When art doesn't imitate life

IMAGE QUOTIENT : Bollywood actresses and TV’s leading ladies continue to wow the crowds with exaggerated character sketches. Is it a fair portrayal? Isn’t it far from the ground reality, asks Vimla Patil .

If there are two Indian women icons lingering in our minds from the early months of last year, they would certainly be Munni aka Malaika Aurora-Khan and Sheila aka Katrina Kaif. As if these two endorsements of the ‘Indian woman’ were not enough for a salivating India, more recently we had Jalebi Bai, aka Mallika Sherawat and Chamak Challo aka Kareena Kapoor gyrating in Ra-one! 

There is more: The sure-to-sizzle Chikni Chameli, aka Katrina Kaif, is poised to outdo her own Sheila in Tees Maar Khan!  Sooner than later, millions of fans (and producers who stand to benefit) will challenge them to go one step further to compete and create a persona of scantily-clad women who twist and wriggle to titillate men – and women – almost to the point of swooning!

‘Item songs’ have become such an integral rage in  Bollywood today, that every film’s promo or pre-release video clips/personal performances feature only such dances and songs. Many films are sold on the basis of how much skin-show they offer. Even when heroines like Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra are not dancing to item songs, they dress like item girls. And it looks like there is a contest among them — who can get skimpier in designer wear! In truth, the past year and the coming months do not seem to offer any films where heroines look like real life Indian women —  women who work, have families, fall in love, party some nights and are busy focusing on their careers or building homes for their kids. Bollywood films are just a showcase for heroines competing with each other in looking sexy and hot. Instead of asserting the Indian media’s right to be ‘different’, it follows the universal mantra of ‘sex sells best’!

Let’s cross over into Tellywood and the story is the same. There are no ‘normal’ female characters in any of the popular Hindi serials too. It is amazing what kind of meek mice and screaming banshees pass off as examples of women from various parts of India.

Take some of the high TRP serials made by reputed production houses. This year, Balika Vadhu, aired every night by Colors, won innumerable awards. The heroine Anandi is never shown to have a peaceful, normal day. She has to cope with a mean Dadisa, a cheating husband and villagers who kidnap or harass her all the time. Dressed like a bride, she lectures anyone within hearing distance about how to live a life of forgiveness and kindness and takes all the injustice done to her without so much as a whimper.

Her popularity is based wholly on how she accepts the blows of fate with willingness and continues to propitiate those  who try to destroy her.

Next comes the ever-silent-sufferer Ichcha from Utaran, also on Colors. Insulted as the ‘mouse’, she forgives crimes that would be punishable under any criminal code of law. Tapasya, the spoilt bad-girl, nearly gets her murdered; marries Ichcha’s bridegroom by deceit and is helped by a aunt and cousin Pushkar who engage in criminal activities like child kidnapping and stealing. Tapasya even helps Ichcha’s first husband Vansh commit suicide! Yet, the goody-two-shoes Ichcha does not utter a word or speak up, let alone seek revenge. Again, is this a real portrayal of the Indian woman?

Sandhya from Diya Aur Bati Hum (Star Plus), who has achieved admirable success in a state-level exam, keeps mum about her success, as her family in the US wants to hide the fact that she is an educated girl to be married into an illiterate family in a hurry. As a result, the young heroine is thrown out of the house because she is educated. The hour-long cruel diatribe that her mother-in-law unleashes is truly mind-boggling.

Same goes for Akshara in Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Ha. She lives in perpetual fear of the patriarch Daddaji who can topple her happiness or dreams in one lethal remark. He is opposed to the idea of her working to save the family’s fortunes, ‘disciplines’ everyone around him and is the head of the family.

Take Pratigya on Star Plus, and it is the same story all over again. An educated girl is married into an illiterate family and suffers under the petty-mindedness of the in-laws and the drunkard, lecherous brother-in-law. 

Ichcha, Pratigya, Akshara, Anandi, and many others are presented as relics from a bygone era. The story lines make it evident that the entertainment industry is in no way clued in to the lives in towns such as Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Bihar where these stories happen.  

One wonders which of these women holds a mirror to the real Indian woman of the 21st century. The Bollywood babe is a mockery of the Indian woman though she leaves the youth of the nation — a huge section — screaming for more as explicit sex and sensuality become the selling point. The more they  can grind their hips to thumkas and jhatkas and heave their bosoms in front of the camera, the louder get the whistle-blowing, from front-benchers who crowd multiplexes and cinema halls. No one seems to mind that heroines of movies no longer reflect the ground reality and Tellywood bahus continue to stay mute and bend over backwards for dominant male characters.

The real Indian woman

Here are some of the other and more real Indian women. Chhavi Rajawat, the new-age sarpanch of Soda village in Rajasthan is usually dressed in a simple kurta and jeans and drives to the Panchayat Bhawan building every day. Baisa, as Chhavi is referred to, takes a keen interest in all aspects of development in the village and works hard to achieve her objectives. She takes pride in executing NREGA (which guarantees 100 days of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled work) and other upliftment programmes in her village.

She is truly the sensitive link between the government and the people. Her work is inspirational and symbolic of a clear development agenda. Chavi’s most wonderful quality, according to the villagers, is her total transparency and efficiency. “Baisa makes us aware of our rights,” they say proudly.

A little southward from Rajasthan, in Gujarat, a similar ‘miracle’ is happening with young women taking over village administration under Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s Samras scheme. Last month, Hinal Patel, 25, held her first meeting for an all women panchayat for the village of Siswa in Borsad town of Anand district.

Last month, elections were held in 10,405 villages in the state and 2,147 members opted for an all women’s panchayat under the Samras scheme. The elected women have shown great results as they work really hard to  improve the quality of life for a large number of villagers by bringing water, power, education, food and infrastructure for better health.

Some of the women hold degree in engineering, management and computer technology. The Siswa team even wants to build a website for their village.

The Samras scheme looked out for women who were educated, single and belonged to the village they wished to serve. The government has also offered an incentive of Rs 5 lakh for an all-women Samras panchayat which controls a population of 5,000 to 15,000. In Siswa, which is home to a model of the scheme, 12 young women meet regularly to improve conditions in the village and pursue their education or career dreams side-by-side.

It could be that film or TV programme makers have never heard of such women or that they find such women not interesting enough to be the subjects of films or TV serials. Till then, they will continue to feature under the daily news bulletin.