movie portrayed male chauvinism at its worst by depicting the incident where male goons raped an innocent girl and once a loving boyfriend abandoned her fiancé because he did not want to have a relationship with a psychologically ailing patient. But still the director never radically announced in the film that all men came under the shadows of these handful of characters. She beautifully showed the objectivity and non-judgmental portrayal of the shortcomings of a few men depicted through some of the characters in the movie.

The director also played with the emotion of guilt through depicting almost all the characters suffering from it. Anu, Joydeep, and Mrs. Gupta all were having guilt for one reason or the other in the movie. It was a predominant emotion that lingered throughout the background of the movie. Another scenario that could be seen in the background of the movie was the tale of reality, illusion, and the thin line between these two.

When Anu once explained Meethi that she was only imagining things, Meethi retorted back by saying, “How would you like if I told you’re not a professor only imagining it?” the thought was further carried on into discussions between the

197 characters that explored the differences between what was reality and what was only an illusion.

Mrs. Gupta was however dealing with her ageing and the loss of control over everything while coping with Meethi’s situation. And Anu, though mature enough to take control of her own life, was determined to be able to take full responsibility of her ailing sister and old mother. She even rejected a proposal made to her by her colleague Sanjeev (Kanwaljit Singh) because she was well aware of the fact that her life was full of commas and full stops at various positions and she would not be able to escape leaving all of this behind her only to please herself or even to take a break from this tiresome life.

Meethi greeting her imaginary family before going into oblivion The ending of the movie, however, was something that was completely unexpected. The desperation of Meethi for finding her imaginary world was at its peak and she finally found her home and went towards it leaving the real world and its people forever. The director though left the challenge to the audience to make up the ending themselves, but it was more confusing than interesting. It could well be comprehended in a way that Meethi was lost in her delusions and was either dead or killed finally reaching her destination of the parallel world she had made up for herself and left the actual world confused and guilty just as the humans have always been.

DOR

Nagesh Kukunoor’s Dor (2006) which was set in a Rajasthani backdrop, was an inspiration for all those women who are trapped in meaningless traditions of the society. The two protagonists of the movie, Meera (Ayesha Takia) and Zeenat (Gul

198 Panag), were juxtaposed to one another with Zeenat being a confident and independent woman, courageous enough to challenge her fate and Meera being the other extreme who seemed to have accepted her destiny living like a lifeless woman with no colours of joy in her life.

The movie basically dealt with a story comprising of two women and their different lives. Though both the lives were somehow linked still they were completely different from one another.

Meera, a widow stuck in the age-old customs of the society, lived confined to the premises of her house, deprived of all the joys and happiness, with her only outlet a daily visit to the temple. The character was a true representation of many women in the Indian society who neither have voices of their own nor are they supposed to have opinions. A woman lives initially by the rules of her father and brothers, then by the dictates of a husband and in the last phase of her life according to the will of her son.

In Meera’s case, the purpose of her life – her husband was dead. This was enough to make her undeserving of even the little joys of life – a dress of her choice, food of her choice, or stepping out of the house at will. Meera is just like the majority of the women in our country, bound by societal rules and trapped in one’s own emotional restrictions. An interface with an independent woman like Zeenat, however, made Meera realize her true worth.

Meera bonding with Zeenat Zeenat was seen as a rebel who got married without the consent of her parents and lived with her husband independently. She was seen as the exact opposite of Meera. She was a woman who lived by her own rules, not letting others dictate to her. She

199 did not just come across as an inspiration to Meera but to women of the country as well, who formed the audience of the acclaimed film.

It not only focused the culture of a particular region but also showed how it treated its women when she did not have a male companion. Meera’s father-in-law was seen as the head of the family and after the death of Meera’s husband he treated her not more than an object in his house. So much so that he traded her honour for the sake of his mansion without even consulting with any of the females in his house.

It simply showed how males of a family never consider females to be their equal and could easily decide their fates thinking themselves to be responsible enough to take care of everything related to their property that includes women as well.

Our society needs women who can take control of their own fates, who can be independent enough to fight for their love. When it comes to the differences in behaviour, cognition, and personality, it is observed that males and females are more alike than different. The differences are mainly due to the socialisation rather than innate biological (for example, genes, hormones) influences.

Zeenat influenced Meera in a positive way. She made her feel how a woman must enjoy her life that is given to her only once and the pointlessness of patriarchal customs that treat women as dispensable and less than human. Though the movie showed how Meera was holding the string (Dor) of Zeenat’s hope still Zeenat did not back out and her belief in love and friendship gave her the eternal happiness and a friend for life, that is, Meera.

The movie ends with a hope of a once suppressed woman risen up to challenge the obsolete norms of society. What Meera went through was the liberation of mind and psychology. The psychological well-being is mainly challenged when we live by controlling our just desires.

The filmmaker gave total liberty on the screen to its female protagonists. They had more dialogues than any of the male characters of the film. Though the subject of the storyline was the freedom of a male but the movie was further proceeded with the involvement of females only.

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DIL CHAHTA HAI

Farhan Akhtar made his directorial debut with the fresh urban setting comedy drama film Dil Chahta Hai (2001). The movie talked about three friends Akash (Amir Khan), Sameer (Saif Ali Khan), and Siddharth aka Sid (Akshaye Khanna) and their ups and downs in life.

The movie basically dealt the friendship and conflicts of the three protagonists of the movie. There are female characters as well in the movie but they do not have much role in the film. They are only used to support the main leads and throw light on the characterisation and development of the three male actors.

One of the vital observation is that the promotional posters and the DVD covers have mostly the male leads on it. The females are nowhere to be seen on them. And if there are any females on the cover, they are not given much space and importance on the posters. This can simply be seen as a male bias by highlighting the male protagonists for promotional techniques.

Famous promotional posters of Dil Chahta Hai Many critics said the film was one of the most realistic depictions of today’s youth in the country and others said that it was the beginning of a new generation of Bollywood films. The narrative style of the movie was more of western kind but the

201 sensibilities were Indian, or to be precise – urban Indian. The setting of the movie was urban but to an extent quite realistic, upper class but relatable by the audiences.

