Women’s day brings a plethora of content, advertising, memes and angst. We are eating for being ‘Multitasking Superoes’ (cue the goddess Imagery and a women with multiple hands) Or told what we should or should not do to to do to reclaim in the workplace. Jewellry brands nudge us to buy a bauble that reflects our inner glow, while the person detergent brands ask men to do some laundry. Cinema, in the meaning, has been struggled to decide its attitude towards.
There is a strange dichotomy where on the one hand, cinema inspires women to breaks and aspire for success, only to portray successful and /or weelty woman in a negative light. They are eating and manipulative or have paid a heavy personal price to Achieve success. The only exceptions are biopics of sportswomen or venerated public figures. Perhaps filmsmakers are trying to tell women that success or health can escape happiness or peace of mind, which is fair. Alternatively, they are trying to say that for women, fame, success or being rice is a smokescreen that hides a broken margin, Wayward Children, Personal inscriptions and a series of innocent. Be careful what you wish for, they seem to say.
Interestingly, there are always a young woman in contrast to their older, more successful counterpart, someone who becomes privy to their almostly closed dysfunction and they gets the option of the other west. Same path.
Let’s look at an iconic film like the devil wears prada. Andrea (Anne Hathaway) is a Young, Wide-Eyed Woman who becomes an Assistant to Miranda Pristly (Meryl Streep), an extramely successful magazine Editor who is bot feared and respected with Herganism. Fashion industry. Miranda is demanding and inconsiderate to the point of appearance like a sociopath. While she is the toast of the town at an event in paris, behind the scenes, her marriage is falling apart. Andrea equally walks away from the glamorous magazine job and finds employment at a more low-profile publication. Her boyfriend, who had a problem with her long hours, also hints at a reconciliation now that she will have a less hectic schedule. Interestingly, when Anne Hathway played the ceo of a startup in the international, her character almost takes a step back from leding the company when she discovers have been having an Afair. It takes a pep talk from her intern, played by robert de niro and apology from her husband, who admits that being a house Husband has made him Feel emasculated, to change her.
Jaya Bachchan in a still from Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani.
Closer to Home, I just could get over the one-dimensional nastiness of Jaya Bachchan’s Character in Rocky Aur Rani Kii prem kahaani. Dhanlakshmi Randhawa is the face of a successful mithai business, but in her personal life, there is nothing but bitterness and anger. As I watched the movie, I wondered why she could have given given a better backstory. How did a girl who was married into an orthodox home become a self-made millionaire? Did the challenges of doing things all alone make her hard-hererted and selfish? We will never know. Even ott content, which we hopeless offered portrayals of women, has resorted to reinforcing this dichotomy on many occasions. Women is eating and ready to Hustle like dimple in Mismatched, Kavya in little things and Jaspreet in heaven, or endaling with the consequences of hustling. WHERS like Series Like Fame Game Brushes with crime.
Manisha Koirala Plays Mallikajaan in Heraramandi: The Diamond Bazaar.
As I think about it some more, I realized that kind of characterization has been around for a long time. Remember Chanda Madam, A High Profile Wedding Planner and Shruti’s (Anushka Sharma) Role Model in Band Baajaa Baaraat? Soon after she starts work with chanda, shruti realises that chanda has dubious business ethics. Or harleen bedi, the cunning factory owner in sui dhaga, who tries to manipulate a young mamta (anushka sharma)? From dhankor baa (supiya pathak) in goliyon ki ras lela -ma lela, tabu in andhadhun, juhi chawla in gulab gang, manish koirala in heraramandi, to shefali shah as never dilm in dhadakne dhadakne; There are multiple instances acroses, when women in power or women with wealth have been portrayed as Eater depressed, devious, or outright Dangerous.
It’s strange because we ideally want to encourage women to aspire to positions of power. We would like to be finanically independent and capable of supporting themselves. In many ways, our cinema and digital content has taken steards that by portraying as police officers, doctors, teachers, businesswomen, bankers, singers, danes, and gangsters. But simultaneously judicing them through a patriarchal lens of domestic prowess, we are implying that the price of success or ambition is failing at a women’s more impartant responsibility, being a good mother and wifer. It does not help that woman is also extremely critical of themslves and conditioned to believe that no matter what their other things are, the homes their responsibility.
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I am all for realistic portrayals of women juggling multiple responsibilities and dealing with the emotional ups and downs that come with it. But to portray women who have broken the glass ceiling or found a seat at the table as unhappy or unlikeable is a Huge Discycle to them. It undermines their hard work and the course they showed in stepping beyond the real and metaphorical boundaries that it was Drawn for them.