CHAPTER 5

FILM ANALYSIS:

THE 1990s

The chapter will highlight some of the major films from both the genres from their
thematic, aesthetic, and individualistic point of view. A few films are taken from
the decade of the 90s when the Parallel cinema was at its demise in the Hindi
cinema and when an era in the Commercial cinema was also changing its popular
films due to the modernisation in the attitude of the audience of the country.

It is interesting to notice the difference in the trends that were prevailing in parallel
and commercial Hindi cinema. While more harsh and serious topics were being
chosen by the parallel cinema, commercial cinema was making blockbuster hits one
after the other by showing the same theme of romantic comedies through different
storylines and screenplays.

This was a decade of globalisation and many Hollywood movies were easily
accessible to the Indian audience through their dubbed versions. A change in the
course of Hindi commercial movies was immensely influenced by this globalisation
that was prevailing in this decade. Hence, a lot of college romances, including Indra
Kumar’s Dil (1990), Sandesh Kohli’s Phool Aur Kaante (1991), Mansoor Khan’s
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992), Abbas Mustan’s Khiladi (1992), David Dhawan’s
Shola Aur Shabnam (1992), and Karan Johar’s Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), were
setting new trends in the Hindi cinema but with a hint of Hollywood picturisation as
well.

As far as the commercial movies in Hindi cinema is concerned, 90s was an era of
exotic locations, chiffon sarees, dreamy song sequences, beautiful love stories, and
melodious songs with some of the unforgettable playback singers. While the
productions techniques were going through a change by adapting new ways of
camera handling, editing, and lighting, the stories were becoming more fairy tale-
like to please the youth and teenagers.

166
While the male leads have also undergone a huge change since the inception of the
Hindi cinema till the 90s. There was a lot of method acting done by Raj Kapoor and
Rajesh Khanna which was later on changed into the style of the angry young man
avatar of Amitabh Bachchan. But during the 90s there were more romantic heroes
than ever including Amir Khan, Salman Khan, and of course Shahrukh Khan. The
feeble female leads became headstrong and decided for themselves of course by
keeping in mind the values of the Indian society. The villains were not wigged,
cigar smoking men with a punchline after a powerful dialogue, rather in the 90s
sometimes the protagonists were themselves the antagonists, like Shahrukh Khan in
Baazigar (1993) and Anjaam (1994), and the characters displayed grey shades
instead of displaying the black and white traits that were common before the era.

The filmy parents had also undergone a drastic change in the 90s. When there were
mothers who used to pray for their child’s wellness and cried in their losses, we got
fathers who were more than a friend for their children, like Anupan Kher in Dilwale
Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), and mothers that took their children’s side for their
happiness, like Farida Jalal in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995).

Parallel cinema, however, was at a decline in the Hindi film industry during this
period but was still surviving thanks to some of the directors like Deepa Mehta,
Govind Nihalani, and Sai Paranjpye. The commercialisation of Hindi films and the
cost of production was on a rise in the 90s and it was adversely affecting the
parallel cinema. Popularity of cable television, underworld financing of movies, and
piracy were some of the major problems faced by the parallel filmmakers in the
Hindi cinema.

Hence, the demise of the parallel cinema was unfortunately seen near the end of the
decade with only a few movies that were seen and appreciated by the audience.
Many of the parallel movies were even forgotten and not even mentioned when
talking about the genre, including Tapan Sinha’s Ek Doctor ki Maut (1990), Sudhir
Mishra’s Is Raat ki Subah Nahin (1996), and Sai Paranjpye’s Saaz (1997).

Though the parallel cinema also started to incorporate the actors from the
commercial Hindi cinema perhaps to gain popularity that was enough for more
audience to get attracted. The trend of including ghazals in the movie was now
changed to film songs in the parallel movies as a gimmick. Still all of these new

167
experiments were not enough to stop the declination of parallel cinema in this
decade.

Film Analysis

RUDAALI

Rudaali (1993) was directed by a feminist film director Kalpana Lajmi. The movie
was based on a short story written by Mahasweta Devi, a famous Bengali writer.
The movie received several critical accolades including the national award for
Dimple Kapadia portraying the role of Sanichari.

The movie was set in a backdrop of Rajasthan where lower castes women are hired
to mourn on the death of higher caste males. Such women were called ‘rudaali’.
Their main job was to express grief on behalf of the family members who could not
publicly show their emotions due to their social status.

The director made use of brown and dark tones in the cinematography. Realistic
locations are shown and the language used in the movie have a Rajasthani touch to
it. The characters are wearing less or no make-up at all unless it is needed.

The title of the movie was an ironical take on the protagonist. Sanichari have been
seen the unluckiest person in the village but she never shed a single tear on her
miserable life. Her mother had run off just after giving birth to her, her father had
died in her childhood, her mother-in-law also succumbed to a long time illness, and
later on she lost her husband to cholera. She was left with her only son, Budhwa
(Raghubir Yadav) who also left her after a rift between Sanichari and his prostitute
wife Mungri (Sushmita Mukherjee).

