Now showing: The millennial shero

Deepika Padukone in a still from Gehraiyaan (2022)

"It was while spending a few summers in the US that I started reading a lot about the millennial woman, but she was mostly defined in Western terms. But it's all happening here as well, even though independent, working women are a very small part of the demographic, they are very influential in advertising and pop culture. So this idea of writing about her in movies was always there," says film critic and author Maithili Rao, whose idea has coalesced into her new book, The Millennial Woman in Bollywood: A New ‘Brand'.

Rao, who also wrote Smita Patil: A Brief Incandescence, in 2015, felt that everything was changing, which needed to be documented. "In the 90s, when the Western influence was trending [as the economy opened up and western soap operas permeated our lives through cable TV]," she says, "there was universal worry about whether we were losing our culture. Movies such as Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge [1995] and Hum Aapke Hain Koun! [1994] reaffirmed patriarchy. That made me think even more."

Rao's work has always focused on the portrayal of women in Indian cinema, and the latest offering is divided into chapters such as "No means no" and "Romcom revamped" which are emblematic of the various ways the millennial woman makes her presence felt. "New rom-coms [that] talk about premarital sex, modern relationships and exercising greater agency," she points out. "It's not just indie filmmakers, but [mainstream] production houses such as YRF which made movies such as Band Baaja Baaraat [2010]. It's like Uday Chopra said in the documentary The Romantics, a change had to be made."

Maithili Rao

Rao points out that this is an individualistic kind of feminism, unlike that of the 80s which was a collective movement for things such as equal wages. "For example, Piku [of the eponymous 2015 movie] is very different from Shruti of Band Baaja Baaraat," she says by way of example.

Writing the book also meant acknowledging that the present doesn't exist in a vacuum. "It's been happening since the 1930s, with movies such Duniya Na Mane [1937] where a woman married off to a widower fights back. I like to see cinema as a tradition, and trace continuum and departure from tradition."

She applauds new age actresses such as TapseePannu (Pink, Thappad), Vidya Balan (Kahaani) and Deepika Padukone (Cocktail, Gehraiyaan) for trodding a path less taken. "Their contribution can't be denied; [their star power] can also demand such scripts, and even make changes. That comes with success. Back when Shabana [Azmi] did Arth [1982], she refused to be part of a narrative where her character takes her husband back. She had found her space, and her own feet. Gehraiyaan couldn't have been made 15 years ago, it leaves people divided. After all, it's about a modern woman who could be called amoral. I think the actress' choice of movies, and public perception helps."

But to wrap it up, Rao says she can't be seen as a film academic but a practicing critic. Hence, her book is not populated with jargon to keep it accessible. "There are a few literary references," she says, "like where I talk about Tabu's character in Haider. It is elevated to almost the central character… [director-writer] Vishal Bhardwaj takes her much ahead of Shakespeare. In context, I cite TS Eliot's criticism of Hamlet and the muted representation of Queen Gertrude. So maybe only literature students will relate to this. But the rest is all very accessible, and will shed light on this journey of the woman."