But if we look closely into it, we could not see the female leads having been portrayed as a fresh new urban avatar like the male ones in the film. Shalini (Preity Zinta) was shown as smart, graceful, independent girl who travelled alone from India to Sydney to meet her uncle (Rajat Kapoor) and was confident enough to befriend Akash whom her fiancé Rohit (Ayub Khan) forbid to meet with.

Despite of all these facts, Shalini was seen as a traditional Indian girl who was ready to sacrifice all her happiness in order to repay the debt of Rohit’s family by marrying him even though she loved Akash. She was seen as a timid person in front of the aggressive Rohit. Her belonging to the upper class or being an educated girl had nothing to do with her personal decisions which is quite surprising.

Juxtaposition to her character, Akash was smarter and braver than her when it came to deciding for his future with Shalini. He confidently went to Rohit’s place and proposed to Shalini in front of more than 200 guests without thinking about the consequences. He was determined to marry the love of his life while Shalini on the other hand seemed helpless and dependent upon Rohit’s family’s decision till the end.

The character of Pooja was also weakly portrayed by showing her having a relationship with Subodh (Azad Dadarkar) who was simply a bore. She was not aware of what she had decided for herself before meeting Sameer. She did not have much of a screen time in the movie. Hers is the shortest part when compared to the other two female leads in the movie.

She did not make her decision to get married in the first place. Pooja was forced to meet Sameer by her parents though she was secretly seeing someone else. And once she ended her relationship with Subodh, it was Sameer who took their friendship to another level.

Then there was the divorcee Tara Jaiswal (Dimple Kapadia). She was the most mature female amongst the three of the female leads, probably because of her age or because of her painful life experience. She was an alcoholic and befriended Sid who was her neighbour. Little did she know that Sid was actually falling in love with her.

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Though she was an independent interior designer who have her life in control, one thing that she was not able to control was Sid’s feelings for her. When she overheard him talking to his mother about his feelings for Tara, she forcibly shut him out of her life.

Though the tuning of Tara and Sid was really charming, the audience could simply wish for this relationship to work for some reason. But Tara was stuck up in the conventional traditions of the Indian society where older women are not meant to marry young men, especially when they are divorced and had a child. The same thought persisted in Tara’s mind and she asked Sid never to meet her again. However, she was the strongest of the two other female characters in the movie but one could simply see how it ended.

Hence, Farhan could have made some exceptions in his movie or could have made the female characters stronger as well just like the male characters in the movie but unfortunately this was not the case. To avoid any kind of a controversy in the commercial cinema he put his characters simpler and fresher only from a patriarchal point of view, never thinking about the females on the same line.

MUNNA BHAI MBBS

The movie Munna Bhai MBBS was the directorial debut of Rajkumar Hirani who made his mark in the foray of a new age satire in the Hindi film industry. This movie was basically a take on the medical system of our country and pointed out some of the major flaws in it. However, the movie was loosely inspired from Robin Williams starrer Patch Adams (1998) but the screenplay and treatment of the movie was completely new with regard to the Hindi cinema.

The movie depicts the life and adventures of Murli Prasad Sharma aka Munna Bhai (Sanjay Dutt). He is a Mumbai goon and the movie showed how he went to a medical college to become a doctor in order to marry the girl his father had chosen for him. He was unaware of the fact that the same girl was working as a doctor in the medical college but he knew that the dean of the college was Dr. J. Asthana (Boman Irani) who was the father of the girl, Chinky (Gracy Singh).

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The movie was a comic satire on the pitfall of the medical system in our country and how Munna Bhai tried to solve certain problems with the help of his goon friends and uneducated mind.

Munna Bhai did not know that Dr. Suman who was working in the college was actually Chinky, the girl he was determined to marry. Suman took advantage of this fact and tried to change Munna’s mind so that her father could be relieved of thinking that one day a Mumbai thug would marry his daughter.

Munna Bhai with Dr. Suman In order to do that Suman asked one of her friends (Neha Dubey) to pretend to be Chinky and change Munna’s mind. Suman’s friend asked Munna to meet at a night club where she was seen scantily dressed, drinking alcohol, and dancing with other boys with ease. Munna though a hooligan dreamt of her wife to be a conventional Indian girl and thinking Suman’s friend to be Chinky was more than disappointed.

This showed how men imagined their wives to be. Munna wanted Chinky to dress gracefully in covered clothing and could not imagine her drinking and dancing with strange men in a club.

It is automatically assumed that if a girl drinks alcohol, dances, and mingles with the opposite sex she must not be a good woman and would not have good values instilled. Unconsciously we still have the mentality that western culture is inferior to the Indian traditional culture. We can never admit that even if a girl has western values she could be a good wife.

The movie had many comic sequences and some serious episodes as well but it was completely focused on Munna Bhai and Dr. Asthana. Suman was only included in

204 the movie for dramatic effect and for a romantic angle. She could easily have been absent from a scene and no one would miss her. Everyone was anxious to see what Munna would do next to infuriate Dr. Asthana.

Munna irritating Dr. Asthana The movie was not at all derogatory to women but it did not give any kind of importance to the womankind as well. Suman was an independent woman working as a doctor in one of the most prestigious medical colleges of Mumbai still she was at first being told to marry the man his father had chosen for her and later on was told to shoo him away. No one, not even her father asked Suman if she wanted or not to get married to the person.

Even Munna’s mother Parvati (Rohini Hattangadi) was seen as a conventional Indian wife who was supposed to follow her husband Hari Prasad Sharma’s (Sunil Dutt) orders no matter what. She wanted to stay with her son but her husband asked her to leave and she blindly followed him.

Though the movie was a directorial venture of a new filmmaker in town who was 38 years at the time of the movie, it could well be expected to find some fresh and innovative filmmaking skills. The movie did not start any new trend in film making as such when it comes to the representation of females in Hindi cinema. Of course the movie gave us a refreshing story with some of the very good performances and unforgettable characters, still when it comes to the portrayal of women in the movie it gave us the same old depiction where modern girls are seen as bad and traditional girls are looked upon as ideal for any Indian man.