The movie depicted the struggle of Sanichari to live a peaceful live. But poverty
being her only fault, she was not able to find happiness for more than a few days
every time. The film moved in flashbacks in most of the first half. In the present
scene Sanichari was old and depressed over her past. A rudaali from another
village Bhikni (Rakhee) was staying at her home because she was a nomad and used
to go from one village to another when called due to her profession.

168
 Relationship of Sanichari and Bhikni
Sanichari told Bhikni about her unfortunate past and came closer to her as she
thought her to be her confidante. She had lost everyone in her life and now in such
an age she wanted someone to be there with her, hence, she even asked Bhikni to
stay with her. Though Bhikni did not stay but in the end Sanichari came to know
that Bhikini was actually her mother who had left her years ago.

Sanichari was seen throughout the movie performing her duties sometime as a
daughter-in-law, sometime as a wife, and sometime as a mother. She never thought
about her own comfort or good. Even when Thakur Lakshman Singh (Raj Babbar)
asked her to leave her home and live with him, she was confused because she did
not want to leave her home which, even though she did not care much about her
husband, she thought was her duty to serve.

She did not care much about her alcoholic husband but she was pretty close to her
son. When Budhwa came home with his wife Mungri who used to be a prostitute,
Sanichari feared the reaction of the society. She did not have any personal grudge
or hatred for the woman. In a scene where the village pandit and the shopkeeper
were looking at the prostitute unaware of her relation with Sanichari, they were
laughing and teasing the prostitute. The pandit did not even fear that his position is
a sacred one and he must not differentiate amongst the people made by God but still
he was having fun with the shopkeeper and passing crude remarks to the woman.
When they came to know that the woman was Sanichari’s daughter-in-law, both
started accusing her of having a bad conduct and even talked of throwing them out
of the society only because she had a prostitute living in her home. This clearly

169
showed the hypocrisy of a patriarchal mind set. While they were teasing the
prostitute they thought it was their right to do so with a filthy woman but when they
came to know that someone in the village is sharing their shelter with the same
woman they started talking about the traditions and values. Sanichari even
defended her son’s noble act by saying, “Maare chhore ne ek ko nark se nikala,
ghar diya, ijjat di… maare chore ne jo bhi kiya mard ki tarah seena thok ke kiya.”

She could have also blamed his son in front of the society but she was strong
enough to defend him in public by highlighting his noble actions and showing
people the mirror by telling them to be coward who could only talk bad about
people’s virtuous act as they are unable to do such brave things themselves.
However, she scolded her son at home and had a dispute with his wife as well but
she did not want to show her problems to people outside her home.

The character of Sanichari was that of a strong woman who bore the burden of bad
luck and unhappiness throughout her life. She was unable to cry because she had
always seen grief and misery from a close proximity.

It was Bhikni who told her to vent all her frustrations through tears by becoming a
rudaali and by crying at someone else’s death. At first Sanichari laughed at the
thought as she had never cried but in the end when she came to know that Bhikni
was actually her mother who had abandoned her years ago, she could not stop
herself from crying after hearing about her death. After the incident, she became a
rudaali who used to cry her heart out at others’ funeral to make her heart light and
to earn money as well.

FIRE

Deepa Mehta’s Fire (1996) was one of the first Indian movies that dealt with the
idea of lesbianism. It not only just touched the subject but treated it in a very
sensitive and realistic manner. The movie was mainly about relationships and how
two women are tried to find companionship when they are not truly accepted by
their husbands.

The film was mainly described as a lesbian film, and after almost two decades the
film is still synonymous to the subject of lesbianism though the director was
frustrated with this view and said, “lesbianism is just another aspect of the

170
film…Fire is not a film about lesbians,” but it is actually about “the choices we
make in life.”1

Though it was an Indian movie but was originally released in English language. The
movie not only appealed to the Indian audience but was also appreciated on a global
level. The poignant portrayal of such complicated relationships is commendable.

The movie revolved around the lives of two women Radha (Shabana Azmi) and
Sita (Nandita Das) and their struggle to fit into the lives of their spouses in vain.
The movie showed how two females found peace and solace in one another’s
company and it rejects the idea of male control over female sexuality. Is depicted
how women came together to fulfil their passions not by choice but because of the
lack of acknowledgment from their spouses.

There was a scene where Sita said that her mother used to tell her the importance of
a woman by saying that “A woman without a husband is like boiled rice, bland,
unappetizing, useless.” But instead of agreeing to the statement, Radha
unappealingly said, “I like being boiled rice.” Which means she would have liked if
she was without a husband rather than with one who did not reciprocate her
feelings.

