It has taken Hindi cinema 60 years or thereabouts to make Chak De India, a definitive girl power film which is also not just about women and their battle for equality but also about a society where there are many kinds of inequalities. Between one sport and another. One religion and another. Between states. And languages. And cultures. Between bureaucratic egos and men/women of action. Between self-seeking selfishness infecting Indian sports and the spirit of nationalism.
But what is most remarkable about this film is that it mainstreams the struggle and triumph of a gender hitherto relegated to a noun rather a verb in Indian cinema. It takes 16 women and places them in a non-titillating context (as opposed to the recent tradition of `item girls’ being used as gyrating props) and lets them be whole human-beings rather than imposing Seeta and Geeta  stereotypes upon them. None of these 16 girls is a Hindi cinema cliche. They are all individuals, right  from the egoistic Bindiya Naik to the free-spirited Aaliya to the taciturn Gul to the fiery Balbir to the fearless Komal to the driven Preeti Sabharwal who tells her boyfriend,
"There was never an `us.’ There was always you. Now there is also me.’’
Seminal moment
The seminal moment of the film comes not when the girls reclaim the glory of the neglected hockey in the end but when during a do-or-die match between his girls and the men’s hockey team, Shahrukh Khan’s Kabir Khan says, ``Play this match to remind all those who forget that if a woman can give birth to a man, she can do anything.’’
This is arguably, the single most important feminist dialogue ever spoken by any protagonist in a Hindi film. And is more significant today than ever before because never before has the girl child been so endangered and discriminated against, both within the womb and outside it in India. As to the question if a Hindi film can alter deep rooted prejudices, the answer lies in the loud applause ricocheting  through  cinema halls across the nation not just when Kabir Khan walks in slow motion into the camera with his protégés close behind but also when the girls defend each other against a band of eve teasers by doing something that has only been the hero’s prerogative so far in Hindi cinema. Beating the daylights out of men who whistle.
The cliché smashing scenes roll on. There is the woman who risks her marriage and the wrath of her inlaws  to captain India to the world cup. The girl friend who won’t stop playing hockey just because her cricketer boyfriend wants her to marry him and stay happy being his appendage. The player who offers herself to the coach to get ahead and then realizes that a woman without self-respect will only go so far and no further. And the moment when all women realize that the only way to win individually is through sisterhood and teamwork.
Female heroism
The template of heroism in Hindi cinema has always been defined by male rebels and band of brothers joining hands to avenge victimized mothers, raped sisters or to clean up society of its evils. For the first time though in Chak De, we see female(s) heroism which is neither in the fantasy book genre like the Fearless Nadia films nor has the self-defeating valour of a Mother India nor the historic nostalgia of a Jhansi Ki Rani.  The women here sweat not in kitchens like the little busy bodies of the Barjatya films nor in dance bars and steam baths to appease the voyeurs but on a hockey field. They are asexual creatures though not dispassionate. They play unselfconsciously, with and without the blessings of their loved ones and with all their heart to win a prize that matters to THEM and not necessarily to their families. They are not playing to win grooms or approval. They are playing because they want to. And in fulfilling their own ambitions, they by default end up bringing honour not just to their families but to the entire nation.
The film is remarkable also because it makes women central to a film about sports.
Sports is a rather unexplored genre in Hindi cinema if you discount Ashutosh Gowarikar’s Lagaan, Mansoor Khan’s Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar and Prakash Jha’s Hip Hip Hurray. In all these films, women were passive bystanders, support givers and cheer leaders. They never skinned their knees or hurt their elbows or ran long miles or dealt with the heartbreak of defeat and tasted the thrill of vanquishing their rivals.
In Chak De India, women matter and the man who comes through for them is not a protectionist male epitomized by countless Hindi film heroes who throw punches for damsels in distress. He is a tough talking, ruthlessly unrelenting task master who won’t give a quarter when the girls are wilting under a tough training regimen. He won’t brook excuses about the so-called limitations of their gender. He  won’t interfere when they are taking on men who objectify them in a restaurant. He teaches them to own their power and take on the world with it.  One rousing scene in the film is when these hockey players who once had no backing or sponsors walk into an Australian ballroom, their heads high,  as the finalists of the world championship, dressed in sarees bordered with the tricolour.
Fantasy or reality?
These women who were constantly jeered as fit for only cooking, now have the honour of the nation poised on their hockey sticks. Chak De India presents a stirring counter-point to films like Heyy Baby, Ram Gopal Varma’s Aag and countless others by expanding a woman’s role beyond what she is fantasized or imagined to be to what she is and can really can do.
In the sixties Bimal Roy and in subsequent  decades, Gulzar and Hrishikesh Mukherjee gave us women who were real and not objects of fantasy, unrealistic adoration or demeaning lust. Roy’s Bandini draws a full arc from a being cherished daughter to a social outcaste to a jailed murderer and then a free woman who chooses love over security. Gulzar's Khushboo  gave us Kusum who keeps refusing to marry the man she loves till he learns to accord her both respect and love. Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s wordless Anupama learns to stand up to her distant father to find her own voice. Other notable heroines were Basu Chatterjee’s middle class protagonists, heroines that went from victimhood to empowerment in `alternate’ films like Govind Nihalani’s Party, Ketan Mehta’s Mirch Masala, Shyam Benegal’s Bhumika and Mahesh Bhatt’s Arth.There were flashes of spirit in most Yash Chopra women.
Avenging angels
But for most part, women have gone from being cosseted little darlings in Nasir Hussain’s musicals to becoming useless afterthoughts in the seventies ruled by a certain  angry young man to occasionally becoming avenging angels in films like Pratighat and Khoon Bhari Maang. There have been few memorable woman protagonists in recent times and only Nagesh Kukunoor’s Dor in recent times gave us two real, remarkable women who empower each other through death and emotional starvation. As to the question why it is important for cinema to project women in a positive light, the answer is self-evident. This is a country where bike stunts in Dhoom 2 inspire teenagers to risk their limbs and necks, where a Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna starts furious debate about how such films devalue the institution of marriage, where young women dance to item numbers in dance bars, where girls are eve-teased with  film songs and heist films inspire robberies.
Cinema in India is nothing short of alternate reality and film makers can no longer hide behind the tag of being mere entertainers. That is not to say that films have to be didactic.
Chak De India has proven that entertaining cinema also can say meaningful things and if film makers cannot present women with all their dignity and power intact, they should refrain from dehumanizing them into mere arm and eye candy.   

