Women in Indian Film, 1-10
edited by Nasreen Munni Kabir
Zubaan Books, 2009
In the past, publications on women and Hindi cinema have become, more often than not, treatises on the problematic relationship between the two: the lack of female-centric roles; stereotyped casting; and the staple of thrusting hips clad in rain-soaked, body-hugging saris. All this is true. Commercial Hindi films rarely portray realistic and substantial female characters. Literature probing this skewed portrayal – especially what it might mean for Indian and Southasian audiences, given the wide reach of Bollywood – is certainly important. Yet with the focus so largely on the uneasy association, literature on the women themselves – studies on their impact as actors in moulding and challenging the evolution of Indian cinema – has been dishearteningly small.
The editors at Zubaan, the independent feminist publishing house, must have been thinking along the same lines when they put together this new Women in Indian Film package. The series is a set of eye-catching booklets on ten women actors – Nutan, Jaya Bachchan, Aparna Sen, Farah Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Aarti Bajaj, Saira Banu, Smita Patil, Mumtaz and Zeenat Aman. With so many influential actors to choose from, these ten women are, in the words of series editor Nasreen Munni Kabir, "an unpredictable selection grown not out of a need to be representative, but rather out of personal interest and choice – and a curiosity to know more." This is perhaps why the individual writers' enthusiasm for each subject is palpable, as they explore the convergence between personal lives and careers, keeping in mind the socio-political context in India at the time.
All the same, one hitch in an otherwise excellent package is the overt focus on Bollywood. Regardless of the series title, Bengali director Aparna Sen is the only non-Bollywood woman featured. Most notable is the lack of even a single woman from the vibrant industries in South India – the Telegu, Kannada or Tamil film industries, the latter in recent years having overtaken Bollywood in terms of annual output. Indeed, these monographs are not revolutionary in what they contribute to our understanding of these individual actors, or even of the larger issue of the role of women in Indian cinema. But they are unique in changing the nature of the discourse: of discussing the women in terms of what they have brought to the screen as actors, directors and editors.