Dec 14, 2024 17:15 IST
First published: December 14, 2024 at 17:15 IST
With Raj Kapoor@100 trending, perhaps it’s time to pause and take a look at the posters at each event commemorating the genius of the actor-filmmaker. All these are a testimony to the equality given to female characters at a time when the word “hero” in mainstream Hindi films was viewed from a gender perspective. In fact, the term “heroine” was a dismissive construct, one that would embellish the hero rather than being himself. But the director himself knew that it was women who were the soul of his films and did not shy away from giving them pride of place.
Of course, cosmetically, cinema has been democratized enough to label both men and women as actors. But the gendered view of the protagonist persists, with films now classified as female-led or female-driven. Kapoor never thought of such a categorization but saw his male characters intertwined with female characters, feeding off each other and growing in the process. In this sense he was ahead of his time.
Critics will argue that he oscillates between the extremes of objectification and deification of his leading ladies and wonder if commodification with displays of skin isn’t just a ploy to draw in a crowd. Can Ram Teri Ganga Maili, for example, make a point without the image of Mandakini wearing a wet saree under a waterfall? Why were women in his films, as trade talks were, “bold”, a bait for the male imagination and a commercial trope, for he spoke for the marginalized and for the implicit message of Nehruvian socialism? But it was precisely this “goddess vs. temptress” dichotomy that Kapoor wanted to break down, envisioning them in their entirety, rather than simply being seen as the embodiment of male emotion and desire.
Kapoor’s female leads were always full-bodied in the script, holding the “hero” together. Indeed, the male leads, some of whom he played himself, were sometimes weak, indecisive, unpredictable, even weakly cardboard-ish, requiring the support of leading ladies. If Rita (Nargis) appears in a décolletage on the film poster as a tramp, she is also a modern woman and a well-heeled defense lawyer, who chooses a normal person for the purity she represents and fights against the situation. Path of crime in the first place. He is a moral voice, questioning social hypocrisy and the conscience of a father who abandons his son without proof that his wife was an adulterer. It is a woman who restores “Trump” from the brink. Shree 420 has Nargis again as Vidya who anchors Raj (Kapoor), a boy from Allahabad who is dazzled by the big city, and centers him at the epicenter of morality. The same Nargis in a red-bordered Bengali sari and wet hair, in the image of Annapurna, who revives the homeless and wandering hero with water in the middle of the night when no one is there to help him (Jagte Raho, produced by Raj Kapoor).
But perhaps the strongest voice that reclaims the centrality of women is Radha (Vaijayanthimala) in Sangam, who is equally loved by two friends, Sundar (Kapoor) and Gopal (Rajendra Kumar), who hide their feelings from each other so that the other can have her. . Radha chastises both of them for treating her as a trophy in a contest of valor and not seeking her opinion on who she wants to be with. Without union of mind, man-woman relationship can never be complete. And this is evident in the last frame of the film where Radha and Sundar are worried and broken even though they are a couple. Mera Naam Joker is a perfect tribute to women. Could the Joker be what he is without the three women? Mary, the teacher who leads his sexual awakening, Marina, his fleeting but true love and Mina, who prioritizes herself in his love. Raju, Joker, and their women never expected each other but their respective journeys were important to understand.
Rupa, a village belle with a disfigured face, was sexually assaulted to show how ignorant her husband Rajiv (Shashi Kapoor) was, who rejected her because of her facial scars. The same man fell for her when she presented herself as his mistress, cleverly masking her face. If anything, it was a commentary on how Indian husbands care about much more than their wives’ physicality. Whereas Prem Roga was a commentary on domestic violence against widows, in Ram Teri Ganga Maili the Ganga was a metaphor for the pollution of a river civilization that once oppressed women. Here too, a simple village woman is seen demanding her rights from the father for her beloved child, a city man in Kolkata, who thinks it better to bow to convention than lead the good fight.
Perhaps torn between relationships with his leading ladies in his personal life, Kapoor embodied his alter ego in films. The leading man abdicated his power to the woman, knowing that she was always capable of heavy lifting. Acknowledging his own frailty and objectivity in desiring both goddess and temptress alike, he depended on women to give him clarity. Be it crime or courage, Kapoor was sure of one thing. Women need an equal voice. Unfortunately, women in gun-toting commandos in 400-crore hits or script-backed niche films rarely build on the ground laid by the showman.
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