No vamps in film world these days

MUMBAI: One of the feistiest women to grace the Indian screen was Fearless Nadia. She thrashed goons, battled baddies on the roof of a running train and leapt onto white stallions in hot pursuit of justice.
When the documentary ‘Fearless: The Hunterwali Story’, by Riyad Wadia, was shown by the Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research (PUKAR) at the NGMA last fortnight, it once again raised the question of whether images of women in mainstream Indian cinema have been more progressive since the glory days of Fearless Nadia, over half a century ago.
Said Mr Wadia, “Nadia’s brand of feminism was exciting because she was unapologetic as a woman. She was a full-bodied, heavy-set woman and not made to fit the highly manipulated notion of women’s beauty we have in cinema today. In her early films, like Hunterwali and Diamond Queen, she is the dominant partner in her love relationship with John Cavas.
Moreover, her violence was always to uphold the law and justice, not the personal revenge formula of later films in which rape victims wreak revenge on their rapists. True emancipation is when the woman is strong in good times and bad.’’ While there have been a few recent breakthroughs with relatively more progressive images of women, they are usually in ‘offbeat mainstream cinema’ or parallel cinema.
Said senior critic Maithili Rao, “Take films like Satta, Joggers’ Park or Let’s Talk. Satta was an urban Godmother; the female lead becomes a politician and plays dirty games—images we rarely see. And although Joggers’ Park was superficial, Perizaad Zorabian’s character is a glamorous working woman with a basic honesty and an ‘I-don’t-give-a-damn’ attitude, which is rare. However, the roles played by the Karismas and Kareenas have hardly changed at all, other than their designer clothes.’’ She added,
“Despite its flaws, Freaky Chakra examined the sexual, emotional needs of a 40-year-old woman who has a fling with a much younger man. And Sudhir Mishra’s Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi (A Twist with Destiny) has a brilliant woman protagonist who belongs to the confused generation of the ‘60s, yet has a mind of her own when it comes to her political commitment or the man she loves.’’
Said filmmaker and activist Madhusree Dutta, “Once, Nadira, Bindu and Helen played vamps with skill and were recognised in their own right, but they have vanished. Today’s screen women are all domesticated, you don’t see them playing vamps or gangsters or doing Hunterwalilike stunts—at the most they are inane stepmothers.’’
Asked whether women directors tend to write stronger roles for women in mainstream films, Ms Dutta said, “Take Daman—it was a horrible film. It would have been better if it never got made. David Dhawan’s Biwi No 1 was a better film and much more stylised.’’ She is also wary of women directors of diaspora films like Monsoon Wedding:
“The bride eventually agrees to an arranged marriage with an NRI—ultimately it’s a Karan Johar film,’’ she said. Is there any hope of our mainstream cinema doing a Bend It Like Beckham—having a very ordinary-looking girl embark on a great career and still hooking her man? Said Ms Rao, “When a film like Koi.. Mil Gaya has a mentally challenged hero, yet makes him brawny and brainy in the end, what hopes do you have of an ordinary woman making it?’’