Yeh kangan shor machaayega…jitna ooncha ho aasmaan, yeh sindoor door tak jaayega” (These bracelets will make a big noise… this vermilion in your hair will touch the sky) – so recites this generation’s self-styled Mr India, Akshay Kumar, in the latest promo video for his upcoming film Mission Mangal.
Jitna uncha ho asmaan, yeh sindoor utni door tak jaayega! Here’s celebrating the women of India who make dreams come true!@taapsee @SonakshiSinha @vidya_balan @TheSharmanJoshi @menennithya@IamKirtiKulhari @Jaganshakti @foxstarhindi #HopeProductions @tanishkbagchi@azeem2112 pic.twitter.com/BPoCi3wPtL
— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) August 1, 2019
The poem is littered with such gems. There’s “Kajal se hai itihaas racha” (She scripted history with her kohl) and an emotionally wrenching bit about “Bharat ki betiyaan” (India’s daughters). My favourite, though, is the pithy “Mangalsutra gale mein hai, par Mangal pe hai nazar gadi” (She wears a wedding necklace, but her sights are firmly set on Mars). Clever, clever wordplay – if our nationalist feminist saviour was participating in an elementary school poetry competition.
But as it happens, this is a movie about ISRO’s Mars mission, and if you are wondering why sindoor, kangan, kajal and mangalsutra are being given so much prominence instead of rocket launchers and payloads, join the club.
According to the teaser, the goal of the movie is to “celebrate the women of India”, who are “determined”, “fearless” and “inspiring”. A noble goal. But when every marker of the womanhood being celebrated is their jewellery and makeup, largely the kind associated with married Hindu women, then it is a problem. It associates the identity of all Indian women with these accessories.
The emphasis on objects of makeup is unmistakable. One may argue they are part of Hindu tradition, but Mission Mangal is not all about honouring Hindu women, is it?
Also read: Mission Mangal poster: Does Bollywood need an Akshay Kumar to sell women’s success stories?
Would Akshay Kumar have gushed in a similar fervent tone for these scientists if they wore burkhas? Would the majority of the audience receive the teaser, and the film, with as much adulation or would it express pity for the women? But hey, why get into tricky questions when we can spend this Independence Day thumping our chests in pride at our favourite movie theatre? (#BMKJ just to be on the safe side.)
The casual representation of all things Hindu as Indian in the name of tradition is not new. Recall when the Haryana government came out with an ad in its magazine featuring ghoonghat-clad women. “Ghoonghat ki aan-baan, mhara Haryana ki pehchaan,” it said. The pride of the veil is the identity of our Haryana.
Of course, lawmakers later fought the backlash by saying it was only reflecting a tradition, not forcing anyone to wear a ghoonghat. But here’s the thing. When you associate traditions with the pride and identity of a state, you are using verbal and visual cues to communicate the message that conforming to these traditions is desirable and patriotic. So, when Akshay Kumar, in an Independence Day movie about an ISRO mission, celebrates the women of India who wear sindoor and mangalsutra, he is making it clear what is being celebrated.
Tata Steel once had a jingle that went, “We also make steel”; the Mission Mangal poem can barely look beyond the normative standards of how the Indian (Hindu) male society wants the Indian (Hindu) woman to be seen.
Also read: Akshay Kumar’s Canadian roots go deeper — from campaigning for a PM to owning mansion there
What the teaser does is situate women firmly in the roles of good Hindu wives, daughters (of the nation, no less) and then, despite and after these primary identities, also scientists. The core competency is an add-on, the real attribute and strength is being a good traditional Hindu woman with all the sindoor and mangalsutra. These are the ideal modern Indian women – rooted in tradition yet ambitious, but not so ambitious that one of them might be the voice of this poem. Oh no; it has to be Akshay Kumar.
After all, who would be interested in a movie about women scientists if it (and they) didn’t have a man’s endorsement, right? What do women know about science anyway? Sorry, Ritu Karidhal and M. Vanitha, your and your colleagues’ achievements are apparently meaningless unless endorsed by a man, especially the saviour of Bollywood. But can you teach me how to apply wingtip eyeliner?