The Heroine Phenomenon in Contemporary Indian Cinema

Modern Era

Abstract

The roles of women in Indian cinema have emerged constantly throughout the period of movies
and theatres. So the author would like to confine the writing to the modern era of contemporary
Indian Cinema since that is the era the author is most familiar with.

The author would like to broadly categorize the roles of women throughout this era into three
categories and later explain each of them in the further text. The three categories are named as,

● The Carer and Empathizer

About the era

This era of modernization has seen a massive trend and changes in the mentality of Indians and
how people perceive women. There has been a huge emphasis on women’s empowerment
through movies like Dangal, Neerja, MaryKom, ChakDe India, etc. But also, on the contrary,
there has been an increase in the objectification of women and normalization of it through
movies and web series like Love Sex and Dhokha, The Dirty Picture, Miss Lovely, etc. Also in
this era, there has been significant growth in the B-grade movie industry which solely revolves
around using a woman’s body as a source of sexual pleasure and lust.

Another trend that can be observed in this era is the position of women in each movie. There
used to be a time when women were given mostly the role of a caring wife, a helpless mother,
or a widow. In analyzing the movies now, women can now be seen portrayed as independent,
hard-working, contributing to the household income, leading people, and being role models to
other young girls. India is a land of cultures and has seen women leaders like Rani Lakshmibai,
Rani Chennamma, Razia Sultan but rarely had they been presented in the Indian Cinema in the
older eras. But with the growing need to empower women, there are movies and web series
being made on each of them.

Filmmakers go with the general trend and the mentality of the society and the whole cinema
industry is driven by business. They cater to the needs of the audience. Adult scenes, obscene
language, toxicity, drugs, and alcohol use in the movies have increased significantly with the
changing mentality of Indians. Violence against women is being normalized, stalking is getting
more common, the definition of love is becoming more sex and fewer feelings, cheating and
hookup culture is getting promoted. An overall change in the definition of ‘relationships’ can be
seen. Controversies are on the rise, where few producers are making episodes on an army wife
cheating on the husband just because he is away and the woman (as per the directors) has
sexual fantasies to fulfill, even at the cost of cheating the husband.
It is ironic to say that along with the empowerment of women in cinema, comes a degradation of
her character. Getting physical with a woman is getting considered as a matter of pride to
showcase the ‘male ego’ or ‘swag’ (as people say informally these days) rather than a matter of
trust and emotion.

The Carer and Empathizer

This role has been there through the start of Indian Cinema when everything used to be
centered around the male character. The carer could be a mother, sister, or wife/girlfriend of the
hero. Take the example of the famous web series ‘Mirzapur’ where the sister of the lead actor,
‘Guddu Bhaia’ is just playing the role of an empathizer. She creates very little influence on the
storyline and is only there to provide empathy to his brothers and family.

In the same web series, the mother of the lead actor could also be seen falling under the same
category of roles. The only job she is provided with is to cook food, cry over the fate of her
children, narrate the problems of the family to other women in the society, and complain to her
husband rather than taking the initiative to solve it.

This role in Indian Cinema has been overused and is present in almost all movies and has the
roots back to the old Indian culture where child marriage used to be prevalent, women were not
sent to schools to study, and the only job they had was to give birth, and be a housemaid. In
most movies, the mother would have this role; a traditional outfit, household chores, poor
English, little knowledge of technology, and high interest in ‘Chaar Log Kya Kahenge’
(translating, ‘what would other people think !’).

This role could have been slightly modified such that the woman was taking part in the storyline,
taking part in the decision-making of the family hence, sending a message to the community on
what position women hold in the family. Ironically, even after having a dormant role in the
movement of the storyline, these women hold the family together. Each time the Carer dies in
the movie or gets out of the storyline, things start to fall apart just like it happens in the world
around us.

The Dominant

This role is given to women who create a significant impact on the storyline, have a high
position among all the characters or is the main character herself, are mentally more sound and
strong, and can dominate the lead male character. This is the kind of role where the woman
won’t fear the patriarchy and care a penny about how other men and women would judge her.
The kind of woman who can directly get into a shop and buy sanitary products without waiting
for other men to leave the shop.
Taking the example of ‘Sacred Games’, the woman cop who worked for RAW is a perfect
example of this type of role. There comes a time when her being in control of various things
dominates the main male character (who also happened to be the central character of the whole
series). She decides what the male character should do, how he should work for her, how he
can be an asset to the nation, and what his fate would be.

The best example the author can provide of this role is in reference to the upcoming movie on
the former Indian Prime Minister Ms. Indira Gandhi. The movie named ‘Indira’ is a biopic based
on her political career. She will be seen dominating the entire geopolitical game in east Asia and
also the allies of the countries in the west. Roles like these are really inspiring to the young
women in India, and show how ‘Astra’ is useless without ‘Shastra’. To win big battles you have
to have strong leadership with big brains, the emotion of goodwill, and unified love. They show
how women are not made for burning cow dung cakes and cooking food over them, but to bring
up the nation with advancements in technology, art, media, and arms.

The Seductive

This bold role has got in trend in modern-day cinema where a woman’s body is objectified and
displayed as a piece of entertainment. Movies like Lust Stories, The Dirty Picture, Jism 2, Love
Sex and Dhokha are based solely on displaying the women’s body as an object of pleasure.
In this role, the woman showcases her aesthetics in a seductive manner to get the attention of
various characters in the movie and take advantage of people (especially men).

Lots of adult-rated movies have come in this era of Indian Cinema, where there are obscene
scenes involved. This has had a massive impact on the youth’s mentality. People are getting
influenced by men stalking those ‘Seductive’ women and are following the same practice in their
own lives; vulgar jokes are being made on women's bodies as a result of this which is acting as
an entry point to the porn world to young kids. Addiction in today’s era, powerful enough to
destroy careers.

But also with this role comes the message to let women celebrate their sexuality, take pride in
being a woman; making the society feel that it is natural to bleed once in a month just like how
their mothers and sisters bleed, to see it as a happening of nature and not some misfortune or
curse that was given to women. It is okay to expose certain parts of yourself and wear
comfortable clothes, even if that is more exposing.

The message getting delivered through this is firm and crystal clear,
“The amount of exposed skin is not proportional to a woman’s character”.

The Oppressed

This role has also been there in Indian Cinema since a long time. Women playing this role are
shown getting mentally and physically abused. May it be an orphaned girl child who becomes a
victim of sex traficking, or a widow who is abused by other males in the society, or a girl getting
chased by some ‘powerful’ boy and getting harassed by him, or a wife getting cheated by his
husband.

It narattes the problems women often go through in Indian Society, especially widows and
orphans. There are movies that also display the marital rape of women. Indian Society has had
the mindset of taking marriages as a license to use the woman’s body anytime as per the
husband’s sexual demands.

Conclusion

Even after getting into the 21st century, the society in almost all the places in the world is still
patriarchal. But despite that there are movies in Indian Cinema which have passed on the
message to the world, that women aren’t toys, but are God’s unique creation, the other half of
each man’s life, and God’s own material form in the appearance of ‘Mothers’.

If there are bad portrayals of women in Indian Cinema, there is also very positive ones too, now
everything comes down to the conditioning of the Indian society on how they perceive it.

Remember,

‘The beauty of stars can only be seen when there is darkness all around’. (Gourav Nishad)

About the Autor

The author is Gourav Nishad with institute id 111801014 and exclaims that it was a wonderful
experience writing and researching on this topic, of how far we have come in our approach
towards women and how far we still have to go.