205 OM SHANTI OM

Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om (2007) was a huge hit at the box office and was one of the most successful films of 2007. Though the title of the movie was taken from a song of the 1980 film Karz, still it clearly suggests how the male protagonist is stealing the limelight by having his name twice in the title, that is, “Om”. The movie showed how a successful Hindi film actor was weak and submissive when it comes to her married life. Though she was a confident and professional woman but when in distress Om, a man, helped her out. The movie though directed by a woman, shows the age old concept of portraying a damsel in distress rescued by a dauntless hero.

The movie showed the injustice done to a woman by her husband and how a man got caught in the ominous circumstances along with her. Shanti Priya (Deepika Padukone) was a popular film actor and was secretly married to a film producer Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal). Moreover, a junior artist Om Prakash Makhija (Shahrukh Khan) was head over heels in love with Shanti but knew that it would always remain a dream for him until one day on a film set Om bravely jumped into the fire and saved Shanti’s life. Another clichéd situation to depict a damsel in distress saved by the fearless and brave hero. After the incident, Shanti thought she was indebted to Om and stretched out her hand for friendship.

Om rescuing Shanti from the fire Om was happy that at least in this way he could be close to Shanti but unfortunately Mukesh trapped her inside a film set and set it ablaze. Little did he knew that Om was watching all of it from a distance and immediately came to rescue Shanti once again from the fire. But unfortunately both succumbed to death and on the same night Om was reincarnated into a home of a wealthy and famous film actor Rajesh Kapoor’s (Javed Sheikh) family as his son Om.

206 Shanti was shown as a naïve woman who did not know the tricks of her own husband and was easily fooled by his tactics. Another important female character shown in the movie was that of Om’s mother Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher). She was shown more as a caricature rather than a realistic mother. Though there were one or two scenes where she was seen talking heart to heart with her son when he was reincarnated, apart from that her dialogues were mainly kept for adding humour to the script.

After the reincarnation, Om Kapoor (Shahrukh Khan) was seen as a spoilt brat who was only concerned of her own desires and thought himself to be the best only because of his famous father. There were always two-three girls around Om to enhance his popularity and show how loved he was by his female fans. However, those girls were nothing but used for comic effect and humour. Not one single meaningful dialogue was given to any of those girls. Their presence made no difference to the script and perhaps their absence would also have not made any difference as such.

The scene where Om was taking auditions for the female lead of his film showed a number of females auditioning for the role. All of the girls were shown in a degrading way. Where an obese girl was using inhaler in between a one-sentence dialogue and another overly made up girl forgot the dialogue. It was only the second protagonist of the film, Sandhya (Sandy), who impressed Om and that too not on the basis of reciting the dialogues for the audition but only because she resembled Shanti.

The movie also popularizes a dialogue “Ek chutki sindoor ki keemat tum kya jaano Ramesh Babu. Ishwar ka aashirwad hota hai ek chutki sindoor, suhagan ke sarr ka taj hota hai ek chutki sindoor, har aurat ka khwab hota hai ek chutki sindoor.” The dialogue though presented in a light hearted manner in the movie subtly gave the importance to the husband of a woman. It exhibited how a woman is complete only when she had a husband and how being married is a blessing of God. ‘Ek chutki sindoor’ dialogue

207 The movie had a storyline of revenge from a reincarnated person from the killer of his previous birth but the importance was always given to the males in the movie. Though women were there in the film still they had no active role in planning or executing of the plan that was made for the villain of the film. It was only Om who plans the strategy and compelled everyone to follow his orders.

The movie was completely male oriented where the males were seen fighting and the females were either the spectators, the helpers, or the pawns in the movie. Where Shanti was seen begging Mukesh for accepting her as a wife in front of the whole world and thought herself to be helpless without him, Sandhya on the other hand was just an actor who did not know the whole truth about the plan but kept on rehearsing dialogues only because she had a crush on Om Kapoor the actor.

DABANGG

In another famous movie Dabangg (2010), directed by Abhinav Kashyap, the main role was given to the cop Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan) and the whole story revolves around his character, personality, and psyche. The movie does not have any space for a female character but still they were unreasonably put in the scenes for some relaxation from the continuous fighting sequences.

Movies are meant for entertainment in most of the countries and in India, most of the theatre going audience consists of males. Even if a film’s script does not require a female character, she is still put in them to lure the audience and to entertain their phallocentric feelings.

Dabangg was not unlike those kinds of films. Chulbul Pandey was seen as an honest police officer and he was one of the bravest and fearless man in town. His relationship with his step father, Prajapati Pandey (Vinod Khanna) was rough since his childhood and even his step brother was not emotionally close to him, apparently for the reason that Makkhi (Arbaaz Khan) was a coward who could easily be coaxed into doing illegal and wrong activities.

The movie was focused on the life of Chulbul Pandey and how he was continuing his struggle to live a simple life even by being an honest and loyal person, which was not normal in his profession.

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Of course this led him to make more enemies than friends. One of those enemies was a corrupt political leader Chedi Singh (Sonu Sood). The movie showed how Chulbul and Chedi Singh tried to win over the other, more or less like the age old theme of good and evil fighting to overcome one another.

In the midst of all the hullabaloo came Rajjo (Sonakshi Sinha). Chulbul immediately fell for her and started making moves on her not to impress her but to actually own her. He openly offered her to either accept his money with love or accept a thappad (slap). This was not only rude but also degrading for a woman whom one openly declares one has fallen in love with. This was not a sign of a fearless (dabang) person but of the one who wanted to force down his obsession, whom he thought to be as love, to the subject of his obsession.

Chulbul Pandey forcing Rajjo to take money or else Rajjo was also shown as a brave woman who was taking care of her alcoholic father Haria (Mahesh Manjrakar) and therefore, rejected Chulbul’s proposal in the fear of not being there to help her father because she would be then supposed to leave her home and shift to her husband’s home.