At the occasion of karvachauth when Radha saw how Sita was influenced by the
modern mentality and thought fasting for husbands just an old age ritual for the
bondage of women she said, “You don’t have to keep the fast if you don’t want.”
But Sita laughed at the idea and replied, “You must be joking. My mother would kill
me, and biji, she’d never stop ringing the bell.” (Biji, their mother in law, was a
mute old woman who used to ring a bell when she wanted to communicate and
usually ring it several times when was angry or disagreed with someone.)

This dialogue showed that the customs and traditions that one used to follow in the
past have just became meaningless rituals that one has to blindly follow no matter if
they want it or not. And in this movie, Sita was keeping the fast because of the
societal pressure and not because she cared for her husband. She did not even know
the mythological story behind the ritual. It was only after this scene that Radha

1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_(1996_film)

171
explained to her the importance of this fast and how it came into being in the first
place.

Finding solace in each other

The concept of marriage is argued and discussed more than once in the movie. It
was a vital aspect of the movie and it showed how women are bound by marriage to
do and not to do certain things. The servant Mundu (Ranjit Chowdhry) puts it in a
statement in the film, “Once you’re married you’re stuck forever, like glue. Sad but
true.” It was basically meant for women who have no choice left after their
marriage. They have to work it out somehow. Though there is no such compulsion
for the man. He could do whatever he wanted to and could even keep doing what he
used to do even before marriage. Like in the case of Jatin (Javed Jaffrey) he was
seen having an affair with an Indo-Chinese girl and even after his marriage to Sita
he continued having the affair with full knowledge of his family.

The friendship of two sisters in law were meant to be when no one else were paying
attention to them. Sita was a 21 st century modern girl who followed rituals just for
the sake of it and did not hesitate to say what was in her mind while Radha had
been accustomed to the routine life for so long that she had suppressed all her
feelings until the day Sita accidentally kissed her.

Radha found a new meaning to her life and she was able to prod her voice against
her husband as well. It had shown in the movie that Biji was an invalid and only the
women of the house were supposed to take care of her. But in one scene when
Ashok (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) ordered Radha to feed Biji, she retorted by saying,
“Why don’t you feed Biji tonight?” and he reluctantly agreed. Radha was surprised
to find the courage to say ‘no’ for once what her husband ordered her to do.

172
The main reason for Radha’s bold reaction was that she no longer thought herself as
a slave to her husband. She could well knew that she had her own identity and she
could survive without her husband now.

The movie was a breakthrough in portraying positive female characterisation. The

movie in no way promotes lesbianism. It showed how women could find solace in
the company of people who could understand them. As the end of the movie
suggested that there was an ocean of opportunities for Radha but she was not
looking further enough.

There have been some mainstream movies regarding the concept of LGBT but most
of them have dealt the subject as a mockery or in a light vein, including Nikhil
Advani’s Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), Tarun Manukhani’s Dostana (2008), and Karan
Johar’s Student of the Year (2012). It was Karan Razdan’s Girlfriend (2004) that
dealt with lesbianism but it showed a lot of stereotypical portrayals which were not
accepted by the society. The movie was a complete failure at the box office as well.

However, it clearly showed that parallel cinema was way ahead of its time in
comparison to the commercial cinema when it comes to exploring new subjects and
dealing with sensitive issues.

1947 EARTH

Deepa Mehta made a profound movie on the partition of India 1947 Earth (1998)
depicting intense emotions and some marvellous acting by the main leads. The
story was shown through the eyes of a crippled Parsi girl Lenny (Maia Sethna) and
how she perceived the partition where once Hindu, Muslims, and Sikhs were
friends but later on became barbaric during the holocaust of partition.

The first half of the movie is simple and showed how Shanta (Nandita Das), a
Hindu ayah was enjoying her friendship with two of her Muslim suitors, Dil Navaz
(Amir Khan) and Hassan (Rahul Khanna) and how Lenny was trying to figure out
what could be the result of the partition as it was the talk of the hour everywhere.

The second half depicted the catastrophic destruction of faith, religion, and
humanity as a whole through the actions of people who were once the best of
friends. And all of that was witnessed by Lenny whose mind was scarred because of
the devastation.

173
The narration throughout the movie was through the adult voice of Lenny, lend by
Shabana Azmi, explaining the confusion and the clarification the mind of a young
girl could fathom at that age.

The subject of partition have been shown on the celluloid before through movies
like M.S. Sathyu’s Garam Hawa (1973), Govind Nihalani’s Tamas (1988), and
Pamela Rooks’ Train to Pakistan (1998) but the storyline and structure of the
movie is completely different from the previous partition themed movie.

It gave importance to the female characters of the movie as well. Firstly, the movie
was shown through the view point of a girl rather than a phallocentric viewpoint.
And secondly, Shanta was depicted as one of the main protagonists in the movie
that triggered the animosity between the two friends of the same religious
community, Dil Navaz and Hassan.

