The journey of the female protagonist in Bollywood

The journey of the female protagonist in Bollywood from the black and white days to the present day cinema is a very remarkable one. While the usual theme of Hindi films is a mediocre fare nowadays, and the digression from weightier subjects in Hindi films is most palpable, it must not be forgotten that the history of Bollywood is interspersed with women-oriented films all throughout. Some carved a permanent niche in the annals of Bollywood, while some turned out to be pot-boilers. The recent paradigm being the film “Black”, in which the female protagonist played by Rani Mukherji has to deal with a dual dilemma— deafness coupled with blindness. ‘Lajja’ starring Mahima, Manisha and Rekha showed feminine fortitude in the face of calamitous turn of events in their lives. It had a very powerful story line played sublimely to the hilt by the cast and the film turned out to a reasonable box-office success and won huge critical acclaim. Rekha’s ‘Khoon bhari maang’ depicted a woman’s vengeful streak against men’s atrocities and hegemony.There is a temptation in both the general public as well as film critics to perceive films from the black-and-white era and the sixties as eternal benchmarks and regard any newer stuff with a degree of condescension and skepticism. While there is nothing wrong in reminiscing the stellar histrionic acts of a bygone era with fondness and nostalgia, it is odious to portray the present performance by the newer breed of actors in poor light. It is true that we profoundly miss the brilliance of Nargis, alabaster looks of Madhubala and the vermilion-daubed and perpetually sobbing wimp played so subtly by Meena Kumari. But the newer generation of heroines as Madhuri, Kajol, Rani Mukherji, Preity Zinta and Ashwarya Rai are also connoisseurs in their own right and subtly showed their repertoire as and when the opportunities came their way. While we miss the tremulousness and touching innocence of yesteryears’ heroines who resorted only to allusions when it came to revealing their inner feelings and suffered inexorably, today’s heroines are known to be upfront in every aspect. They exude galore of oomph; they are glibly coquettish, noisy or scurrilous when being abandoned and even violent when messed with on the celluloid.And lastly, they are being paid heavily to act thus.