More often than not, we’ve seen films in Hindi cinema and wondered what value addition the female lead brought to the story’s plot apart from being the male lead’s love interest, her identity being an extension of her beloved’s. While we’re gradually shifting from the manic pixie dream girl trope for female leads in films, there’s still a long way to go.
Not to generalise or anything, but historically, there’s been a significant dearth of good films that genuinely attempted to portray strong female leads, their inner world, their feelings, and their past before meeting the one, the man. They hardly provided a commentary on the world that has, for centuries, been governed by the men, for the men. The ‘heroines’, so to speak, rarely had an agency of their own, and their world circumferenced the male figures of their lives.
In light of this, we came across a Reddit thread where women were discussing good movies that every woman must watch. Some women in our office also had their ‘Bollywood’ inputs to share. Take a look.
1. “Barbie. I saw it purely out of curiosity because it seemed so wildly polarising. Its very funny and I laughed quite a lot. Although, I’m highly unlikely to see it ever again. If you’re a woman living in this world, it’s going to hit you deeply.”
2. “Piku. Piku has her priorities sorted and a man isn’t one. She’s an independent ambitious woman who, although is overburdened (and many times frustrated) with her father’s dependence and possessiveness about her taking care of him, doesn’t need a man to ‘save’ her. She finds a good man, and she knows her dad comes with her; she’s not here to make compromises. I mean how often we see this in Hindi cinema.”
– Manya
3. “Legally Blonde! Elle Woods is my inspiration”
3. “I’ve always really enjoyed The Devil Wears Prada. Interesting commentaries on women in the corporate world, beauty vs. intelligence, choosing “easy” success vs. sticking to your passions & values, lame ass boyfriends & bad friends…”
4. “Sliding Doors with Gwyneth Paltrow. This movie changed the way I think about situations. It was really thought provoking. There are essentially two plot lines – one follows her when she slips onto the subway and catches her husband cheating and kicks him out and how her life goes on, and two is she misses the subway and by the time she gets home the mistress is gone and she is unaware and continues in a dead end life. Those little things in life, like the yellow light we waited for or didn’t. How did that change our life?”
5. “Queen. I especially love that although Kangna’s character was heartbroken at the rejection initially, she realized her worth and did not take Rajkumar’s character back when he asked her to. Most bollywood movies usually end up with the couple being happy, so this was nice.”
6. “Little Women. Women, they have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they’ve got ambition, and they’ve got talent, as well as just beauty. I’m so sick of people saying that love is all a woman is fit for.”
7. “English Vinglish. The film is like an excerpt from the lives of way too many Indian women who’ve lost their identity, for whom family has become life. They spend all their time caring for their husbands and kids and in return, get nothing but remain unappreciated, unseen, and often become a butt of jokes that are assumed to be ‘too lit’ for a traditional Indian homemaker to understand. By undertaking that journey to learn English, Shashi is exposed to a broader worldview, learns to assert her independence and reclaims her identity, which has so many more shades to it apart from being a doting mother and wife. We need more such movies in Indian cinema. A woman is not just her family, she’s her own person.”
– Raghavi
8. “He’s Just Not That Into You. I feel like every woman who watches that either knows someone like a character or sees themselves in one of the characters and needs to learn the lesson.”
9. “The Color Purple for me. I’ve watched it dozens of times over the years.”
10. “Erin Brochavich. I think this is a great example of how a woman whom many underestimated based on appearances can be a powerhouse for social justice and getting shit done. She dressed a little trashy, but she was smart as hell. I think it’s great to see feminist heroes of all social economic classes – especially the poor and working class – represented and fairly.”
We can go on adding to this list. In Bollywood itself, there are movies like Badla, Kahaani, Dear Zindagi, Pink, and many more that fit the parameters. There are many examples from Hollywood as well. But proportionately, they are a mere fraction in comparison to the number of films that have sidelined female characters. It’s important filmmakers and writers deliberately and consciously produce nuanced female characters, instead of producing a stereotype (which has historically been the case).