Lenny and Shanta

The director did not take any sides in the movie while depicting the horrific event.
She showed how religion began to colour relationships with a blunt but
compassionate gaze. The theme of partition was dealt with a humane touch that was
sympathetically understandable by the viewers as well.

The movie displayed the human sufferings that was divided in the society not only
because of the religious preferences of a person but also because of the gender of a
person. It showed how a woman’s body became a territory for the males of the
society who act out their aggression on it.

Hence, the movie showed how women’s bodies were used to inflict atrocities on
them with a particular kind of violence, i.e., rape, not only to degrade the females
but also to humiliate the community to which they belonged. Thus, women were

174
abandoned by their own community only to be victimised by both parties during the
riot.

While Dil Navaz was in love with Shanta, his feelings were not reciprocated by
Shanta in the same way. And when he watched Shanta having sex with Hassan, he
could not control his angst and fury anymore. Once again the thought of man
marking his territory by consummating over a female’s body was predominantly
highlighted through his expressions. A woman’s worth has always been seen
through the penetration of males on her body and that was the reason why Dil
Nawaz handed Shanta, a woman he once loved, to his frenzied people of the
community in order to take revenge from her for rejecting his proposal and to teach
her a lesson for having a relationship with someone other than him.

The movie showed the ugly reality of the time during the partition through the eyes
of a young girl and her surroundings. It also showed how the disastrous calamity
was destroying the unity of most of the men around the country was also uniting the
women who were sharing the same pain. Lenny’s mother Bunty (Kitu Gidwani)
became stronger during the riot, the fallen women in the camp bonded over their
shared agony, and Shanta refused to become a victim anymore with the support of
other women, including Bunty.

The relationship between Lenny and Shanta was shown as more of a girl and her
ayah, it was more intense and emotional one. Hence, when Lenny was tricked into
betraying Shanta, she lost faith in herself and was unable to overcome her
everlasting guilt.

Lenny tricked by Dil Navaz

175
Bunty’s transformation as a stronger and braver woman was also shown in the
movie. When in the initial part of the movie she was seen a simple homemaker who
dotes over her daughter, soon after she became a protector and a rescuer throwing
the garb of a simple weak woman that was seen at first.

The director magnificently captured the horrific details on the screen not by exactly
showing them but by implying them through brief sights and sounds. The use of
sound effects and dialogues with the accompaniment of the characters’ expressions
were displayed leaving the graphic details to the imagination of the audience for
comprehension of the results of the terrible fates of the people, especially women.
However, these women were the innocent victims who had nothing to do with the
instigation of the riot but they were the most helpless people during the riot.

HAZAAR CHAURASI KI MAA

Govind Nihalani directed the movie Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (1998) that was based
on the novel ‘Hajar Churashir Maa’ by famous Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi. The
movie dealt with the subject of Naxalites and their ideologies. For the first time in
Indian cinema this subject was taken in the Bengali movie Seemabaddha by Satyajit
Ray in 1971, which was based on the life of an upper class family during the
Naxalite Movement. Commercial Hindi movies took this subject as their core
storyline in the early 2000s but the parallel films were way ahead in portraying the
important issues prevailing in our society.

It was only during the early 2000s that the commercial Hindi cinema took this
subject seriously in their films. Some of the films include Tango Charlie (2005),
Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi (2005), and Chakravyuh (2012). Thus, parallel cinema
has always taken serious subjects as their storylines before any commercial movie.

Nihalani showed in this movie how a mother lost her son during the Naxalite
movement and how she struggled to find out the truth behind his death. She was
seen to be just another middle aged mother that we see in our daily life but the
transformation from a simple homemaker to a rebellious woman was shown in the
film.

Sujata (Jaya Bachchan) was living her routine life and trying to balance the family
when she got a call in the middle of the night about her son’s death. Brati (Joy

176
Sengupta) was a free soul who had a rough relationship with his father Dibyanath
Chatterjee (Anupan Kher) and his siblings. Sujata was the only one in the family
with whom he was emotionally close. After Brati’s death, Sujata went into a
slumber as she was shocked with this incident.

The director showed a realistic picture of the relationship of a mother and son where
love and care were received and reciprocated equally. Where everyone in the family
were ashamed of Brati, Sujata was appalled at their indifferent behaviour. She was
his mother and was not ashamed of her son. Though his father and brother
immediately started hiding his photos and other belongings so that they could not be
related to him in any way but she thought of him as a kind soul who could never
harm anyone.

Sujata was not only disturbed but also intrigued to know the truth behind such an
incident. She was brave enough to find out the truth about Brati’s death. She went
to her son’s friend’s home to know what exactly happened at the night of his death.
She later on met Nandini who loved Brati, she told Sujata all about the ‘Naxalbari’,
a militant leftist group.

Nandini was brave and full of valour. She loved Brati and his death did not
weakened her instead it made her stronger and braver than ever. She was strong
enough to recall all what happened to her and narrated all the details to Sujata.

