Along with advancement in technology adopted by filmmakers lately, Indian Cinema has even become aggregable to the fact that women-centric scripts cannot only reach crores club but can even stay with the audience for quite a long time and bring change in the society, though insignificant. But some path breaking filmmakers like Mehboob Khan with his Mother India, Rajkumar Santoshi with Damini and Shekhar Kapur with Bandit Queen have achieved to stand out as ‘parallel’ cinema enthusiasts.
In the early 21st century Mahesh Manjrekar with his Astitva, Shyam Benegal with Zubeidaa, Sudhir Mishra with Chameli starring Begum of Bollywood, Nagesh Kukunoor with Dor, Madhur Bhandarkar with blockbusters like Chandni Bar, Page 3, Corporate, and Fashion have not let the ‘fashion’ go extinct.
Of late, Raj Kumar Gupta with his No one killed Jessica, Vishal Bhardwaj with 7 Khoon Maaf, Sujoy Ghosh with Kahaani, Gauri Shinde with her debut movie English Vinglish, Vikas Bahl with his much acclaimed Queen, Omung Kumar with his biopic on female Indian boxer Mary Kom of the same name and Pradeep Sarkar’s Mardaani have further taken the legacy of portraying women empowerment on the screen.
The saga doesn’t just stop here. It seems that year 2016 will too prove to be a year of ‘female-centric’ flicks. With Ram Madhvani’s biopic – Neerja, R. Balki’s Ki and Ka dealing with a bold concept of gender discrimination procured much adoration amongst female audience, as it let them watch one of their many wild dreams come true on the screen, Omung Kumar yet again gained substantial praise for his much talked about biopic – Sarbjit, where the struggle of a wife and more importantly disquietude that of a sister for her brother who has been abducted across the border is depicted as real as it could have been. Penned down by Pooja Bhatt, Cabaret allegedly based on Helen’s life, is yet another add-on in the collection of female-protagonist films. Kahaani 2, a sequel to 2012 film – Kahaani, is an Indian thriller directed by Sujoy Ghosh, is expected to set audience on sensation with its story-plot. Recently, Pavan Kirpalani’s psychological thriller starring Radhika Apte, Phobia, was a surprise hit hence showing beyond doubt that not only are filmmakers interested in developing films whose burden is solely borne by leading female artists but even the audience is all welcoming to a refreshing change in the stereotype.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
