Beautiful gets bold in Bollywood

<div class="section1"><div align="left" style="position:relative; left: -2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" align="left" border="1" width="77.7%"> <colgroup> <col width="100.0%" /> </colgroup> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><script language="javascript" src="Config?Configid=43376741"></script><br /><a href="javascript:popUp(&quot1;photopop?msid=186528&type=0&quot1;)"> <img border="0" align="left" src="/cms.dll/thumb?height=275&width=275&photoID=186528" hspace="12"" /></a></div> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td width="100.0%" colspan="1" rowspan="1" style="" valign:="" top="" background-color:="" f3f3f3=""> <div class="Normal"><span style="" font-size:="">Click to enlarge picture</span></div> </td> </tr> </table></div> <div class="Normal">If the eighties’ woman cop was an avenging angel, today’s onscreen woman in uniform is the cigarette-smoking, butt-kicking, invective-hurling toughie.<br /><br />A passion for khaki remains one of the most undying themes in Bollywood. Almost every other Friday, there is a new cop caper. Coming soon is <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Samay,</span> which has Sushmita Sen as the newest cop heroine. <br /><br />With changing times, the Hindi film cop has also changed, though mostly superficially. <br /><br />Thematically, most cops are still either good or bad. If the hero is a cop, he is upright, passionate and takes on the ‘system’ single-handedly. If he’s not the hero, he works in tandem with the politician or underworld don. Once in a while, he’s the joker who helps the hero break rules to reach the airport in time to meet his beloved. <br /><br />And once in a couple of years, the cop is a heroine. <br /><br />In the eighties, most lead actresses -- Hema Malini (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Andha Kanoon</span>), Dimple Kapadia (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Zakhmi Aurat)</span> and Rekha (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Insaaf Ki Awaaz</span>) -- donned khakis for the screen. Several women -- Tabu <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">(Kohraam)</span>, Shilpa Shetty (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Aag</span>), Raveena Tandon (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Vijeta</span>), Preity Zinta (<span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Sangharsh</span>) – tried the brave act in the nineties, but most failed at the box office. <br /><br />If the eighties were the decade of the victimised woman on the avenge trail, the nineties’ woman mostly sank without a trace. <br /><br />This decade hasn’t thrown up any interesting women cops either, but their portrayal has changed. Bipasha Basu looks more like a glam doll than a daring diva in David Dhawan’s dud, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Chor Machaye Shor</span>. In <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Gunaah</span>, she wears sexy clothes, abuses at the drop of a hat and fantasises about the criminal (Dino Morea) she is chasing. <br /><br />Two of the most visible changes in the policeman’s job in recent times have been the designation and the uniform. The Bollywood policeman was mostly an inspector earlier, but suddenly the industry seems to have woken up to the fact that inspectors don’t have fancy bungalows and vacation in the Alps. So, if Aamir Khan was ACP Rathore in <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Sarfarosh, </span>Ajay Devgan and Abhishek Bachchan hold the same desgination in <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">GangaaJal</span> and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Zameen.</span> <br /><br />In Samay, Sen also plays ACP Malvika Chauhan. And in keeping with the newest trend of an officer without a uniform, Sen is rarely seen in khakis. If Prakash Jha’s <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">GangaaJal</span> has Devgan in smart casuals, it’s easy to forget Bachchan is a cop in <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Zameen</span>, since he hardly wears the uniform. <br /><br />We have seen enough of the angry cop, now it''s time for the sexy cop.</div> </div>