Zeenat Aman sparks debate on women’s freedom to dress with Dostana scene

Bollywood veteran Zeenat Aman has always been progressive both in style and thoughts and her movies back in her hit era spoke volumes of the same The actress recently took to her social media account to share a video clip from her superhit movie Dostana which also starred Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha In the video shared by Zeenat Aman she shared a scene that reflected the patriarchal mindset and condescending attitude of men back in the 70s eraView this post on InstagramA post shared by Zeenat Aman thezeenatamanThe sequence from the movie shows her character Sheetal walking along a beach in beachwear when she gets harassed by a man A fearless Sheetal drags the offender straight to the police station where Inspector Vijay essayed by Amitabh Bachchan takes the man into custody What follows next is sure to raise eyebrows of the current generationVijay is further seen questioning Sheetal about her lsquorevealingrsquo beach outfit and asks her to reflect on her choice of clothing He rebukes her by saying that in the past women preferred wearing more clothes whereas the newer generation wears less something he struggles to understand Sheetal firmly stands her ground and asks what exactly was wrong with her attire and states that her choice of clothes is completely her freedom trying to put Vijay back in his placeTo this Vijay is heard saying that it was his ldquodutyrdquo to suggest and the rest depends on her In the classiest way Zeenat after about 45 years of the moviersquos release took to social media to reflect deeply on the patriarchal mindset casually shown in the movie She wrote ldquoEvery now and then Irsquoll find myself flipping through clips from my old movies in search of something to share with you Today I found one from Great Gambler one from Don and then the algorithm offered me this A scene so ripe for social commentary that it sent me into a spinrdquoldquoWhen one is young one thinks the moralities of the time are set in granite Absolute and unyielding at best to be chipped at by onersquos own impotent acts of rebellion Then the years turn and one day you look up from your screen and think ldquowow everything changedrdquo Okay perhaps not everything The moral police is no doubt as vigilant as ever today but the narrative has certainly progressedrdquo she addedldquoIf yoursquore a woman who watched this clip let me make a few guesses ndash you were infuriated by the eveteasing and resonated with Sheetalrsquos discomfort and anger having probably experienced such a thing firsthand You loved that she dragged her harasser to the police station a triumph you probably never felthellip And then you were incensed by our hero Inspector Vijayrsquos condescending opinion and tone Am I rightrdquo asked Zeenat She added ldquoWell that opinion and tone were par for the course back in the day The patronising attitude to women who defied convention the barely veiled ldquoyoursquore asking for itrdquo gaze and that superior airShe added ldquoOh I am glad yoursquore annoyed Thatrsquos whatrsquos changed Back in the day your average woman would think Vijay to be a mighty upstanding gentleman because Sheetal deserved a reprimand just as much as her harasser But the young woman I showed it to earlier today She sneered at the poor Inspector and said ldquoWhat a loserrdquo I had a good laugh at thatrdquoThe actress mentioned that she has become more realistic ldquoNow I myself have graduated to being more of a realist I absolutely support the right of women all people actually to wear what they please while also understanding that the world doesnrsquot operate on my ideals and that some outfits are more suitable for one place than another Is that archaic of merdquo Aman wroteShe added ldquoPerhaps but be patient My every hair has turned silver and the truth is that the new social codes and lingo are as confusing to me as those ones were stifling I would love your comments on this Especially if yoursquore better informed than merdquoFor the uninitiated Dostana was released in the year 1980 and was a superhitThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever