LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:11 November 2015
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Societal Changes Viewed Through Bollywood Lenses

Mita Bandyopadhyay, M.A. English, NET


Abstract

Bollywood, the Hindi film industry of India, has been entertaining the global population through its music, songs and dances shot in picturesque and exotic locations. These films generally revolve around a powerful male protagonist involved in different activities and females encrypted only to enhance the position of these males. The females tend to glorify the movies with their looks, gorgeous dresses, music and dances. Though, this may be the prevailing scenario of the women in the industry, there are films where a story is scripted around a female. This paper of mine intends to go through some of the movies of Bollywood so as to highlight how along with the metamorphosis in the life of the real Indian woman, there comes a very subtle modification in the depiction of females in these female centric movies.

Keywords: societal change, Hindi film industry, female centric movies, Indian women

Portrayal of Females in the 20th Century Movies: Director Mehboob

On turning the pages of Bollywood film industry, the first movie which had an actress in the leading role is Mother India by Mehboob in 1957. This film had Radha (Nargis Dutt) in the lead role but here she is not an individual woman. Here she is the prototype of India viewed as a mother to all. Dr. Soma Chatterjee says in an interview: “Mother India is a strong political statement on a woman who could 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.”

Director Shyam Benegal

The other director who has depicted women in roles that are different, making a shift from the contemporary stereo-types, is Shyam Benegal. A few of his films in this setting would be Nishant, Bhumika, Hari-Bhari. Nishant portrays two women, Rukmini and Susheela the former the legal wife of Vishwam and Susheela the concubine of Vishwam, each dealing with their situations in life in their own ways. Bhumika, portrays the life of an actress Usha as she keeps shifting from one male to the other in search of contentment and Hari Bhari brings to light the condition of a woman who could not bring forth the male progeny to the family.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Mita Bandyopadhyay
"Ideal Heights", Block - C, Flat 6A
302, A.P.C Road
Sealdah
Kolkata - 700009
West Bengal
India
r_b2005@rediffmail.com
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