Headline: SPINSTER OVER SHRIMATI
Introline: Queen’s atypical happily-ever-after is a refreshing change in a
sea of gender clichés
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Bachelorette, bachelorina, bachelor girl, singleton, single
woman…in a bid to avoid the dreaded ‘spinster’, English language users opt for
a string of alternative expressions to denote an unmarried female human. Their
concerns are easily explained. After all, social prejudice has lent meanings to
that word, going way beyond a woman’s marital status. Unlike the coolth
associated with the male ‘bachelor’, over the centuries, ‘spinster’ has come to
stand for a neurotic, frustrated, ill-tempered, despairing, unattractive woman,
unhappy at being unmarried past what is prescribed by consensus as the socially
permissible age.
By dodging the word, liberals are possibly succumbing to the
very biases they no doubt decry. That’s a subject for another discussion. For
the moment though, let’s turn our attention to how mainstream Bollywood keeps
away from spinsters as doggedly as well-meaning English speakers do. Single
women in Bollywood tend to be 20-somethings who are in the process of being
courted, falling in love or getting married to men during the course of their
films. Rare is the Bollywood story that dwells at length on a heroine’s
singledom and celebrates it, or gives us a leading lady — young or old — who
has pointedly opted to stay unmarried. It’s in this scenario that director
Vikas Bahl’s Queen, now in theatres, springs a surprise on us.
Queen’s atypical happily-ever-after brings us a Rani Mehra (Kangna
Ranaut) who is persistently single and pleased about it. This is a departure
from the Hindi film norm of a woman’s position as the heroine being established
in terms of her romantic relationship with the hero. Though there are
exceptions such as Vidya Balan, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra (when she
chooses well), the filmography of their contemporary Katrina Kaif typifies the
Hindi film heroine’s job: to be a pretty showpiece the hero falls in love with,
like Kat’s Aaliya was in Dhoom 3 last year.
Bollywood would argue that its sexism merely reflects real life
where a woman’s identity is expected to revolve around whether or not she’s a
wife; where a man is always the neutral ‘Mr’ revealing nothing to strangers
about his marital status, whereas most Indians continue to prefix women’s names
with ‘Mrs’ (married) or ‘Miss’ (unmarried) although ‘Ms’ (marital status
unspecified) is also available. Queen’s Rani doesn’t want to be
someone’s Shrimati for social redemption. She has the confidence to be a
spinster — and yes, I insist on using that word.
The arrival of Rani in Bollywood is a welcome baby step for an
industry that still insists on pigeonholing men and women. For instance, the
carefree bachelor played by Saif Ali Khan in film after film (Hum Tum, Salaam
Namaste, Love Aaj Kal, Cocktail) has no spinster equivalent.
Cinema and language respond to social diktats. And so, Hum Tum’s Karan
and Cocktail’s Gautam would be widely described as a “ladies’ man” with
no pejorative intent. If Karan had a female clone, what would she be though?
‘Gentlemen’s woman’ (a non-existent term) or ‘slut’?
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| My way: Kangna Ranaut as Rani Mehra in Queen (top) jives to her own tune unlike Deepika Padukone as Veronica (above, centre) in Cocktail who, sadly, turns rather desperate |
Cocktail’s heroine Veronica exemplifies this hypocritical attitude. Humour
emanating from sexually promiscuous heroes is commonplace in Bollywood. Cocktail
was unusual in that it featured a promiscuous leading lady, adopted an
equally non-judgmental stance towards her, and made her sex life — like the
hero’s — a source of amusement. Post-interval though, the film descended into
crowd-pleasing orthodoxy with the happy-go-lucky Veronica getting neurotically
desperate for marriage, while the man remains his easygoing self.
Cocktail’s purported liberalism cloaked its deep-seated narrow-mindedness
that was mirrored by a less high-profile film in 2011. In Turning 30, Gul
Panag’s trite Naina turns frantic when she turns 30, and shreds her dignity as
she panics about middle age, male disinterest, menopause (already?), wrinkles
and drooping breasts.
To be fair, Bollywood is not alone in steering clear of
spinsters or stereotyping them. Popular culture in the West often reflects
similar sentiments even while pretending to do otherwise. British writer Helen
Fielding’s bestselling Bridget Jones’s Diary and its film adaptation
starring Renee Zellweger were widely lauded for their supposedly free-thinking
portrayal of a single woman, yet Bridget was literally obsessed with three
primary goals: getting a boyfriend, getting a date, getting laid.
Hollywood superstar Sandra Bullock has a track record of playing
stereotypical spinsters (Miss Congeniality, Two Weeks Notice, The
Proposal). Being career-oriented for her characters inevitably translates
into being testy, gauche and — in the case of Two Weeks Notice —
miserably eating pizzas at home alone.
Oceans away in Bollywood, Queen turns up its regal nose
at that cliché. With the industry now planning to make Charles Dickens’ novel Great
Expectations into a film starring Katrina and Aditya Roy Kapur, it would be
interesting to see if Dickens’ Miss Havisham is updated for a modern telling or
she is retained as she was in this 19th century classic: a tragic spinster who
gave up on life simply because a man jilted her. C’mon Bollywood, prove that you’ve
evolved beyond England of 150 years ago and Cocktail in 2012. Here’s
your chance to prove that you don’t equate unmarried women with cobwebs and
gloom.
(The writer is the author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. Follow
Anna M.M. Vetticad on Twitter @annavetticad)
(Note: This
column was first published in The Hindu Businessline’s BL Ink supplement on March
15, 2014)
Photographs
courtesy:
(1) Everymedia PR (Queen)
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocktail_(2012_film) (Cocktail)