There was a new found courage in Sujata’s behaviour after listening to Nandini. She
was fed up with all the lies that were in the form of relationships around her. When
she could not take any more she finally vent all her frustrations on her husband,
Dibyanath by simply telling her to let her be alone and leave her the way she wanted
to live.

She even refused to put sindoor which is considered to be a vital identification mark
of married women in Indian culture. When asked why was she being so rebellious in
her attitude she said, “Ek din Brati ne mujhse pucha tha ‘Maa, tum itne samay se itne
saalon se apna farz kaise nibhaye jaa rahi ho?’ aur maine kaha tha ‘Bachpan me
yehi sikhaya gaya hai ab to aadat si pad gayi hai.’ Ghar, ghar, aur ye ghar.
Chaubees ghante ye ghar. Kabhi iske liye kabhi uske liye, kabhi kahin koi naraaz
naa ho jaye, koi bura naa maan jaye, koi cheez toot naa jaye, kuch bikhar naa jaye,
har pal maine is toote hue ghar ko sambhala hai aur pal-pal kar ke kab meri zindagi

177
phisal gai mujhe pata hi nahi chala. Bekar, ekdum bekar. Aur isi me maine Brati ko
bhi kho diya, aj hi ke din… ab mai ye sab nahi karungi, mujhse nahi hoga.”

Sujata refusing to put sindoor

This dialogue showed all the pain and agony a woman feels when she is not given
the importance and respect in her home. It is important for a woman to give equal
status at home but when she is suppressed by her husband and is not taken care of by
the other members of the family she becomes mentally weak and melancholic.

The more she learnt about her son and his ideologies, the more she wanted to bring
justice to his cause. Despite the fact that Brati’s father, brothers, and sisters were
not in favour of him or his lifestyle, Sujata kept her feelings intact and never tried
to force them to like or understand Brati. She was inspired from her son’s bravery
and in the end though she was a retired woman of more than 60 years of age, she
did not tolerate the injustice done in front of her when two goons killed Brati’s
friend and tried to escape. She could not fight with them because of her physical
condition but she did not leave one of the goons till the other people came to her
rescue. This showed her determination to fight against the injustice prevailing in
our society.

The movie was being shown through the perspective of a mother and the two most
strong characters in the movie were women, one being Sujata and the other being
Nandini, who did not break even after getting tortured by the police. Though the
journey of Sujata was shown in a detailed way, Nandini’s journey was shown in a
brief way. However, it was shown that Nandini did not need a man in her life to feel

178
complete because she was happy to work for a cause. It showed how free spirited
and independent a woman can be if she is determined.

On the other hand, Sujata was different from Nandini because she kept on fighting
for the cause at her personal level and tried to cope with her family issues as well.
Though she was shown to be a weak woman who was bound with the various
responsibilities of a mother and a wife but in the end she broke all the shackles and
emerged as an independent woman who was not unhappy for her loss but rather was
glad that her son would always be there in her thoughts to inspire and influence her
to do good deeds till the end.

HUM

Mukul S. Anand’s Hum (1991) was one of the most popular films during the early
90s and regarded as one of the best performances by Amitabh Bhachchan who
played the role of Tiger/Shekhar in the film. After this movie Bachchan announced
his temporary retirement from films, which lasted for about five years.

The movie showed two different stories of two different areas and in the end was
knotted together to make a complete film. The first half of the movie dealt with the
workers of the docks and their cruel ruler Bakhtawar (Danny Denzongpa). It
showed how the workers were treated as slaves and how Tiger extorted money from
the workers though not agreeing with this regime.

It basically showed the rifts between Tiger and Bakhtawar with the backdrop of the
love story of Tiger and Jumma (Kimi Katkar). The only females who were shown
in the first half, who had some kind of an importance in the movie, were the
characters of Jumma and that of Tiger’s step mother.

However, both the females were seen as helpless and oppressed but so were most of
the male characters in the first half of the movie. Jumma was mostly used as a
glamorous object for this part of the film where most of the time the screen was
filled with dark coloured docks and men wearing dark blue or black outfits. Jumma
was used to provide a brief relief from the dull and dark scenario hovering in the
movie. She was the only one who used to wear read coloured gowns and stood out
of everyone as a pretty doll.

179
 The famous song “Jumma chumma
de de” showed a room filled with
males where only a single female,
Jumma, was dancing around in
stockings and a red dress that was
later on torn by the men leaving her
with only a small piece of red cloth,
that too a wet one, around her.
The song Jumma chumma de de

Thus, Jumma was used in the first half to take the minds off of the audience from
the dark story and the regular action sequences of Tiger.

The first half of the movie was cinematographically shown as a nightmare to the
audience with dark colours and contours of black and brown scattered everywhere.
Thus, the second half of the movie started with a startled Tiger who had woken up
from a nightmare.

