The Munni-Sheila sisterhood

2010: The year when men might have truly been on Mars. For, when it came to grabbing headlines, it was women all the way, all the year through. Be it politics, business, sport or entertainment, it was She-La ki Kahani that had the twists and turns, despite all the brouhaha about Dabangg He-men making old-fashioned comebacks.
They may be branded as mere item numbers but Munni Badnaam Hui and Sheila Ki Jawani have become the exultant cry of a breed of post-feminism femme fatales who are determined to celebrate woman power like never before.If a risqui Munni saw nothing wrong in becoming a Zandu balm, or an item that's aam - in short, totally badnaam - for her paramour, then Sheila seemed to be totally self-sufficient with her uber sexuality.
In a blatant display of narcissism, she declares she wants to hug and hold herself: Ab dil karta hai haule haule se, main toh khud ko gale lagaun. Kisi aur ki mujhko zaroorat kya, main toh khud se pyaar jataun...Read between the lines and see how the traditional stereotype of the woman gets busted with something as simple as Bollywood lyrics. Enter the new singleton who doesn't necessarily need a husband, a boyfriend, to define herself. On the contrary, like Krishna Verma (Vidya Balan), the spirited and unencumbered protagonist of Ishqiya, she prefers a world where options exist and the straitjacket of conventional morality has been blown apart.
On television too, the 'newsmaker of the year' award would definitely go to the biggest hell-raiser of them all: Dolly Bindra and her incessant bad behaviour have set a new benchmark for topping TRPs. The loudmouth participant of a reality TV show, with her liberal sprinkling of bad words and her brattish tantrums, easily overshadowed all the male stars of desi TV.
If the world of cinema and TV belonged to the bindaas woman, then the real world too saw women creating most of the ripples. The mysterious Niira Radia has not only given the Indian corporate and political world a whole new term in 'lobbyist', she has also added zest - and jest - to the media. Currently, there is a whole new litmus test in journalistic circles to sift happening journos from the non-happening ones. And that's the make-government, break-government Radia call to power brokers in the fourth estate. Needless to say, those she never called are feeling mighty miffed at their powerlessness! (Just joking!) So what if her alliance may have created a dent in the image of another woman who made news by trying to come clean through a public confessional on television. Remember Barkha Dutt and her 'just-an-error-of-judgment' soap opera?
Another woman who caused an upheaval was Sunanda Pushkar with her loaded love story that may have had a happy ending. But only after forcing the exit of one of India's most articulate netas from the ministerial arena. For the good news story too, it was the girlie brigade that hogged the limelight. She-girl Saina Nehwal with her umpteen international titles, the Golden Girls of track and field - India's 4x400m relay team at Guangzhou comprising Ashwini Chidanand Akkunji, Mandeep Kaur, Manjeet Kaur, Sini Jose and many more women sports heroes - gave India so much to smile about despite the scurrilous scams in the Commonwealth Games.
On the international front too, it was a woman who created a buzz - and new buzzwords too. Sarah Palin made more news than Prez Obama with her i-will, i-won't on the bid for the US presidency in 2012 apart from giving the global lexicon a new word like 'refudiate' and a bunch of Palinisms. Hard to forget her reference to North Korea: We gotta stand by our North Korea allies! A slip of the tongue or an abysmal lack of geopolitical knowledge on the part of the Tea Party's most happening icon...It doesn't matter. Palin's popularity keeps rising, even as columnists like Maureen Dowd say she proudly brandishes her ignorance.
And the She-story isn't going to end soon. For close on the heels of Sheila comes Susannah and her seven husbands...Watch out for Priyanka Chopra's rendition of Ruskin Bond's love-lorn femme fatale in Saat Khoon Maaf. Gut feeling says this no-holds-barred assassin is undoubtedly going to be the toast of the town in the new year.
As for the state of the nation, it's going to be a similar woman-oriented story all over again. India's political circus will continue to be stage-managed by that familiar Lara Croft-like ringmaster who silently cracks the whip backstage whenever the chess board markers - knights and bishops all - make the wrong moves. Yes, the enigmatic Mrs G will carry on her Mother Superior management mantra in desi politics' school for scandal.
By all measures, 2011 is going to end up as the year of Lisbeth Salander and her gothic girl gang. Steig Larsson's super smart, sociopathic computer hacker who dons dragon tattoos, kicks butt and emerges as a taser gun-wielding terror for the corrupt and the criminally inclined is fast replacing the male superhero bastion as a female Wolverine. Truly, the messed up maidens are going to end up as the new age messiahs of a messed up world which is ready to sidestep tried, tested and failed machismo.