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Kalank is a patriarchal narrative driven by aesthetics and heightened emotions but with that, it indeed has some strong women characters.
After watching the visually delightful trailer and the beautifully choreographed song Ghar More Pardesiya, Kalnak was a movie that a lot of people were looking forward to watch.
*Alert: minor spoilers
The story, which is a love triangle, pretty much revolves on the background of the Partition and the Hindu – Muslim divide. The movie is a visual delight, though the narrative of the film is complicated and tangled, especially as the script moves between realism and fantasy, often confusing the audience about which side to lean on. The visual effects are not always pleasing, limiting this movie to a one time watch.
But despite all of this “khichdi”, one can’t ignore how well the three major women characters are portrayed by Sonakshi Sinha, Alia Bhatt and Madhuri Dixit.
This entire plotline is given its starting shape by our first female lead Satya played by Sonakshi Sinha.
Satya is the “aadarsh – sanskari” daughter-in-law of the rich and reputed Chowdhary family. She is dying of cancer, but is even strong enough to search for a second wife for her husband Dev.
The character of Satya is shown to be selfless, and the ‘sacrifice’ that she does for love makes her admirable in the patriarchal society that she is a pillar of – it is shown that it’s her duty that her husband stays happy even after her death. This raises many questions about the type of society we live in.
The second strong female character in the film is Roop played by the very elegant Alia Bhatt.
Roop is the second wife of Dev. She is young and feisty but is emotionally blackmailed into a loveless marriage, but despite this dependent position, she imposes her will on the rich Chowdhary family to learn music.
The character of Roop portrays the idea that marriage is not the end of life for a woman. She falls in love with a man outside of her marriage, and her struggle with the choices breaks societal norms. She asks many questions about things that a lot of women face – about choosing what their heart desires, baseless societal norms, the happiness of a woman, and most importantly why is falling in love with someone outside of marriage a ‘Kalank’ only for a woman.
Bahaar Begum who is played by Madhuri Dixit is the third strong character in this film full of beautiful people and exquisite clothes. She is a courtesan who stopped dancing due to some reason and now gives singing lessons. It is later revealed in the movie is that she fell in love with a married man, and conceived a child from him, whom she decided to bear. Unfortunately, when he did not ‘accept’ her, she abandoned the child.
We feel a connection with Begum and the mistakes that she does. Bahaar Begum is a beautifully written character which encourages the ladies out there to accept their mistakes and forgive themselves.
I read, I write, I dream and search for the silver lining in my life. Being a student of mass communication with literature and political science I love writing about things that bother me. Follow read more...
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Some time ago, Imtiaz Ali and Hansal Mehta respectively spoke of biopics of Madhubala and Meena Kumari. But do these biopics do justice to these women?
I recently came across a Reddit thread that discussed the fact that filmmaker Imtiaz Ali had announced making a biopic of Madhubala, and I wanted to explore this a little.
Of late, biopics based on the lives of beautiful but fatefully tragic women such as Lady Diana and Marilyn Monroe have created waves. Closer at home, we hear about the possibilities of biopics being made on the lives of Meena Kumari and Madhubala as well. These were hugely famous, stunningly beautiful women who were the heartthrobs of millions; who died tragically young.
I am glad that the Orange Flower Awards seek self-nomination. High achieving women often suffer from self-doubt, and this is a good way to remind us that we are good enough.
A few days ago, I saw an Instagram post announcing the Orange Flower Awards which recognise the power of women’s voices. I read about it with curiosity, but didn’t give it a second thought.
I received an e mail from Women’s Web seeking self-nominations for the Orange Flower Awards, and I ignored it. Yes, I write occasionally, but I didn’t think my work was good enough for me to nominate myself in any of the categories.
A past winner especially tagged me and asked me to look at nominating myself, and I told her that I was not ready yet. “That is up to you”, she said, “but I think you should nominate yourself.”
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