KAHAANI, International Women's day & Hindi cinema

KAHAANI, International Women's day & Hindi cinema

Coinciding with the International Women's Day, KAHAANI which released all across the country today indeed is an apt coincidence in the way cinema is contributing towards underlining the evolution of women in the present contemporary society. KAHAANI is the struggle of a single married woman, who leaves no stone unturned to find her elusive husband who has left his pregnant wife to fend for herself in the cruel world. In such kind of scenarios in the world of cinema a few decades ago the woman character let the fate decide her destiny, be it DHOOL KA PHOOL a TRISHUL or score of such films. The core difference lay in the fact that these characters were low on the quotient of education, so for her it was more a dilemma and the fear of social ostracisation that forced her to concentrate her energy in bringing out her child out of the wedlock. Ironically enough in all of the cases, the offspring was a boy who grew to take revenge of her mother not a girl.
But as the characters with education started making their appearance in cinema the fight against the evils also became interesting. One significant landmark underlining this premise was Rekha starrer MUJHE INSAAF CHAHIYE, where Rekha as the unwed mother fought for her rights and emerged victorious. But it was during the last decade or so that such roles started getting eminence, more so in sync with the advent of girls from middle class in the world of cinema in India. Most significant amongst them was Preity Zinta who in DIL SE did not bat her eyelid twice to ask Shah Rukh Khan whether he was virgin when they were getting engaged. Such kind of boldness was not seen on the Indian screen before.

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In the recent times, the credit for exalting the status of woman in the society however goes to Vidya Balan who first with ISHQIYA, then THE DIRTY PICTURE and now with KAHAANI has underlined the fact that woman of the present times, irrespective of the educational status that she has, is conscious of her place in the society and can leverage her physical attributes, her charm, guile, cunningness all rolled as a package to attain her goals and objectives.

Success of KAHAANI would go a long way in encouraging more writers to come up with such powerful characters so that one may not have to wait for an International Women's Day to release a film like KAHAANI. Real empowerment in the world of cinema in Hindi films for women would come when a SALT like character is brought up by a producer-director-writer team. Hope it is not a scenario that would happen in a distant past but in a near future.