Traditions of a society were made to ease out the problems faced by the people. But there are certain traditions that are made mandatory for people to follow even if the situations demand otherwise. In Rajjo’s case, she could easily tell Chulbul to take her father with her after marriage or have had asked him to live with her after marriage. But in our society, a girl is supposed to leave her family and this is regarded as an honourable act but if a boy leaves his home and starts living with the girl’s family in her home it is considered to be an act of a spineless man who is controlled by his wife.

209 Such two faced ideologies that are different for man and woman must be condemned and voiced for. What one could do the other could also easily do, then why are there two different rules for both? On one hand we call ourselves a developing nation where we openly accept the western traditions and values and are proud to be called as modern. Then why is that certain traditions that are not favourable for women are still kept intact in our society and we are not even trying to change the system for the betterment of the women in our society?

Rajjo when rejected Chulbul’s proposal, Haria thought it would be better to die for the sake of his daughter’s good future than ruin her present. He happily committed suicide in order to make Rajjo accept Chulbul’s proposal and marry him without having the guilt of leaving her father. Such an extreme step taken by someone who was a part of the society is not only appalling but also shameful. He could have given support to her daughter’s decision of staying with her father and asked Chulbul instead to join them in their home after marriage. Rather Haria took the easy way out and ended his life only to make things easy for his daughter as well.

Though the love angle of Chulbul and Rajjo were sidelined by the director, the main plot only revolved around the enmity of Chulbul and Chedi Singh and how Makkhi was also involved in their personal battle.

Between all the action sequences and overly dramatic portrayal of Chulbul Pandey came an item song ‘Munni badnaam hui’ that was being picturised on Malaika Arora Khan who was scantily dressed and provocatively danced with a room full of men. Still from the song “Munni badnam hui”

The song though highly popular with the audience was no more than a tactic to lure more people into the cinema theatre and make a commercial profit out of the movie. The song was put into the movie as a refreshing bite with all the action going around but was highly derogatory for any woman. The lyrics and dance steps of the song could only be enjoyed by the people who have a patriarchal mind set. Such

210 demeaning songs are responsible in making the female actors an object rather than a subject in the commercial movies.

Changing trends in the Hindi cinema can be seen from decade to decade. This decade was not only the initiation of the new millennium but also the beginning of meaningful cinema where the amalgamation of parallel and commercial could be easily seen.

Movies like Monsoon Wedding and Phir Milenge can be easily considered to be those from the commercial genre but still the treatment of the movie was inspired from the parallel cinema. Stories of both the movies were revolving around the females of the film and their importance were enhanced.

On the other hand a trend setting movie, Dil Chahta Hai, was seen which inspired the youth of the new generation. The lifestyle, the attitude towards people, the costumes, the family relations, everything was dealt with precision and accuracy. Yet, the females of the movie were having the age old concept of love, marriage, and were seen docile and dependent on the males around them.

This decade also produced Dabangg where a small town girl was seen confident and smart but again somehow dependent on her father. The idea was new yet the values instilled in the characters were old and clichéd.

Hence, where the parallel cinema saw its resurgence, new and innovative ideas kept emerging in this genre but as far as commercial cinema is concerned, even though there were unique conceptions still the representation of females in the movies were limited to the parameters of the traditional values and customs that were set by the society – and by the society it means the patriarchal society – from time immemorial.

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CHAPTER 7

CONCLUSION

The study was focussed on the representation of women in Hindi Cinema and it compared the difference in the portrayal of female characters in the commercial and parallel movies. After the analysis of the movies and further research this study came to the conclusion that commercial cinema is mostly concerned on the male viewpoint and look at things in the same manner as well.

There are several research methodologies that have been used in various researches. But in this particular research content analysis has been used as the main research methodology. In content analysis the properties of the content are systematically identified and then analysed. In this thesis, randomly selected films of some of the famous and popular selected directors were analysed in terms of gender based biasness. Surprisingly, such biasness is more apparent in the commercial or the mainstream Hindi cinema than the parallel Hindi cinema. Movies of the commercial Hindi cinema often show male leads overshadowing the potential of the female characters of the film.

Analysing a female actor today is not an easy job. There are far too many facets of a woman in a single film sometimes. It is not feasible to apply only one kind of feminist theory. Shoma Chatterji had expressed her views on the same, “I have realised over my years of research into the portrayal of women in Hindi cinema that these constructs, theories and perspectives can neither be directly applied to nor superimposed on Indian mainstream cinema’s treatment and portrayal of women. One has to develop a mode of analysis that is culture-specific and situation-specific. Feminist film theories that draw mainly upon psycho-analysis, semiology and structuralism do not have much bearing on an analysis of portrayals of women in Hindi cinema. So, one has to develop a new theory of such analysis against the backdrop of the Indian socio-economic backdrop within which the real woman lives and works and study the intersections of these with celluloid women in Indian cinema. How distanced are the real women from the celluloid women? Does distancing help nurture better images of the celluloid women or does it hinder the

212 image more and thus distance the audience from these films? Globalization has changed it all and one needs to look at the woman portrayals in Hindi cinema in 2010 with new eyes and through a new pair of glasses tinted with the razzmatazz of Western packaging, sophisticated marketing strategies, the launching of music and stars taking part in reality shows to plug their about-to-be-released films.”

Speaking about the commercial cinema, Benegal had said, “The narrative structure of Indian cinema is unique in the sense that it is very different from the cinema of the rest of the world. Most films are punctuated with songs and dances. These are often used to express the interiority of the characters and sometimes to further the narrative. Most times, however, they are used simply as music or dance interludes, or as periods of rest in the narration before the next dramatic event takes place. More recently, a new term describes this interlude - 'item number'.”

The themes and plots of Hindi cinema has changed a lot from the time of its initiation. If we look at the colonial period, most of the movies of that time dealt with the subject of patriotism and showed that Indian tradition was threatened by the Western culture. Moreover, the villains were dressed in Western clothes and westernised women were seen as vamps who were smoking and drinking and were engaged in promiscuous activities. The hero was seen as a traditional Indian man who had to fight with the evil westernised people on his way to goodness.

