The Hindu Business Line : Who's the `wickedest' of them all?

Are Bollywood's leading ladies getting wicked? And is that a profitable venture? Judging by the patchy opening of last week's Fida, one should say that, on balance, it is still a risky business: the multiplexes have recorded an 80 per cent attendance; the stand-alone theatres in Delhi-Uttar Pradesh and the rest of the North were looking at non-house-full shows even on the first day.

Kareena Kapoor plays a young beautiful girl who, on the surface, looks as if she has everything going for her. She appears to be independent, well off and, after some maidenly reluctance, gives in to Shahid Kapoor's urgings and declares love. Till then, she is the conventional heroine, doing the things that conventional heroines have been doing all these years: feigning disinterest, then blushing acquiescence and, finally, dancing on the hillside. This goes on till halftime. And then we learn, in a massive turnaround, that Kareena is not what she has made herself out to be: she is a duplicitous, two-timing, conniving thing, who leads the hero on, and has a lot of fun while doing it.

Director Ken Ghosh has to be commended for coming up with a character that is so different from the unbelievably moral and upright women that Bollywood still chooses to foist upon us. The shocker, that she is passionately involved with another man who is a smooth-talking con, and that she knowingly and actively sets into motion events that lead to the ruin of the young man who professes undying love for her, hits you right between the eyes.

Bollywood is finally growing up. In an industry where double-standards and hypocrisies are the norm, its current crop of heroines are admitting to relationships with men they have yet to marry. This refreshing change, perhaps reflective of the generational switches happening in society at large, especially in the larger metros, is showing up on screen.

Look at what Kareena's Neha does: she goes out of her way to ensnare Jai, and when he is well and truly within her power, makes him go out and do something wrong. Once the truth is revealed, she justifies her actions by saying she did it for love. And there's not a flicker of remorse on her face... not then, and not later, when she urges her lover to shoot Jai.

A Hindi film heroine egging on her true love to kill another man? This is truly revolutionary. Whatever the outcome of the movie, Ghosh would have re-written the graven-in-stone DNA that all heroines are meant to carry.

Till now, the sati-savitri simpering doll-like creature has been de rigueur, following the commandments; she would be chastetill her marriage, and if she had the misfortune to be `dishonoured' before that auspicious date, she would redeem herself either by death or by persuading an honourable man to make an `honest' woman of her.

In that respect, even the recent hit Julie is not so different. Sure, the leading lady is an unapologetic prostitute, but the same young lady who is so boldly upfront about her profession, is made to find respectability in the arms of her pliant tycoon. More common are the half-girl/half-women figures who cringe every time their men come within breathing distance, and retreat into fake shyness, all the while indulging in the most lewd, suggestive moves in their songs and dances. In Subhash Ghai's mid-1990s' film, and his last certified hit, Pardes, Mahima Chowdhary throws a fit when her fiancé tries to kiss her. Ten years on, in Fida, Kareena is to be seen sharing a bed with her boyfriend and plotting the downfall of the clean young man who has had the ill-luck to fall for her charms.

Finally Bollywood is moving away from the straight and narrow, and experimenting with characters who are grey and amoral: they live in the twilight zone of white and black, and have their own twisted motivations to do what they do. In the best role of her career till now, Kareena proves that being bad makes for compulsive watching. Welcome to the adult world.

Killer instinct?

Being good, bad and ugly is what Uma Thurman does to perfection in last week's Hollywood release, Kill Bill Vol 2. But Thurman's Bride is still a stand-out character for Hollywood, which has had much more practice with dark, warped women than timid Bollywood; she goes on what she calls a `ravaging rampage of revenge', killing everyone who comes in her way, in the bloodiest way imaginable.

Director Quentin Tarantino's first `legally' released film in India Kill Bill Vol 1 was released in December 2003. It was a PVR-distributed film and, anticipating huge crowds, the theatre packed it in densely (a popular multiplex in premium South Delhi had five shows, an honour only the biggest Bollywood release is accorded).

In its second-week run, PVR had to bring down the shows to four, and in the month-and-a half it played, programmers were forced to acknowledge that it didn't do as well as they thought it would.

This time around too, expectations are high. The sequel is as inventive as the original, with Tarantino in crackling form. There are enough fans of the cult director who queued up for the first weekend, so the opening has been good. What's important is that the theatre made it available to us, not more than a month after its US opening when it could easily have stayed away, looking at the original's performance.

Perhaps programmers are growing up too; yes, it is always about profit, but it is also about movies, and providing cutting-edge entertainment.

Picture by S. Subramanium

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