SALUTE TO WOMANHOOD: INDIAN CINEMA’S TRYST WITH DESTINY.
Th e Indian Film industry has been a major point
of reference for Indian culture in this century. It has
expressed the changing scenarios of modern India to
an extent that no other major art form has been able
to express. Cinema has infl uenced the way in which
people perceive various aspects of their own lives. In a
country where people literally worship their favourite
superstar, get married to a picture of their favourite
hero or stand hours together outside the house of their
celebrity just to get a glimpse- cinema attains the cult
status of being the revolution that shapes and changes
the cultures of common man.
She wears many hats each day as a mother, a wife,
a sister, a daughter and a professional and yet excels in
all her roles. She is soft and yet very strong inside. She
can handle trouble and carry heavy burden with equal
ease. She displays many emotions from joy to jealousy,
from fear to fondness and from sadness to surprise. She
is none other than the Woman. Over the years, Indian
cinema has been a witness to the changing image of
womanhood. Even in reel-life, Bollywood potboilers
are incomplete without a woman’s presence. Her
presence simply lights up the screens thereby creating
an unmatchable aura within the dark confi nes of the
cinema hall. In earlier times women actors used to
get smaller, more repetitive roles, oft en cast as a prop
to highlight the greatness of the hero. It is not that the
women do not have a place in cinematic history: Nargis
will forever be remembered as the model matriarch
for her character in Mother India (1957). When one
talks of women oriented fi lms, it is impossible to not
include Mother India. Th e fi lm was a complete package
of social relevance. Zeenat Aman is immortalised as
the typical heroine, a pin-up model of a girl who rules
in the hearts of scores of admirers, aft er movies such as
Heera Panna (1973), Hare Krishna Hare Ram, etc. And
in recent times, Madhuri Dixit has always been the girlnext-
door with her innocence and simplicity ever since
she joined the industry in the early 1980s.