No Bollywood for Middle Aged Women !

There's an old saying - art is reflection of the society! 99% of Bollywood movies are certainly an exception. Interestingly the India film industry aka Bollywood has two clearly defined categories - Stars and Actors ! Stars are evergreen, media friendly, people savy stalwarts, usually adept in marketing and PR activities.  Ironically very few women have been able to achieve stardom in past 100 odd years of India cinema. 

Until late 1970s, heroines, as we usually prefer calling them, had a well defined role, character and attributes. In addition, mothers and sometimes sisters too were important part of the Bollywood stories those days! The divas of 50s, 60s and 70s gracefully retired as they hit mid 30s, though most of them were married in the same fraternity,i.e. no dearth of opportunity.  Why only the women/ the heroines take a sabbatical to raise their kids and then they slowly move into obscurity forever? Why women from these wealthy and seemingly liberal entertainment industry powerhouses only become the scapegoats of the double standards? Some might say that the choice was theirs, but how free, how unbiased that decision was !

Those days going to a theater was not considered a good manner, so women rarely went to theaters. According to my guesstimate more then 90% of the Directors, Producers, writers and the technical staff was and is male. So there were genuine reasons for not casting middle aged women those days, i.e. no market for women oriented movies, very few women representatives to hoist the flag !

Cut to 2012 and the situation is still the same. Unfortunately not even young, educated, outward thinking, highly smart, international competition winner and even talented heroines are not able to demand, command good script, well written characters except those of confused love birds. The superstar actresses of 90s and early 00's are already forgotten. The mothers and sisters are no longer relevant in the mindless movies made for weekend multiplex audiences. What a wastage of talent ! 

I think the reason for current state of affairs lies in a box, infact two boxes. The one box is what you are currently using. A significant % Women in 40s and 50s in India currently are not yet Online. So they are not able to voice their opinion, voice their demands unlike their teen kids. This box has done one more thing. Because the teens and the young kids are constantly in touch with their friends and the rest of the world, so they dont miss the middle aged women anymore in personal and virtual lives and even movies. 

The other black box, is our good old, earlier known as Idiot Box. The Indian Television Industry has been filling this vacuum for past 15 years. It has preserved and reserved the Prime Time for Indian women and served them quiet adeptly. Infact the Television has provided good opportunity to showcase talent to several middle aged hero and heroines who were good actors but couldn't achieve stardom in Bollywood.

However I am slightly perplexed here. What happened on the Television screen was the cause or the effect of what happened on the Silver Screen ! Perhaps the reason lies in our expectations. We the viewers always expected our heroines to be beautiful, young, elegant and sexy. We are/were not interested in their acting and so couldn't accept their growing wrinkled face or disproportionate vital statistics ! 

Let me know what you think...

Why Women Liberation Can Take Off Only in India !

The instance of misbehavior, heinous crimes against women in India are among the highest in the world, yet there are few things which makes me feel positive.

A lot of confusion is spread on the web and in the minds of educated Indian men and women about the orthodox, way of life which I hope will clear out slowly. Majority of confusions are about Traditions and Religion. Driven by consumerism and desire to make quick buck, gain quick fame or pleasures local traditional or global festivals are getting reduced to occasional superficial lip-service, pompous celebrations. 

While a lot of traditions are good, many are bad, illogical and with passage of time such traditions have bee dying natural death. Traditions are usually regional phenomena which evolved either in response to an external situation such as geography or climate or out of one odd instances. Parda Pratha for example started in northern parts of India to safeguard the women from the eyes of soldiers and fighters from Central Asia who frequently invaded India for over 1000 years. Parda Pratha is not part of any religion of India origin. Similarly traditions such as Sati though abolished and extinct now developed due to one odd incidence. Modern educated Indian women might find traditions of Karva Chauth or Rakhi as discriminating or demeaning but once again these are not propagated by any Religion. In-fact if some time and efforts are made to learn the stories and anecdotes behind each of these rituals everybody can learn precious lessons.

Religion according to me is the biggest influence on the Indian psyche. And I believe that the premise of almost all religions originated from India is fairly neutral to positive towards women. Blind procrastination might be fashionable but not very logical and beneficial thing to do in long run. So careful study and assessment of Indian religion can help in liberating India women, contrary to popular beliefs.

Jijabai played instrumental role in developing political acumen of Shivaji. Kiran Bedi, Sushma Swaraj or Medha Patkar have been playing significant role in active and social politics for quiet some time now. Rani Padamini and Laxmi Bai (Jhansi ke Rani) have done something beyond bravery, backed by their deep political acumen and support from all corners of then totally male dominated society. No where in the world, Women have been politically active since time immoral, except in India. Even now the most powerful and important positions in Indian Politics are up for grabs for the intelligent,  educated, liberal and politically astute Women of India. Ironical the fierce competition is from not so educated segment though, which further reaffirms that the Indian masses are welcoming towards women ready to lead.

GDP of India is under estimated, because the contribution of almost 25% of India population, i.e Housewives working at their own will, out of happiness, compassion and sometimes even forcefully is not properly accounted for. Indian housewives have mastered the art of running a big family with a small budget. Thanks to the housewives, the wastage of food, energy or any resources are minimal and the cost of living is one of the lowest in the world. This peer to peer training has equipped Indian housewives with some of remarkable lessons about balancing budget deficit, arts, handicraft, running business in spare time to managing large family spread all over India. Unfortunately we the Thankless males have never appreciated the enormous, free of cost services which Indian women have been rendering to our society and country for eons. But now with changing times, in the age of information explosion and easing communication, Indian housewives are leveraging lessons learnt while running home to successfully run several Small Medium businesses, home grown businesses escalating right upto the top of the pyramid.

The influx of information has temporarily confused the Indian women and men about the essence of being India. But now, more then men, the Indian women are adapting local traditions and values. They are busy weaving the net which will safeguard the uniqueness of being an Indian women without any hesitation to borrow and adapt ideas from other cultures.

Where lies the need for Change - A bit in the Attitude of the modern, educated women towards rituals, customs and towards the voice of uneducated, home ridden women. A bigger need of the hour is to change, educate the males of this country. Both the sections need to revisit our value systems, understand our identity and appreciate that rapes, oppression, eve-teasing and several such heinous crimes are not attributed to Indian-ness. We have to appreciate that Being India is confusing in itself, so being and remaining an Indian Women is a daunting task which only Indian women have been blessed to undertake. Though its important to improve the Law & Order conditions to ensure the safety and security of girls and women, but if we, the Indian males can change our mindset a little bit, miracles can happen overnight.

The democratic chaos, the religious equality, the traditions and deep rooted family support are some of the critical and unique aspects which will put the Indian women in the driver's seat, in the Years ahead. We will see many more successful Women working cohesively with the entire society to shape the future, which world will look upon to.