Unconventional Heroines: From Shuddh Desi Romance (2013) to Holiday (2014)

           As I enter the stages of achieving Ph.D. candidacy in this upcoming year, I had taken a little more than a month off to essentially vacation and spend time in Singapore. During this time, I didn't get a chance to update my blog sans the movie review of 2 States. I did, however, publish a play review of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and another article that spoke about the fun night hot spots to party in Singapore. Now, that I am back and after taking a couple of days off to recover from the travel and climate change, I am back with vengeance and more than ready to take all you readers in the journey of India's popular culture, my observations, and discussions that I find important to our understanding of India as a country, nation, and a home to a population of 1.237 billion people. 

Although initially I had planned to write a movie review of Holiday (2014), I came to a realization that the film industry is now exploring and creating characteristics of heroines that are unconventional. Each time the recent films have pushed the boundaries and has arguably represented characteristics in women that were earlier either unaccepted or viewed as immoral or perhaps even unfeminine. I will elaborate these examples through the examples of three films I recently watched this year: Holiday (2014), Hassee to Phassee (2014), and Shuddh Desi Romance (2013). In the string of films that have been challenging the stereotypical representations of Indian women, earlier films include Dev D (2009) and  Luv Ka The End (2011). 

  The film Holiday (2014)'s primary focus is on the army officers who dedicate their time to saving and protecting the nation against terrorism and other threat that seeks to destroy the lives of civilians. As one of the major themes in the film, the constant reminder that Virat Pratap (Akshay Kumar)'s character reiterates is the notion that if a suicide bomber can give up his life for the passion he has for his faith or "revenge," why cannot a civilian also sacrifice his life to protect the lives of millions? While this was a troubling question that the film explores, the heroine (Sonakshi Sinha)'s character could be deemed as unconventional. From the start, the media in the film industry has been pushing the idea that Sinha is unlike other heroines in the industry because she has had to cope with weight issues and so on.

 What I liked about her characterization in this film in particular was that Virat initially rejects her because both him and Saiba (Sonakshi) because she is delicate, soft, and beautiful. Virat longs for a life partner who is physically strong like him and lo and behold, in the next frame we see him getting a pleasant surprise as Saiba transforms from a delicate flower to a strong boxer who wins the match. Hence, one could argue that the societal expectations for the unconventional heroines is gradually growing because as early as films in the early 2000s, such characterizations would have been viewed as tabooed and to a great extend unfeminine.

While for a lot of audiences this moment goes unrecognized, I found this representation in particular to be a step forward in India's fight for violence against women. However, Holiday is not the only film that I would say that has pushed the boundaries of unconventional characterizations for the heroine of the film industry. Earlier this year, I had watched Hasee to Phasee (2014) and Shuddh Desi Romance (2013). 

Both starred the international star, Priyanka Chopra's cousin sister, Parineeti Chopra in two completely different roles that argued that girls did not have to shape themselves into the classic Miss India like characters who are traditional, delicate, and are represented as women who inhabited the domestic space, which is where their role is as nurturers and providers for their family and husbands. However, both these films challenged these notions and showed that the heroines in both these films wanted much more than just domestic bliss. Meeta (Parineeti Chopra) is intelligent, quirky, bold, and dares to risk her family and reputation to pursue the career of her dreams. Unlike her sister in the film, she is simple and tomboy-ish. 
Throughout the film, her sister's boyfriend, Nikhil (Siddharth Malhotra) tries to get know her and eventually ends up falling for her. While it may seem initially quite surprising, the fact that the filmmaker, not surprisingly, Karan Johar presented us with unconventional heroines, she is accepted into the family and for once, she is shown as empowered. The earlier notions that a woman has to leave her career and aspirations when she gets married is left behind, instead, we see that the couple support each other in their careers, which enables for perhaps an even more successful marriage. Earlier, if I remember correctly, parallel cinema films represented women who were intelligent as ugly and nerdy who did not know how to have fun and enjoy life. This misconstrued notion also further suppresses a girl's desire to pursue education and become successful in her own way. This was perhaps one of my most favorite films after Highway (2014) this year. 
               

This was not the first time, though, that Parineeti broke the conventions as a heroine. Shuddh Desi Romance (Pure Indian Romance, 2013). The film's particular focus was on commitment, marriage, live-in relationships, as well as, arranged marriages. Raghu Ram (Sushant Singh Rajput) and Gayatri (Parineeti Chopra) both are involved in a relationship and eventually move in and start living together. Unlike many films, this particular film explored the idea that sometimes it is okay to be with someone without signing the dotted line. While personally, there are some traditional expectations such as marriage that I continue to agree with. I found this to be a film that spoke volumes about the cultural changes that are taking place in India and to be sure, not just in cosmopolitan Indian cities but indeed even in small towns and cities that exist in most of India. The film also shows Gayatri smoking, engaging in pre-marital sex, and being bold and independent. At the end of the film, both Raghu and Gayatri still end up living together but not signing the dotted line. Even though many may not necessarily agree with the conventions or their decision on many levels (morally, socially, and so on), I think again this is a step forward (albeit an uneasy one). 

            To sum it up, this is the time when the Indian film industry, in particular, Bollywood is making strides in producing unconventional heroines in mainstream cinema. As the time continues, it will be interesting to see how these trends start reflecting within the Indian culture. Secondly, these type of representations also show that even though there is an overarching problem in India if a woman or girl child's life is valued, these type of representations do emphasize what Nisha Pahuja has stated that there are multiple Indias and indeed these representations become a lens through which we see a multi-layered and multidimensional India! 

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