All The Director's Women

When you look at the body of work of all the contemporary auteurs in Indian cinema, is there a commonality in how each of them portray their female characters? If so, what do these archetypes tell us about the men who are crafting them for celluloid?

- Arnesh Ghose

Remember Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ode to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s Nandini, in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam? The man was so besotted with his muse that he had a whole song inserted in the film to describe her. And it wasn’t one of those typical Bollywood numbers, where the hero sees the heroine in her uninhibited glory and falls in love with her at first sight. This was a glorification of the character — a description of how she moves, dances, laughs, reacts, rules every heart in the city and hence, the national audience.

It is no secret that Bhansali was obsessed with Aishwarya. Just like Ram Gopal Verma was obsessed with Urmila Matondkar since Rangeela. Or the way Vishal Bhardwaj is obsessed with Lady Macbeth. In a cruelly sexist industry, where almost all the directors and producers are men, it is always interesting to see how these men are defining the women in their films. Most of the leading film-makers in the industry right now have been around for at least two decades. Is there a commonality in how they design their heroines?

MANI RATNAM’S MIDDLE CLASS FIRECRACKER

Mani Ratnam’s women are interestingly layered. While on the face of it they come across as traditional, obedient and dad-fearing, they are vivacious, naughty and enjoy breaking rules. They are not consequence-oriented, but rather relish every moment that they spend — much like India’s expansive middle class, who might not have the means for luxury and hence, have learned to wring out every experience. His women might come across as coy and feeble, but their indomitable spirit and strength always shine through. Be it Roja or Bombay or Dil Se, Ratnam’s women have a complicated character graph. They are always stronger than the men, are driven by ideology and practicality over emotion and are forever questioning their realities.