But gradually the themes focus on the other social evils and family issues. Romantic and comedy also became the central theme of many of the movies afterwards. It showed the development of the thematic scene in the movies.

This study was mainly based on the representation of women in Hindi cinema and how their treatment differs when compared to the two main streams of Hindi cinema, i.e., Parallel and Commercial cinema. Though Parallel cinema came into the Hindi cinema several decades later still the comparison is valid because it was only after then that the real worth of originality and reality came onto the celluloid. The image of women became much better afterwards.

However, exploitation of the female body has still not stopped in many of the mass communication tools including media and particularly films still the improved situation is far much better than that of the pre-colonial or the post-colonial period.

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While there were certain unwritten conventions for the commercial cinema, Satyajit Ray became the first to produce films that created a radical departure from these conventional Indian traditions. It was during the 1950s that Ray brought a more realistic picture on the silver screen that dealt with a genuine modern sensibility and, to loosely paraphrase Rabindranath Tagore, ‘an independent manner of expression within the world he created.’

Ray explored the Indian reality and brought them on the foreground with a genuine aesthetic sense that was not only liberal and humanistic but was also socially enlightened. He was an inspirational figure in the history of Indian cinema who took films to an altogether next level. He made use of this artistic tool of entertainment for something much better than just entertaining. Though it was not easy to use an art form as an eye opener for the audience or to make them an active participant rather than just being a passive one especially through cinema which is treated as an escape mechanism for most of the viewers from their daily grind in life. Still Ray’s attempts were critically acknowledged and appreciated by everyone.

It was not long when the New Wave that started in the West Bengal came flowing through the 1970s in Hindi cinema with the help of many young and experimental filmmakers including Shyam Benegal, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, and many others.

Though many of the movies made under the label of Parallel cinema were mostly heard rather than seen, still the trend continued to more than two decades when in the new millennium it saw a resurgence in the genre.

This was a time when a new batch of filmmakers emerged to mainly experiment with their cinema. The movies were closer to reality and projected core social issues which was a vital trait of the parallel cinema. However, the term occasionally used for this kind of cinema was ‘off-beat’ as it was different from the conventional mainstream cinema.

The representation of women in these movies were genuine and realistic. Here women were not only used as decorative dolls but had meaningful roles in their share. Though such movies were not in a huge number still they were being screened in cinema halls/multiplexes and appreciated on global level through various film festivals around the world.

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In commercial cinema, most of the time when a woman is shown, she is shown satisfying men’s desires and is portrayed as raw material for producing and rearing children. The girls, who are shown in the scantily clad outfits until they are married, are denied to have a ‘say’ while choosing their life partners. The parents,

1 Quoted in Jayavardena et.al.: 1986: 95

215 the custodian of traditions, are required to do that job for them. After getting married these women are mindlessly loaded with the weight of bangles, ornaments, and conventional clothes. Such a turnaround, while artistically displayed on screen, thins the morale of the girls who want to take hold of their lives and its decisions, no matter how trivial they may seem.

In this research the focus was on the characters portrayed by women in commercial and parallel cinema and how those characters were different in both the genres. The observation has also been made with respect to the characters and how they have been differentiated. The reasons of such differences were analysed by scrutinising each movie and its content. The characters may be as small as that of a maid or as powerful as that of a mother. This research made an account of all those nuances of the characters that has been portrayed on screen to enhance or overshadow a woman’s role.

Women always had the potential to act well on screen and stand tall with their male counterparts. There are cases when their potential is not completely shown to the world in order to boast the patriarchy that has always been omnipotent in our society in each and every sphere of the life. For instance, Madhuri Dixit is a very well- known name in the Hindi film industry. She was considered to be the queen of Bollywood since she had been giving blockbuster hits during the late 80s to the 90s. Still if we look at the roles that she had played in many of her movies, we could see how her male counterpart used to overshadow her hard work.

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Women have always played an important role in the society but they have never given their due respect. Most of the societies are dominated by men and controlled by them. Only in a handful of the progressive societies, women have the decision- making power. This exercise of the decision-making by women was not started in a day; it took a lot of effort and a lot of time. It has been a continuous process to assert the equal rights for women by many women and some men as well. This process wanted to bring about a change in the society and it was termed as ‘Feminism’. Men have been repressing the female rights for too long when finally some women stood up against the old age customs. Feminism was started for the equality of men and women. It was a movement started for the social, political, and economic equality of everyone. Equality is, basically, a balance between a male and a female with the intention of liberating the individual. Feminism is a human rights movement. It is about proclaiming equal rights for every human being, men or women. It wanted to spread egalitarianism around the globe. The feminist scholars have divided the study of feminism into different waves based on the beliefs and ideologies pursued by the women in a particular time period.

If we talk about cinema and its traits, initially the main purpose of the cinema was to entertain and to educate the masses. Gradually it became a commercialised medium for people to earn money through making films. The commercial cinema is also known as the mainstream cinema. This kind of cinema is, as the name suggests, produced with a commercial aspect associated with it. In simple words, commercial

217 cinema is a business oriented cinema made for the masses in general. Mainly, all the movies that run in the theatres and shown on the television are the commercial movies. Commercial movies mostly work on a particular formula and the structure of the movies is similar to make it a success.

Movies has been changing according to the era and the period. Each decade holds a different taste when it comes to the themes, plots, or trends of the movies. The family dramas of the 80s showed the values and modesty of the middle-class Indians in contrast to the vulgarity and lack of values of the rich and upper class Indians. The female protagonists often embodied femininity and an ideal nurturing woman. Films like Sooraj R.Barjatya’s Maine Pyar Kiya (1989) showed how a middle class girl, Suman, easily adjusted to the upper class Prem’s household and how she even impressed Prem’s mother with her charm and her Indian values so much so that Prem’s mother agreed to accept Suman as her daughter-in-law. Here in contrast to Suman was Seema, a woman belonging to the upper class, rich parents. Her westernised attire and looks were in contrast to the traditional Indian looking Suman.