Feminism, what’s that?
Television director Mohena Singh is a bit uneasy with the word `feminism' and chuckles, " I love it when heroes do their job in movies! I also think, the idea that women have progressed NOW is a little far fetched. I feel the women of an earlier generation had a lot of spunk too. Given an opportunity I would love to make a film about three generations of women and compare their respective growth. I personally liked Prakash Jha's Mrityudand a lot. It had a woman as a hero and was very affirmative, I feel.''

‘Empowerment defined by cosmetic whiteners’
Theatre person Kirtana Kumar says, ``The earlier Benegal films like Nishant spoke to me (about women and their issues) though am not really the right person to comment with surefootedness about feminism's absence in cinema. But a woman's progress through the world is a double-edged sword. Yes, she is earning but at the same time, you see her empowerment being defined by cosmetic whiteners. Also, a woman's sexuality in cinema is always expressed through the purview of the male gaze even though I find someone like Rakhi Sawant interesting because she has suffered and today can say, ``Every middle class woman wants to be me.'' Even heroines who once proclaimed themselves to be virgins want to do item numbers today. This trend requires a bit of deconstruction. Also the fact that a film like Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna did not do well because it was about a woman who strays, says something about the layers of hypocrisy in society. I don't think one movement or film can change things but I think cinema and theatre should constantly challenge, question any idea that is oppressive and anti-people or anti-women.''         

The movies that spoke for her

*Bombay Talkies’ Achchut Kanya — on untouchability
*Bimal Roy’s Bandini — the life story of a gutsy woman
*Basu Chatterji’s Triyacharittar — the powerful story of the exploitation of women
*Mrinal Sen’s Punoscho – dealt with the economic  needs of a woman
*Satyajit Ray’s Charulata – which eloquently portrays the effect of marital discord on a woman
*Mehboob Khan’s Mother India — the journey of an emotional woman and a righteous mother
*Ritwik Ghatak's  Meghe Dhaka Tara  — depicts the agony of Bangladeshi refugees through the eyes of a woman
*Ketan Mehta's Mirch Masala — that depicted the strength of women, when they decide to unite
*Prakash Jha's Mrityudand — the new face of the educated Indian homemaker, ready to rebel and fight for what is due to her.
*Deepa Mehta's Fire — first Indian film to speak about a ‘taboo’ subject like lesbianism
*Mahesh Manjrekar’s Astitva — about a woman who finally learns to stand up to her husband
*Nagesh Kukunoor’s Dor – explores how two remarkable women can empower each other like no one else can.

FILM FEMINISM
An interesting book on women in Indian cinema is ‘Films and Feminism: Essays in Indian Cinema’ edited by Jasbir Jain and Sudha Rai. The book considers both mainstream and parallel cinema for an in-depth analysis of the image of a woman as portrayed on screen, the idea of romance and the imposition of patriarchy in Indian films. The 24 essays in the book are written by various critics and scholars. Though the essays largely focus on Hindi cinema, some of the pieces discuss landmark Bengali and Kannada films as well.