Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
While Gully Boy is primarily about the struggles of rapper Murad Ahmed, it also spends sufficient screen time on a character like Safeena and highlights her struggles as a woman in the modern world.
[This article has minor spoiler alerts]
There are scenes in the movie Gully Boy where the heroine Safeena Firdausi (portrayed by Alia Bhatt) is shown engaged in conflict with her parents. Safeena tearfully points out the unfairness of her being forbidden to step out of the house to hang out with friends, talk to boys, wear lipstick – things that ordinary young girls do, which she tries to engage in by lying and sneaking past her parents.
Her mother, specifically, is the stricter parent who does not hold back in lashing out at her daughter with slaps and physical blows. She is also not supportive of Safeena’s decision to doggedly pursue an education in the medical field and wants her daughter to get married and settle down instead of opting for a career as a surgeon.
In a powerful scene that will moisten the eyes of feminists or women who have had to fight tooth and nail for basic rights, Safeena stands before her father, tears in her eyes, hands clasped together in a beggar-like gesture, imploring him to let her finish her education and achieve her dreams of becoming a surgeon. “I will marry whomever you want me to, just let me study, abbu,” she says with such feeling that it cuts like a dagger into the heart of any woman who has taken for granted the right to chase straightforward educational and career-oriented aspirations along with the freedom to choose her own life partner.
And yet there are countless women who have to wage such battles over these issues in a patriarchal society. Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale portrays a dictatorial regime fortifying its power over society by beginning with the curtailment of women’s rights, including taking away their ability to handle money and right of employment. Take away a women’s capability to stand on her own two feet and it becomes easy for figures of authority to ensure that they have more control over her.
The film Gully Boy is primarily about the struggles of rapper Murad Ahmed played by the dashing Ranveer Singh set against the poetry and rhythm of rap songs. However, it also spends sufficient screen time on a character like Safeena and highlights her struggles as a woman in the modern world, which sometimes refuses to change with the times. It is a refreshing change from the portrayal of small-town heroines as having no job or career ambitions in a lot of Bollywood films in recent times, as noted by this article.
When Safeena confidently expresses her wish in potentially taking on the role of breadwinner and financial stability provider in her future relationship, it truly gladdens the heart.
Another small but empowering scene in the movie shows Safeena sitting on a bench at a train station, defiantly whipping out a lipstick from her purse and applying it to her lips in full public view. This is reminiscent of an advertisement that tackles the stigma against women doing make-up in public.
All in all, whether it is being crystal clear about her priorities, chasing after her educational and career-oriented dreams, taking bold actions that are usually attributed to the male gender or pursuing her true love, Gully Boy has done justice in fleshing out the female romantic interest and has created another hero, who just as determinedly rises out from the ashes like a phoenix ready to soar high and take on the world.
Originally from India, Deepti Nalavade Mahule now lives in California where she spends time developing software, feeding books to her two children, submitting her short fiction, and fretting about what to put in her bio. read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
Please enter your email address