Analysing the space that women have occupied in Indian cinema, Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan on Friday spoke about how the shifting portrayal of female characters in the movies is related to the rights and social progress of women in the country.
Addressing a gathering at the inauguration of 22nd Kolkata International Film Festival, Mr. Bachchan said the movement of women from narrow domestic confines to the world at large can be seen via the transformation seen in five different images relating to women.
Drawing inferences from decades of Indian cinema, he spoke of the changes in women and their relationship with the home and the world, their status within a relationship, women in education, in politics, and the issue of sexual exploitation.
Tracing the changes About women’s relationship with the home and the world, Mr. Bachchan began by speaking of Satyajit Ray’s adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s Ghare Baire and then touched upon women and their roles in films like Achhut Kanya and Sujata .
On the subject of education and of women making a living, Mr. Bachchan recalled Ritwik Ghatak’s classic Meghe Dhaka Tara where Nita, the protagonist who runs the family, screams to her brother, “ Dada, ami bachrte chai ” (Brother, I want to live).
“She voices the agony of millions of women,” he said. Not only the role of the heroine or the female lead, Mr. Bachchan said that even the character of mothers has changed over years. He referred to Gazala Meer in Vishal Bharadwaj’s Haider played by Tabu, in which she portrays complex emotions, including dealing with the Oedipus complex.
Ahead of the times According to Mr. Bachchan, the character of Rosy in the Hindi film Guide , based on R.K. Narayan’s novel by the same name, was ahead of the times and a watershed in Indian cinema. In the story, a woman leaves her husband to pursue her passion for dancing and a man who gave her respect.
Mr. Bachchan said that the character of Saba in the recent film Ae Dil Hai Muskil , played by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, turned the tables on men.
On the last issue of sexual exploitation, the Bollywood superstar mentioned Radha, played by Nargis in Mother India, who does not hesitate to shoot her son down when he tries to forcibly take away a woman.
Other examples he drew was Som Bai from Ketan Mehta’s Mirch Masala and the migrant Bihari girl played by Alia Bhatt in Udta Punjab .
Speaking about his latest film Pink , Mr. Bachchan said that the “film raises unsettling questions largely ignored by the film industry”, adding that the issue of sexual consent has not been addressed in the country.
During his speech, Mr. Bachchan spoke about how the film Chak De, the story of the travails and triumphs of a women’s hockey team, could be seen as an inspired conversion from a film to reality, with the Indian women’s hockey team recently winning the Asia Cup.
Vehicle of memories Speaking at the same venue, national award winning film director and chairperson of the festival committee Gautam Ghose referred to an essay by D.W. Griffith on ‘The Movies 100 years from now’, where the father of modern cinema wrote of a war-free world after a century.
“It has been a failed dream,” he said, referring to the wars that the planet has seen 1924, when the essay was written.
“Cinema could not bring peace and harmony. But what cinema could do is record the collective memory of the people and the times,” Mr. Ghose said.
Actors Kajol, Sanjay Dutt, Shah Rukh Khan and Parineeti Chopra were some of the celebrities present on the first day of the film festival.