Here Seema was seen as the Westernised vamp who wanted to take control of the male protagonist but Prem was in love with Suman who was morally upright and chaste. In one of the scenes Prem was talking about the girl who wears jeans and have bob cut hair,“Aisi ladki ghar ka kam kaj thodi karegi, arey matar thodi

218 cheelegi. Bado ki izzat, hum umro se apnapan, aur chhoto se pyaar, ye sab thodi karegi.” (Such a girl will not do household chores or peel peas. She will neither respect elders, nor care for other people, nor love young kids.)

It showed how traditional women in India are seen. They are seen as humble, home makers, who does all the household chores, cooks food, and takes care of everyone in the house.

Anjali, on the other hand, is also seen to put on Indian attire to look beautiful in an Indian way. Post interval of the movie has seen Anjali only in sarees and salwar- kameez as if western outlook does not make her beautiful. Just because she was a tomboy Rahul never notices her but once she becomes feminine by wearing Indian dresses, Rahul not only notices her but also falls in love with her.

However, this film was criticised by many feminists saying that Anjali ought not to become a feminine to make someone fall for her. Her identity was her tomboyish look. Only to make someone love her she took a complete turn in life and

219 transformed her fully and became someone that is completely different from her identity.

The plots may change in every film but the central conflict in Hindi films mostly revolves around the concept of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ relating to the Hindu concept of ‘dharma’ or duty. A fine fictional world is prepared in the world of cinema which is unrelated to the reality as such. However, it does not mean that its depiction is totally different from the real world or bizarre but simply that its aesthetic content and musical attempts segregates it from the real world where we live in. it creates its own logic and realism especially to give rise to emotions within the audience which is vital for the success of the film.

In contrast to the parallel cinema where bold themes were dealt with, commercial cinema has always been walking on a simple straight path. When it comes to experimentation, parallel films have experimented a lot more in terms of themes, storyline, and characters when compared to the commercial movies. Themes of lesbianism was first introduced through parallel films like Deepa Mehta’s Fire (1996), themes of child abuse was dealt with in the films like Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding (2001), themes of bisexuality and gay were shown in movies like Onir’s I Am (2010), and themes of erotic love were a central theme of movies like Mira Nair’s Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996).

Certain characteristics were prominent in commercial cinema and one of the famous ones have been the song and dance sequences added in between the film. Many directors have tried to omit the song and dance sequences from their movies but the

220 result was always a disaster. In popular or commercial Indian movies, song is a requirement of the movie. The promotion of a movie starts with its songs. The music directors and lyricists are always given a special place in the credits of the movie. On any poster or a billboard of a movie, their names are written alongside the director and producer of the film.

Whereas, when looking at the parallel cinema we can see how it is devoid of such stars in the films. During the 70s, when the New Wave Cinema came into Hindi cinema, most of the theatre artists preferred working in the parallel movies, including Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapoor, Ratna Pathak Shah, Supriya Pathak, etc. Many a time new faces were used to act in the movies where no commercial actors were present. It was only after the resurgence of the parallel cinema during the new millennium when off-beat movies began to consider to be movies of substance and many popular stars also tried their hands into acting in such films, including Juhi Chawla, Aishwarya Rai, etc.

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When looking into the several years of the cinema, many of the films where issues regarding the females were dealt, including V. Shantaram’s Dahej (1950), A. Bhimsingh’s Gauri (1968), Madhusudan Rao. V’s Devi (1970), J.K. Bihari’s Biwi Ho To Aisi (1988), and Madan Joshi’s Pati Parmeshwar (1990), but the main focus was not totally on a woman. The women in such movies were shown as submissive and helpless until the hero comes in and helps them in taking control of their lives and ending the film on a happy note.

It is questionable to ask if such women exist in the world. As these females are shown as an ideal for the audience who can commit no wrong and who is pure beyond imagination. Their feelings, desires, emotions are hardly dealt with reality in the movies. They are often sacrificial when it comes to the happiness of their families. They are not seen ambitious and they are devoid of any ego also. For instance, in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Abhimaan (1973) the heroine is a better singer than the hero of the film, which is unconventional. But to satisfy the ego of the hero,

223 the heroine decided never to sing again. Hence, she gives up her passion for singing only to adhere to the traditional values of marriage.

The females in the movie are mostly satisfied to be inside the private sphere rather than go out into the public sphere. Only a few popular movies in the 70s could be seen with females having a job including Jaya Bachchan in Zanjeer (1973) as a knife sharpener, Hema Malini in Sholay (1975) as a horse carriage driver, or in Trishul (1978) as a general manager of a company, Rakhee in Trishul as the corporate secretary, or in Kaala Patthar (1979) as a nurse, and Vidya Sinha in Chhoti si Baat (1975) as a private firm worker.

There have been a change in the portrayal of females in the Hindi commercial movies as earlier females were most of the times shown to lure the audiences into the cinema halls. Today also this can be said to be the scene in many cases. They are objectified in most of the songs of the movies which are shown before the release of the movies. The scantily dressed females are often painted on the posters of the movies as well.

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According to the popular Indian conventions, an ideal woman represented on the celluloid has to be dutiful towards everyone, sacrificing for her family, obedient for his husband, and full of values and ethics. She was not supposed to do anything wrong and if she does, she must repent and apologize immediately. She was also supposed to wear decent clothes and must not smoke or drink at all.

According to a famous film scholar, Shoma Chatterji, females were often used as mere objects in the Hindi cinema in the beginning. It was only gradually that their real worth was enhanced on the screen. She further added, “Each decade has presented its own brand of women in Hindi cinema. Mother India is a strong

225 political statement on a woman who can do anything to establish that justice has been done even while remaining within the framework of marriage and motherhood. She defies the micro state of being a biological mother in order to fit into the framework of becoming the mother of the nation when she shoots down her own son to save the honour of a woman of the village. The ordinary woman has hardly been visible in Hindi cinema.”

