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Whether it is in stand-up comedy or in Bollywood, female comedians in India find that they don't receive fair treatment.
While watching The Marvelous Mrs Maisel (2017-present), I realised how difficult it was for standup comedians, especially women, to sustain themselves during the 1950s.
In the present day too, however, men have it a lot easier. We see Akash Gupta, Kenny Sebastian, Abhishek Upmanyu, and a never-ending list of men performing stand-ups in both Indian and international spaces. But, when it comes to women comedians, the common notion remains that they are inherently unfunny.
Even in today’s time, we find certain male-centric meme pages mocking women for only being able to crack jokes about their vaginas – mainly about sex, menstruation and pregnancy. But, the question is whether women are genuinely less funnier or hardworking than men.
If I were to answer that, I would any day say that Mallika Dua, Kusha Kapila, and Sumukhi Suresh are either as funny as or better than the men who receive more views than them on YouTube, Amazon Prime, and Netflix.
Stand-up comedy is most certainly not the only place where women comedians are given less attention than they deserve. Somehow, Bollywood treats them as less than even the weakest of damsels in distress.
I remember watching Mallika Dua and Srishti Srivastava’s viral video about attractive girls receiving all the male attention back in 2016 and laughing hysterically. Even then, I’d wondered how successful these two deserved to be. But, sadly, a few years later, both of them gave in to the superficial character tropes they had criticised in that video. They eventually ended up playing the parts of the attractive female protagonist’s friend in unsuccessful films like Indoo Ki Jawani (2020) and Ok Jaanu (2017) respectively. What a waste of their talents!
Something similar can be said about Prajakta Kohli, as well, who despite having millions of followers on YouTube and Instagram, needs to play the role of the male protagonist’s sister in the film Jugjugg Jeeyo (2022). Not only is she fresh and spontaneous, but is also someone millennials would like to watch. But still, it is comedian Manish Paul who has a better role and more on-screen time in the film as compared to her.
Dua, Srivastava, and Kohli’s career journeys helped me understand that women comedians aren’t just competing with men in order to succeed in their lives but even with other women who might be considered better looking by the masses. So many of these comedians are talented and hardworking performers who would most certainly do a better job at playing the role of a bubbly girl next door in Bollywood films.
However, actors like Kiara Advani, Sonam Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, and Kriti Sanon end up getting cast for these roles despite their awkward dialogue deliveries and average acting skills (simply because of how they look?) Are all girls next door meant to be more than five feet seven inches tall, have a waist size of 28 inches, be fair-skinned and have Eurocentric, sharp facial features?
Are these the only traits we, as a community, are looking for in women?
Top image is a screengrab from the Girliyapa video referenced
A literature student who spends most of her time watching (and thinking about) Bollywood films. read more...
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Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 might have had a box office collection of 260 crores INR and entertained Indian audiences, but it's full of problematic stereotypes.
Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 starts with a scene in which the protagonist, Ruhaan (played by Kartik Aaryan) finds an abandoned pink suitcase in a moving cable car and thinks there was a bomb inside it.
Just then, he sees an unknown person (Kiara Advani) wave and gesture at him to convey that the suitcase was theirs. Ruhaan, with the widest possible smile, says, “Bomb mai bag nahi hai, bomb ka bag hai,” (There isn’t a bomb in the bag, the bag belongs to a bomb).
Who even writes such dialogues in 2022?
Anupama, an idealist at heart, believes that passing on the mic to amplify suppressed voices is the best way to show solidarity with the marginalised.
Anupama writes with a clear vision of what she wants to say, and makes sure she explores all possible facets of the topic, be it parenting or work or on books.
An intelligent, extroverted writer with a ton of empathy, she is also one who thinks aloud in her writing. Anupama says that she is largely a self driven person, and her passion to write keeps her motivated.
Among her many achievements Anupama is also a multiple award winning blogger, author, serial entrepreneur, a digital content creator, creative writing mentor, choreographer and mother to a rambunctious 7-year-old who is her life’s inspiration and keeps her on her toes.