It is almost six months into the year 2015 and Bollywood has enjoyed both success and failures alike at the box office. While movies like ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’ became the highest mid-year grosser, small films like ‘Margarita With A Straw’ earned millions of hearts with extra-ordinary performances and story. While both the movies belong to two different genres, what is common between them is the fact that it was a woman who drove the wheels of the films to success. In the past six months, women have emerged as successful faces in carrying the entire film on their shoulders and getting recognized by the critics and audience alike.
Whether in front or behind the camera, penning the soul of the film or financing the revolutionary project, women are exploring places earlier considered forbidden for them and acing their respective fields. Here are six hits of 2015, where women were the main force of the film’s success and represented the fairer sex in a ‘never-seen-before’ role:
Dum Laga Ke Haisha
Coming from the successful mainstream banner Yash Raj Films, 'Dum Laga Ke Haisha', is the perfect example of realism of life captured in a 70mm screen. The film introduced Bhumi Pednekar a new talented face, who’s portrayal of Sandhya Verma won the hearts of the audience. Not having a conventional body type of a HIndi film heroine, Pednekar made everyone sit up and notice her in this slice-of-life film. Sandhya was a woman of substance who was educated and strongly disapproved of taking any nonsense from her husband and in-laws. She was liberal, had a dream to pursue, and was open about her sexual life, all without losing the touch of reality. Sandhya was an educated middle class girl who wanted a family, but didn’t break down or went into the typical ‘Bollywood’ drama when her heart got broken. Instead she filed for divorce against her family’s will and started taking steps towards building a career. She helped her ‘lost’ husband to found a purpose and helped him realize that happiness is not found in set, superficial rules set by the society, it comes when we break the rules to create our own path.
NH-10
The entire Bollywood went gaga over Anushka’s performance as Meera in her first venture as a producer, ‘NH 10’. The film captured the concept of ‘honor-killing’ in rural families of north India. Instead of tracing the regular ‘machoness’ of male protagonists, the film was all about Anushka and her revenge. More than her acting what marked the empowerment was her donning the producer’s cap for an ‘all-woman action film’. The positive reception of the film marked the changing mindset of Indian audience. Anushka Sharma shouldered the entire movie to the finishing line successfully and opened gates for more such film, as an actor as well as a producer.
Tanu Weds Manu Returns
Kangana Ranaut is the new face of changing status of female actors in Bollywood. She continued her ‘Queen’ streak of doing films with strong female protagonist, in this year’s first blockbuster ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’. The double role of hers', one reprising the fearless free bird Tanu and the other as an independent, more sensible Haryanavi athlete Kusum was appreciated. Though the film relies equally on other characters but it was Kangana’s screen space that hit the chord of the audience and the film sailed smoothly to the Rs100 crore club. Undoubtedly, Kangana is becoming the bankable actor, who can carry the film solely on the basis of her performance than her name.
PIKU
Amitabh Bachchan looked adorable playing a ‘motion-obsessed’ father, who doesn’t want her daughter to get married, but it was Deepika’s brilliant performance as Piku that audience applauded the most. Piku was independent, dedicated daughter who wanted to sacrifice her own happiness to take care of her father. In a male dominant world where sons are considered to carry the name of the family forward, Piku was living the life of an exception. Written by a Juhi Chaturvedi, the movie portrayed the life of every independent woman has taking care of her parents and family at large. Shoojit Sarcar just brought that unaccredited role in front of the camera and gave it a more liberal touch. The movie touched the space where fathers were comfortable sharing the details of daughters’ sexuality, were fine with her not been married, in fact ridiculed the so called relatives citing the examples of famous names. Deepika and Juhi, both, helmed their respective fields and wrote the success of an unconventionally beautiful film. While Juhi wrote a brilliant story, Deepika enacted it on screen with absolute charm.
Margarita, With A Straw
Co-directed by Sonali Bose and having Kalki Koechin in lead role, 'Margarita, With A Straw' can easily be called the revolutionary film of the year. The story of the film revolves around Laila who is suffering from cerebral palsy and how she discovers herself while studying in New York. Kalki essayed the role of Laila, who discovers that she is bisexual and after a point realizes that her parents should know the truth. Laila is an ordinary girl living life in extraordinary circumstances. The movie was critical acclaimed all around the globe and showed the world that women film makers are ready to touch upon the ‘forbidden’ topic more freely than ever, with or without big names or budget, but definitely with a vision.
Dil Dhadakne Do
The recent release was helmed by a lady who hails from a family of feminists, Zoya Akhtar. Zoya has always been considered as a strong woman and her movies from the start have created a new genre in the film industry. In ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’ she creatively brings forth the problems of elite class and their dealing with it. She always has a strong female character in her films, from Konkana’s role in ‘Luck By Chance', Katrina in ‘Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara’ and Priyanka in ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’. Zoya, a strong headed woman herself, makes it a point that women get enough exposure through her films. She represents the new age bench of directors who focus on quality and changing mindset of urban audience. Interestingly, she has also shown many filmmakers how to make an ensemble film work at the Box Office.
The air of Bollywood is changing; female actors are no longer just props wearing chiffon and glycerin but have a mind and a vision. The success of the above mentioned films proves that 2015 has been a women’s year so far and we still have half a year left with films like 'Drishyam', 'Jazbaa' and 'Bajirao Mastani' having strong female characters, waiting for release. It’s still a long road ahead in terms of equality in Bollywood, but clearly a step to achieve it has already been taken.
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