Hence, the second half of the movie was full of colours and bright light all over
depicting the transition of Tiger, who was now referred to as Shekhar, into a dream
like reality where he was surrounded by his family’s laughter and comic episodes.

Aarti, Kumar, Shekhar, Vijay, and Jyoti in the second half of HUM
The second half of the movie opened with a song showing the only female in the
household, Aarti (Deepa Sahi), who was struggling hard to please everyone in the
family by giving breakfast to one, getting flowers for the puja to another, and
searching for the clothes for her husband. She was seen as a perfect housewife but

180
at the end of the sequence she broke down and apologised for not being perfect for
them. This was the cue for the family when they started singing a song to cheer
Aarti up reminding her of all the good things she had ever done for the family.

Here, though Aarti was seen as a homemaker still she was helped and thought about
by everyone in the family. In a scene where the younger brother Vijay (Govinda)
was betting in a gambling house for money, he openly announced that with the
winning money he would gift her sister-in-law a new pressure cooker. Though the
gesture was a small one but it showed the care of a brother-in-law towards his sister
in law.

The portrayal of women within the movie differed from the first and second half of
the film. While the first half of the film dealt with action and aggressive dialogues
where women have only a few dialogues, the second half dealt with a homely
picture of family drama where women had a better screen time than the previous
part of the movie.

Though despite the fact that in the second half females had more dialogues (and
songs) with the males, still the overall portrayal of women were that of the weak,
submissive, and dependent persons. While Aarti was dependent upon her husband
Kumar (Rajnikant) and his brothers, Shekhar and Vijay, Anita was seen dependent
upon her father General Rana Pratap Singh (Kader Khan) as she was not even able
to choose her spouse without the consent of her father. This also depicted the fact
that even if a girl is educated and belong to a reputed family, she cannot make a
choice for marriage for herself though it is her personal matter but the family
interference is always apparent in such cases.

HUM AAPKE HAIN KOUN..!

While Parallel cinema was booming with new concepts and filmmakers were
experimenting with innovative ideas, commercial cinema was trending with family
dramas and inculcating morals and values in Indian females. Sooraj Barjatiya’s
Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994) initiated a trend of celebrating family functions
with extravaganza around the country.

The movie gave a loose portrayal of women in many ways. Though the two main
female leads of the film Pooja (Renuka Shahane) and Nisha (Madhuri Dixit) were

181
shown as modern girls of today’s age, none were seen studying or professionally
involved in a job anywhere. However, both the male leads of the movie Rajesh
(Mohnish Bahl) and Prem (Salman Khan) were seen engaged in their family
business throughout the movie.

It was also shown that Nisha was

studying computers as a subject but
she was never seen going to a
college/university or trying to pursue
any job. Rather she was always seen
doing household chores and making
halwa for others.
Nisha made halwa for Prem

A very homely picture of women was seen in the movie where they were engaged
in kitchen and were mostly taking care of the family members or having fun by
playing cricket and antakshiri.

In the initial minutes of the movie Pooja was seen interested in painting and
pursuing her hobby passionately but after her marriage she was only seen engaged
in performing her house work and pleasing the elders. There was no room for her
hobby or any other creative interest in her home.

It was also surprising to see that Nisha who was pursuing computers in her college
was never seen attending classes or preparing for any kind of a test. While in the
movie her father, Prof. Siddharth Choudhury (Anupam Kher), was not able to
attend the function meant for their elder daughter’s child due to the exam season on
those dates but they readily accepted the invitation to send their younger daughter
Nisha to attend the function. There was no mention of any kind of exams or
preoccupation of Nisha for her studies anywhere.

Moreover, both of the female leads were seen educationally qualified and well-read
but after her wedding, Pooja was never seen involved in her husband’s family
business. She was never asked for any opinion nor did she give any kind of advice
to her husband regarding the business.

182
A stereotypical patriarchal environment could be seen in the movie where women
are required to attain good education only for the purpose of marriage. They are
never given their due regarding their hobbies or passions afterwards. They are not
even asked to help or support their husbands in business.

A picture of homely wives who are caring and loving to everyone and who are
loved by everyone was depicted in the movie. They were required to stay up late
when someone was working late in the office and it was labelled as their love for
the person.

However, in the end when Nisha came to know that she was being married off to
her dead sister’s husband Rajesh and not Prem, she readily sacrificed her happiness
only because to make the elders pleased. And later on when everyone came to know
of the truth they were glad to see her sacrificing her happiness saying that this was
the way she showed her love towards everyone.

Women are always seen as the ones who are flexible and make marriages work.
They are the ones who are supposed to make all kinds of sacrifices and they are not
required to demand anything. They are seen to be satisfied with what they receive
without any question.

This kind of a mind-set is prevalent in most of the societies in the world and the
movie depicted a utopian scenario where women are already tamed and performed
their jobs according to the wishes of their families and husbands. Perhaps this was
the reason why the movie remained one of the major hits for all these years because
it satiates the ego of the patriarchal mind in every way.

