Page 86 - Masala E-magazine Vol 9 Issue 2 October - November 2017
P. 86
Bollywood
Unapologetically
Feminist or eminist or eminist or
F F
Highly Sexist?
Bollywood is predominantly Around the world, Bollywood and India have almost become
a man’s world, but times are synonymous. The scenic portrayals of Bollywood stars dancing
around trees are diminishing, but not the power that the lm
changing and the Hindi fi lm industry carries. It has the ability to boost the Indian economy,
industry is taking one feminist set fashion trends and most importantly, change cultural
mindsets. The once-isolated widowed daughter-in-law and
step at a time. Krishna Mawani mother of the early 90’s era is now an independent and strong
reveals movies from the last fi ve woman. The raped woman whose only hope for a better life was
to marry her rapist is now able to lead a happy and guilt-free
decades that either empower life. Needless to say, the last ve decades have seen a drastic
change in Indian cinema.
women or do the exact opposite
by reinforcing sexist ideologies. Recently, women-centric lms have been on the rise with
emphasis on destroying gender stereotypes. However, we still
have a long way to go. Item songs continue to be popular with
scantily-dressed girls dancing to a group of drunken men who
ogle her in lust and desire. Films such as Grand Masti (2013)
disrespect women yet rake in hundreds of crores at the box
o ce. A study conducted by Geena Davis Institute on Gender
in Media found that women in Indian lms were shown in more
revealing out ts, and generally did not hold professions, in
comparison to other global lm industries.
Let’s go back ve decades and take a look at lms that have
made an impact on the Indian mindset, whether that is to
reinforce the Indian patriarchal mentality or to empower women
to speak up and ght for their rights.
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