She further added that “During the time of Meena Kumari, Madhubala and their peers, the camera focussed more on the face of the leading lady than on the body. This changed radically from the 1990s when the body of the heroine became as or more important than the face. The sati-savitri image underwent a radical make-over probably with Nutan, who, without showing skin, made a powerful presentation in strong roles such as Seema and Bandini. Geeta Bali promoted the image of a mischievous tomboy, also a positive deviation from the sati-savitri image.”

During the 1970s, there was the end of romance and the rise of the violence in Hindi movies, a need for an alternative to these violent movies was also brewing inside many filmmakers. There was a kind of aesthetic vacuum in the movies of the 60s and 70s. It was not long before the signal to establish the New Wave Cinema movement entered into the Hindi cinema which was a relief from the ‘formula’ Hindi movies. Though this movement was already been started by Satyajit Ray during the 50s in Bengal but it took some time for the Indian cinema to fully acknowledge the fact that it was a useful and developing genre.

There were filmmakers who abstain from the conventions of Hindi cinema that include, song and dance sequences, romantic dialogues, unrealistic fight sequences, and a happy ending. The linear narrative and a realistic aesthetic was adopted by the directors of the parallel cinema. Showcasing the social issues and problems of the

226 common man, these directors contributed to this new genre. Some of the parallel filmmakers were Gulzar, Shyam Benegal, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Mahesh Bhatt, Govind Nihlani, Saeed Akhtar Mirza, and Ritwik Ghatak.

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Hence, parallel cinema is more known for its serious content of realism and naturalism than the commercial cinema which was more like a fantasy land meant for pure entertainment.

There are some differences in the commercial and the parallel cinema. One of the major differences is that of the theme and plot of the movie. Most of the time a tragic real-life situation is shown in a parallel movie. It deals with a social issue that is experienced by most of the middle or lower classes of the country. The pace of the screenplay is also a bit slow as compared to the fast pace of a commercial movie. The song and dance sequences are almost none in the parallel cinema. It mail depicts a real life situation where there is no use of a song.

In recent years, a whole lot of female-oriented Hindi films too have asked pertinent questions. Chandni Bar, Lajja, Fashion, No One Killed Jessica, and more recently,

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The Dirty Picture, Kahani, and Mardani portray powerful women who defiantly chose their own paths and lived on their own terms.

Moving back to the movies in the New Wave Cinema, particularly known as the Parallel Cinema, we can see that equal screen time is devoted to the female characters. They were more realistic and females were given strong and powerful roles. They were not only used as objects, rather they were dealt as subjects in a movie.

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Throughout the years, there has been a changing trend in the portrayal of women in the Indian films. Movies at the initial years of the cinema were made in a different way as compared to the movies made in the 70s and from then those made in the recent times. At first the movies revolved around the struggles of common man but then gradually the focus shifted to romance, action, and then comedy.

There was differences in the treatment of movies in each decade. While commercial movies were changing with having themes changed from the nehruvian era to the ‘angry young man’ action to the romantic themes. But when we look into the parallel cinema, they were also changing from one decade to another.

The 70s were the age of experiment for the Hindi filmmakers when they accepted the New Wave Movement into this film industry. When they saw that they have made the audience they included more realistic themes but this time it was different in treatment as well. While the 70s saw a much darker side of the world, 80s took a light hand on the subjects and most of the movies had songs in them, mostly ghazals as a kind of relief from the continuous viewing of a serious theme.

India has been changed a lot since its independence. In terms of cinema as well, India has gone through a lot of changes and modifications. If we look at the Commercial films of the Hindi film industry, we can see how the feudal village

230 drama of the 50s and 60s, which was considered to be the golden age of Indian cinema, has been transformed into the glossy, high budget movies with the locations of Europe and United States. Mehboob’s Mother India (1957) was a story of courage and bravery of a woman based on the post-independence era and it was clearly an allegory of the heroic Indian nation of how it had achieved the self-sufficiency through modernisation.

The 70s and the 80s were the era that witnessed the action packed films featuring the ‘angry young man’ who showed how Indian underclasses have triumphed over the social injustice and political corruption. Moreover, the movies that were made during the 90s emphatically exhibited the Indian development through its wealth, grand settings, fast cars, youth culture, and cosmopolitan lifestyles, the folk inspired song and dance sequences were being changed into the hip hop Michael Jackson style form, with the unconventional camera angles and rapid editing of the MTV music videos, which was all conveniently “Indianised”.

While the themes related to rural background and social issues were dominant in the 50s, the 90s saw the emergence of family drama set up in urban areas with wealthy Indian families holding onto the traditional values of our country. These films were no only big budgeted but also glossy that have songs shot at various outdoor locations including Europe, United States, Australia, and others.

These movies gave their audiences a chance to cross the threshold of their homes and enter into the extravagant lifestyles of the elite classes with the Western style mansions and luxurious villas were a common sight. The conflict now focuses on the modernity and traditional values of the country rather than the class conflicts that were predominant during the previous two decades of the angry young man films.

These family dramas of the 90s endorses the Indian traditional values through its extravagant and elaborate Indian marriage ceremonies and by showing the joint families in the modern world where nuclear families were replacing the extended family among the middle class Indian society.

According to Shyam Benegal, “The use of signs, signals and symbols often work on different levels of consciousness and have great motivating power in catalysing change in society.” He even gave examples of advertising saying that “motorcycles

231 are no longer motorised two wheelers, they are expressions of testosterone-driven masculinity; wrist watches and pens are not utilitarian objects for which they are normally bought – they are fashion accessories and jewellery. Designer clothes are no longer simply clothes to wear – they are lifestyle symbols denoting privilege and class.”

Similarly, in movies there are certain directorial touches and symbolic shots which denote to something that is not directly said but only implied. Such scenes sometimes make a mark on the person’s consciousness while watching the movie. The audience is not always aware of the fact that they are not only watching a movie but also being influenced by those few nuances. Perhaps that is why it is said that the films reflect the society, its temperament and its frame of mind.