DILWALE DULHANIA LE JAYENGE

Aditya Chopra’s Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), popularly called DDLJ, was
not only a blockbuster hit but was a milestone for all the romantic movies that came
afterwards. In Bollywood's Top 20: Superstars of Indian Cinema, Namrata Joshi
said Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge "reinvented Bollywood romances so decisively
that we can neatly divide them into two eras—before DDLJ and after DDLJ".2

2
Joshi 2012, pp. 235–236.

183
It was a simple love story of a young boy and a young girl with a twist that they did
not elope when they knew that the girl’s father would not marry them off, rather
they fought for their love and tried to persuade him to give consent for the marriage.

One of the common themes of the Indian movies since the pre-independence era
was the portrayal of Indian men as the hero and western men as the villain. But this
movie showed the opposite by portraying the protagonist, who was an NRI and was
influenced by the western culture, Raj (Shahrukh Khan) as the hero who had
goodness instilled in him even though he was brought up in a western society, and
showed an Indian man, Kuljeet (Parmeent Sethi) as the anti-hero who was brought
up in Indian society but was arrogant and haughty.

The movie, however, was a simple love story but somewhere the role of the male
lead overshadowed the female protagonist of the movie. As Raj was shown a jovial
person who was smart and attractive, Simran (Kajol) was seen as a meek and
disciplined girl who had never done anything against her parents’ wishes.

A scene in the movie showed how the two sisters were enjoying dancing on a
western song when they heard their father’s footsteps and changed the song to an
old Hindi song and pretended to study instead. This showed how the girls were
forcefully put into a disciplined life while they had desires to dance freely and enjoy
life.

In another scene, Simran was afraid to ask her father, Chaudhary Baldev Singh
(Amrish Puri) if she could go on a Europe tour with her friends because her father
did not think it was appropriate for girls to travel without the accompaniment of a
family member as it was against the traditions and values of an Indian society. But
on the other hand Raj was comfortable to tell his plans of vacationing with his
friends to his father, Dharamvir Malhotra (Anupam Kher) who in fact encouraged
him to live his life to the fullest because he had not. It showed how the upbringing
of both the protagonists were paradoxical in nature and the characterisation was,
hence, influenced by these scenes where Raj was a carefree and impulsive person
but Simran used to think before deciding anything in life.

184
 Lajjo having a heart to heart talk with Simran

Another scene depicting a deep conversation between Simran and her mother
Lajwanti (Lajjo) Singh (Farida Jalal) showed the patriarchal mind set of the Indian
society. In the scene Lajwanti said, “Jab mai chhoti thi na, tere nana mujhe sikhaya
karte the ke aurat aur mard me koi antar nahi hai, jo ek ka haq hai wohi dusre ka
haq hai. Pura bachpan me is baat ko sach maan kar jeeti rahi, lekin jaise jaise badi
hoti gayi samajh me aata gaya ke kitna jhoot hai. Meri padhayi rok di gai isliye ke
mere bhaiyon ki padhayi zyada zaruri thi, wo thi meri pehli qurbani. Phir uske
baad har mod par kabhi beti ban kr, kabhi behen, to kabhi biwi ban kr apni
khushiyon ki bali chadhati gayi. Par jab tu paida hui aur maine pehli baar tujhe
apne in hatho me liya tha to apne aap se ek waada kar liya tha maine ke jo mere
sath hua wo meri beti ke sath nahi hoga, wo beti, behen, biwi ban kar kadam kadam
par apne aap ko kurbaan nahi karegi. To kya hua agar wo ladki hai wo zindagi
apni marzi se jeeyegi, use apne hisse ki har khushi naseeb hogi. Magar mai ghalat
thi Simran, main to ye bhool hi gayi thi ke aurat ko waada karne ka bhi koi haq
nahi hai. wo to paida hi isliye hoti hai ke mard ke liye kurban hoti rahe kyunki
mard to aurat ke liye kabhi kurbani deta nahi aur naa hi kabhi dega.”

This dialogue could be well summarised as the crux of the typical patriarchal
ideology that existed in our Indian society. Everything related to girls is thought to
be unimportant be it education or job but when it comes to boys people think
otherwise. This unequal distribution of fulfilling the desires starts from the very
beginning of a child’s age. It is only the woman who is supposed to make sacrifices

185
for the family and be flexible to maintain the equilibrium within a family. The
emotional expectations for a woman is always higher than that of the man.

This movie showed how Lajjo was desperate to make Simran’s life better than hers.
She tried to explain the ugly truths of life to her in order to make her forget about
Raj and compromise with the life her father had planned for her. But then when she
came to know about Raj that he had been living with them she asked both of them
to elope so that at least her daughter could live the life she had always desired.

