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CINEMA:
ACTRESSES
The
Choices Are Brave And Smart
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| Raveena
plays the victim of marital rape and the mother of an 18-year-old |
The
award for most unconventional career is clearly Tabu's. The National Award
winning actress is doing jigs with Govinda in Shikari but also going out
on a limb with a film like Chandni Bar. The film traces the journey of
a woman who comes from Meerut and is forced by circumstances to become
a bar girl. But this isn't Bollywood's usual rose-tinted take about the
fallen woman with a heart of gold. "She works in a small hard-core
bar," says Tabu. "We've shown things as they actually are. The
film is in a realistic format." Tabu is also the lead in Mahesh Manjrekar's
forthcoming Astitva in which she plays a housewife whose happy marriage
falls apart when her husband discovers that she had a fleeting affair
with a music teacher years ago.
Even Bollywood's
new entrants who normally rise in the ranks via the bimbette roles are
demanding more. Kareena Kapoor opted out of playing a mini-skirted glamdoll
in Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai (KNPH) and instead chose to make her debut in the
more demanding role of the burqa-clad Naaz in Refugee. Though the gamble
worked against her-KNPH worked while Refugee didn't-she's not deterred.
She's deftly juggling mainstream fare like Subhash Ghai's Yaadein with
Santosh Sivan's minimalist Ashoka the Great. "I'm not interested
in doing song-and-dance roles," she says firmly, "I want to
bring back the era of Madhubala and Meena Kumari. I want to be known as
an actress, not a star."
Critic Maithili
Rao calls it the "new careerism." She says, "The sense
of adventurism, of wanting high visibility and quick results that is in
society, is being reflected in the film industry as well." Absolutely.
Bollywood's GenNext boasts a new way of thinking. "I don't have the
classic film conditioning," says Zinta. "My conditioning is
of a person who got into films as a career option. I'm today's generation
and I want to portray that on screen as well." There is "a liberating
effect", says Benegal. "Today's young people are much less inhibited
and trapped by baggage than we were. They are able to separate their persona
from their person."
Pankaj Kharbanda
of Celebrity Management, who handles the careers of Zinta, Tabu and Sen,
says his clients are actively saying no to the regular fare. "It's
a different generation. These girls are very sure of themselves."
The choices are both brave and smart. Because roles that showcase a heroine's
talent also further her career. Indistinguishable Barbie dolls are easily
replaced by younger versions. Distinctive actresses are not. Also, none
of the girls is burning her hard-core mainstream bridges. Instead they
are cleverly alternating the standard issue roles with the hatke (Bollywood
parlance for different) ones. So Zinta follows Kya Kehna with the candy
floss love story Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega. "I'm meeting the rules half-way,"
she says.
Of course,
with women's roles it has always been a case of one step forward-two steps
back. Most films continue to restrict women to eye-candy (check out the
careers of Twinkle Khanna or Shilpa Shetty) and Bollywood is still a long
way from making a Thelma and Lousie. The characters may be more fleshed
out but the politics are largely regressive. But there has been, as Tabu
says, "a change in the definition of roles and characters for women".
And with leading actresses demanding their share of histrionics, directors
have little option but to provide opportunities. "All these girls
dancing on screens are actresses waiting to be tapped," says Lajmi.
And at least for some, the wait is over.
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its too late, suggests INDIA TODAY associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar
in 