It would also not be wrong to say that films produced by a particular country or community usually reflect the upheavals, social movements, changing trends, and persisting traditions of that society. Cinema is not only a means of entertainment as considered by many, but the content is shaped in an artistic way so that it would become a catalyst in social change.

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Manthan (1976), the character of Bindu was shown to be a bold one when she scolded Dr. Rao after he took a small sample of the milk from her house. She was courageous enough to follow him and then explain the whole matter in front of a crowd of villagers. But when we see the character of Gehna in Virasat (1997) that was released two decades later, she was portrayed as a shy woman who followed her husband’s words blindly.

Indians have already seen the way in which women are perceived in this country. Moreover, we have been celebrating Mahabharata for centuries now where Draupadi was used as a pawn in a gambling game and on top of that humiliation, she was even disrobed by the Kauravas in public. We also saw some legendary kings like Ravana who kidnapped Sita and many others as well who never cared about the dignity of women including their own wives. There are certain sections in the Shiva Mahapuran where women are not only equated with death, snake, poison, or destructiveness but also concluded, “there is no bigger sinner than women. Women are the roots of sin, you must know.”2

Hence, women are considered to be destructive, poisonous, and degrading still they are supposed to be pious and cultured as their image is etched in the Sati Savitri form that had been continued from ages and which was enhanced by the cinema as well.

Electronic media is a very powerful tool in influencing the audience. Films have always played the role of preaching or teaching or even providing morals to the viewers. Cinema must provide women with more liberating, positive and influential role models.

2 Cited in Myers, 296

233 cinema, hence, filmmakers opted to close down making parallel films with such high risk factors.

Similar to the commercial cinema, parallel cinema in Hindi films too underwent a lot of changes in terms of theme and storyline. While the initial decade of the parallel cinema in the Hindi film industry dealt with hard core realistic subjects with real locations and dark lightings, the next decade was a brighter one. The movies of the 70s including Ankur, Manthan, and Bhumika dealt with some serious themes like infidelity, loyalty, freedom, independence, and taking charge of one’s own life.

Most of the parallel films of that time were shot at real locations using realistic props. Instead of involving the conventional actors from the commercial cinema, the parallel cinema preferred hiring new faces and people belonging to the theatre. Film and Television Institute both in Pune and Kolkata played an important role in inculcating a modern sensibility into the Indian cinema. Several artists from these institutes were actively involved in the parallel cinema.

If we move on to the parallel movies of the 80s, we can see how a slight transformation came to those movies. Though the subject they dealt were humane and realistic still the treatment of the story was a bit different from those of the 70s movies. A few movies included ghazals instead of adapting to the conventional song and dance sequences of the commercial cinema. This somehow became a trend for several of the parallel movies. They started including ghazals in their movies to add that as one of the differences from the commercial movies. However, during that time many of the commercial movies also started including ghazals in their films as

234 well, one of the famous movies being Mahesh Bhatt’s Naam (1986) that had the famous ghazal ‘Chitthi aayi hai’ to its credit.

During the 90s, the parallel cinema saw a decline due to the rising cost that was involved in the production of the film and commercialisation of movies were having a negative effect on these films. Such films could not guarantee investment returns and filmmakers were reluctant to make more of these movies.

Another reason for this decline was that the National Film Development Corporation of India was not looking seriously into the exhibition and the distribution of these films. Many of the distributors thought that these films did not have the entertainment value like most of the commercial movies. Hence, screening of such movies became less and though there was some talk about building small theatres for parallel movies no such attempt was seriously made. Therefore, only a few Film Societies screened these movies but only on a single screening basis. Thus, parallel cinema tried to use production techniques like lighting, sound, editing, and background score similar to that of the commercial cinema but still it was meant to decline.

It was only during the 90s that parallel cinema saw a resurgence of this art. Though movies now were not referred to as the ‘parallel’ ones, they were rather being called as the off-beat movies that were produced in the Hindi film industry popularly known as the Bollywood. Ram Gopal Varma made his movie Satya (1998) and gave birth to a new genre in the Hindi films that came to be known as ‘Mumbai noir’. It showed the societal problems in the city of Mumbai. Later on many other films came to be classified under this genre including Madhur Bhandarkar’s Chandni Bar (2001) and Traffic Signal (2007), Ram Gopal Varma’s Company (2002) and its prequel D (2005), and Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday (2004).

Many other off-beat movies came to the fore and with them came a fresh batch of filmmakers who were ready to experiment with a new genre and break the conventions of the commercial Hindi cinema once again.

The new millennium brought some more of the off-beat Hindi movies with new filmmakers as well. Here again serious themes were dealt with realism and serious acting. Many of the commercial movie actors were also ready to experiment by working in these films including Juhi Chawla, Urmila, Shilpa Shetty, Abhishek

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Bachchan, Anupam Kher, Aishwarya Rai, Saif Ali Khan, Sanjay Suri, Jackie Shroff, and Jimmy Shergill.

These movies were not only critically acclaimed but also became popular amongst the mass audiences. This was the time when crossover movies came into being. Such movies were made in English language to appeal to their international viewers. Many of the movies were made in dual language to have a connection with the Indian audience as well. A crossover movie had actors from the Indian film industry with the dialogues in English language. It was actually an English language Indian film. It was basically meant for the elite class and for those Indians who lived abroad. It had a desi flavour to it with a Hollywood styled movie. It was more like a movie where we can experience the “East meets West” kind of a flavour.

236 the aesthetics and aura of a parallel film like The Mistress of Spices (2005) and Being Cyrus (2006).

Women are now looking at the big picture and just like their male counterparts want to make their own place in the society. They have become ambitious, competitive, and desperate for fame. Such a society has been eventually reflected through several

237 of the contemporary films with females having meaningful roles, including Madhur Bhandarkar’s Page 3 (2005), Fashion (2008), Sudhir Mishra’s Inkaar (2013), and Milan Luthria’s The Dirty Picture (2011).

A batch of fresh filmmakers are exploring something that could make a huge difference in the film industry and the society as a whole. We can only hope to see a better future for the females all around the country when it comes to one of the most prolific film industries of the world.

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