It portrayed the love and care of a mother for her children. She wanted her children
to live happily on their own terms without any of those restrictions that she had
faced herself. But here again she was helpless in front of her husband Chaudhary
Baldev Singh as he was not only the head of the family but all the decisions whether
important or trivial were have to be passed through him only. Lajjo being the
mother had the responsibility of only bringing up her children but all the other
decisions whether it is regarding their studies, or the European tour that Simran
wanted to go for, or the children’s marriage were to be taken by only their father,
Baldev Singh.

Even the end sequence, where Lajjo took Simran to the railway station and wanted
her to leave with Raj, showed how a decision that was very important to Simran
was taken by her father. He was the one who held Simran’s hands and watched Raj
in the eye to judge him if he genuinely loved his daughter. Here again neither Lajjo
nor Simran had a say in her personal matter. It was only when he was satisfied that
he released Simran and told her “Jee le apni zindagi.”

BORDER

J. P. Dutta directed the movie Border in 1997 and it became a huge box office hit. It
was a war drama story based on the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971. However, the
casualties shown in the movie were highly exaggerated because the filmmaker
wanted to emphasise on the fact that wars do no good to humankind and it is only
the people who are left behind that are the sufferers. The movie had an ensemble
cast that included Rakhee, Sunny Deol, Sunil Shetty, Akshaye Khanna, Tabu, Pooja
Bhatt, and Jackie Shroff.

186
Because of the subject of the movie was related to the war, the involvement of
female characters in the movie was of little or no use. The main screenplay dealt
with the different lives of the soldiers and how valiantly they fought in the war.
Only when the family background of any of the soldier was shown, the females
made an appearance. Even the most famous songs of the movie “Sandese aate
hain” had only a glimpse of the females of the movie and the whole song was sung
and picturised almost entirely on the males of the film.

A still from the song ‘Sandese aate hain’

The movie showed the first helpless female through the character of Kuldeep
Singh’s (Sunny Deol) wife Preeti (Tabu). She was desperate for not letting her
husband go to the warfront as she was afraid of the out comings. However, she
pleaded but in vain as Kuldeep Singh did not want to step off from the duty that he
had assigned for. For him, his country came before family.

The other helpless woman that was shown in the movie was Dharamvir’s (Akshaye
Khanna) blind mother (Rakhee). She had already lost her eyesight and her husband
to a war and was afraid to lose her son in the name of the country. Dharamvir was
engaged to a girl from her village, Kamla (Pooja Bhatt) but when on their
engagement day a call of the mobilisation order came for Dharamvir, he
immediately left for the border leaving these two women in tears. Though his
mother was reluctant to let him go but Kamla was optimistic that she would soon
see him once they will defeat the enemy in the war.

187
 Dharamvir with her blind mother with Kamla at the back

Another woman that was shown in the movie was Bhairon Singh’s (Sunil Shetty)
wife played by Sharbani Mukherjee. She also saw with teary eyes that her husband
bid her farewell on their wedding night when he was called back to his post.

All these women that were shown in the movie were to emphasise on the emotional
quotient of the movie. The problems that a soldier has in his family could be seen
through the way his mother, sister, or wife, in short any woman of his family goes
through.

The movie basically deals with war, but the audience could not stay in the cinema
hall to watch a three hour war movie which is full of action and fighting. There has
to be some songs and a bit of entertainment in the movie to let the audience stay for
a while. Hence, the role of the women in the movie not only gives an emotional
quotient to it but also provide a romantic angle to the film.

The movie showed these flashbacks of the soldiers for the audience to get them
emotionally attached with them so that the filmmaker could emphatically make his
point that wars could never do any good to humankind. Even though if one of the
parties win the war, the grief for the martyrs would always weigh more than the
accolades they get for winning.

Hence, in this movie also the director showed females during short intervals to give
the audience a break from all the war drama which could be a bit depressing for
them as well. Females in the movie were used as objects of entertainment and the
story only consisted of the males in the army and how they struggled to win the war
for their country.

188
 The era of 90s was changing trends in the face of Hindi cinema be it
for parallel movies or for commercial ones. In these films it is clearly shown how
the family set up was changed from rural to urban setting in the parallel films and
how middle class families were changed into the upper class families in the
commercial films.

Globalisation was setting in India and several new trends emerged because of that.
In the movie Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa the topic of Naxalite was dealt with care and
caution while in Fire not only lesbianism was shown but also the interdependency
of women and how they dealt with it was portrayed in an artistic manner.

Urban culture and modern families were shown in Hum Aapke Hain Koun! and
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Though such family dramas have always been a part
of the Hindi commercial cinema but the thematic aspect and the storyline was
fresher than those of the family dramas of the 70s, 80s or before that.

Yet more or less the representation of females in parallel and commercial cinema
were different in terms of moral values, personal attributes, costumes, and the role
in addressing the social issues being discussed in the films.

189