Bollywood is doing ‘women-centric’ films, but still has a long way to go when it comes to portraying the full lives of women.
Think hard and you might be able to count the number of Bollywood films that focus on female friendships by hand. Over the years, the number of women-centric movies might have increased; however, hardly a few have focused on female friendships. Contrarily, there is a plethora of movies about male friendship.
In fact, many movies which even had two women, usually saw them not getting along, and engaging in ‘catfights’—an entirely sexist term used for when any two women are fighting— usually over a man as the norm. In Judaai, for example, Kajal (Sridevi) ‘sells’ her husband Raj (Anil Kapoor)to Jahnvi (Urmila Matondkar) only to end up in a fight to get her husband back.
In comparison, movies that feature men’s friendships are aplenty, be it Andaz Apna Apna (1994), Dil Chahta Hai (2001) or Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011). What is unfortunate about these movies are the recurring motifs of a ‘woman ruining friendships’ by ‘exploiting’ and ‘brainwashing’ one of the friends. This demonisation is not just restricted to movies. For instance, Yoko Ono is targeted and said to be the reason The Beatles split up, just like Ramayana’s Kaikeyi who created disharmony in husband Dashrath’s perfect empire.
Shasta Nelson, the author of the book Frientimacy, claims that 60-70 per cent of the women in her workshops have a hard time recalling their mothers having friends—not because they didn’t have any, but because they hid it from their family.
Younger girls usually hide away from female friendships using age-old adages like ‘mean girls’ or ‘I like being friends with guys because they are less drama.’ The former has been the subject of many movies and books, and even scientific studies. On the other hand, male friendship is often overrepresented in the media, usually filled with quips like ‘Bros before Hoes’.
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Much of the well-intended women-centric cinema that discusses female friendships often ends up focusing on their relationships with a man, as if men are the only reason women can be friends.
Sample two movies that may seem like extreme examples of same-sex friendship. The past year, in particular, saw an interesting mix of movies as far as male and female friendships are concerned. Sonu ke Titu ki Sweety, directed by a male director Luv Ranjan, was a movie about two childhood friends Sonu and Titu, the latter who finds a ‘perfect’ woman named Sweety. The plot revolves around Sonu trying to convince Titu about Sweety’s mal-intent, turning this movie into a battle between bromance and romance. On the other hand, Veere Di Wedding, directed by Shashanka Ghosh, was a movie about four best friends—Kalindi, Avni, Sakshi and Meera, living their own lives in different places—who then reunite for Kalindi’s wedding. They face their fears about love, life and other things that characterise any friendship.
Just like Luv Ranjan’s previous movie, Sonu is also an ode to misogyny. It reinstates the ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ woman stereotype in which a ‘good woman’ is an ideal wife and a perfect housekeeper, whereas a ‘bad woman’ is the one who loves sex and whiskey. The movie is full of sexist dialogues that reinforce the gender norms embedded in our patriarchal mindsets.
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Titu’s depiction as a gullible boy who falls into the lap of the wrong woman and Sonu as his ultimate saviour is simply cringe-worthy. Just when Titu decides to get married to Sweety, Sonu being the ‘understanding’ friend ensures him that he doesn’t have to commit because of his carnal demands.
As opposed to Ranjan’s film, Veere, despite being a badly directed movie with a feeble screenplay, shows women unafraid to discuss their bodies and sex lives openly in a society that polices its women. These women are seen cursing and smoking on screen without being judged, shamed, and labelled as nasty women.
It did not go out of its way to make feminist statements, but weaved stories and struggles of the four friends, thereby celebrating modern-day female friendships with their glorious ups and downs, with the unapologetically commercial, masala-esque flavour that Bollywood is synonymous with.
It celebrates—unlike Queen, another celebrated women-centric film which came before it—the deep-rooted friendship between women, who prioritise their relationships with each other, often over and above other relationships they might have. “Prioritizing friendship is sometimes tricky; society often indicates to women that it’s not on the same level as the other relationships in our lives, such as the ones with our romantic partners, our children, or even our jobs,” writes Kayleen Schaefe, in her book Text Me When You Get Home. What Veere does is accomplish this perfectly.
Sonu ends as a tribute to ‘Bros before Hoes.’ Despite Sonu’s obnoxious behaviour and his evil plans to break Titu’s marriage, Titu still chooses Sonu, as he cries on the stage asking him to choose between either him or Sweety. Veere, on the other hand, shows Kalindi’s fiancé who is undemanding and comfortable in his skin and doesn’t take centre stage in her life.
Of course, both movies were badly made from a ‘cinema-as-art’ perspective, but Sonu completed 42 weeks with a box office collection of Rs 108.95 crore whereas Veere stayed for just 21 weeks, with a box office collection of Rs 81.39 crore. This shows that there exists a large section of the audience that still enjoys watching misogyny troped as humour, as opposed to a movie that shows women just living their lives. It is difficult to ignore that both movies bear resemblance to the social locations of the directors.
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While Ranjan’s film has sexist songs like Bom Diggy Diggy, in Veere, you see immense privilege that looks like a manifestation of the social capital that Rhea Kapoor and the entire Kapoor family enjoys in Bollywood. It is because of this reason Bollywood needs to create spaces to represent people across the caste, class, gender, and ability spectra.
This year has definitely seen a paradigm shift in the likes and dislikes of the audience. It has been eventful in terms of the kind of films that were produced.
There have been successful small budget women-centric films like Raazi and Tumhari Sulu, but in terms of the realistic portrayal of women and their full lives, there is a long way to go!
Arathy Puthillam is a Research Assistant at the Department of Psychology at Monk Prayogshala. She tweets @WallflowerBlack.
Sumati Thusoo is a Research Author at the Department of Sociology at Monk Prayogshala. She tweets @ThusooSumati.
We had incorrectly attributed Rhea Kapoor as Veere di Wedding‘s director, it has been updated to Shashanka Ghosh. The error is regretted.