Getting into a gender-bender

Movies that upended gender stereotypes from a time when stepping off the beaten track was not received well.

March 31, 2016 09:29 pm | Updated 09:29 pm IST

Director R. Balki’s Ki & Ka , releasing on Friday, has an interesting premise — a reversal of traditional gender roles on screen.

The film’s leading man Kabir, played by the macho Arjun Kapoor, is happy not to be involved in the career rat race, preferring to be ‘like his mother’, taking care of the home and hearth.

A still from Ki & Ka

His wife, played by Kareena Kapoor, is an ambitious career-woman who wants to be the vice-president of her company rather than the queen of her home.

Both the leading actors and the director have insisted that the movie is not about women empowerment, with Kareena saying, “People can see the film and enjoy it and if after watching it they take back a message, that’s an add-on. But this movie is nowhere a revolution.”

That seems logical in this day and age, when many movies have been there and beyond. But in a different time, when stepping off the beaten track was not received well both on-screen and off-screen, there have been quite a number of successful Indian films that have thrown caution to the wind and reversed the heck out of what a character is expected to do or not to do according to their gender.

This list is, however, is just a fraction of the number of pathbreaking movies out there that have tackled this trope.

Aval Oru Thodarkadhai (1974)

The poster of Aval Oru Thodarkadhai. Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons.

Balachander’s vintage Tamil films from back in the 60s and 70s were known for their strong women characters who could not only kick butts but could also make today’s heroines seem childish in comparison.

Aval Oru Thodarkadhai , which was remade into Jeevan Dhara in Hindi, is a landmark in that sense. Sujatha in Tamil and Rekha in Hindi, portrayed an assertive woman who is unapologetic of her independence. Although the character is shown as wanting everything the traditional gender role has to offer, she single-handedly takes care of her family.

Teen Bhubaner Paare (1969)

In this Bengali cult classic, Tanuja played the role of a school teacher who encourages Soumitra Chatterjee to pursue higher education and inspires him to become a professor. The characters, Montu and Sarasi, broke the norm when they decided to live together.

Mahanagar (1963)

This Satyajit Ray film, too, depicts the rise of an independent woman in a patriarchal society. Arti, played by Madhabi Mukherjee, takes up the job of a door-to-door sales woman to support her very conservative family and soon sees her career flourish.

Guide (1965)

Guide. Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

The movie, an adaptation of a 1958 R.K.Narayan novel, had Waheeda Rehman’s character Rosie divorcing her husband in order to pursue her career in dance and she finds support in Raju, played by Dev Anand.

Pudhumai Penn (1984)

A screenshot from the movie, Pudhumai Penn.

This Bharathiraja film saw Revathy’s character being forced go out and find a job, in the process proving that women who step out of the house are still ‘respectable’. “Padi thandinaalum, pathini pathini dhan,” the movie’s dialogue goes — a woman still remains pure, even if she steps out of the house.

Magalir Mattum (1994)

The delightfully quirky Magalir Mattum had three women from different strata of society wanting to or having to work for various reasons. Pappamma is a housekeeper who works to support her drunkard husband and herself, while Janaki is a middle-class mother whose husband has just lost his job. Satya, on the other hand, is the ‘modern’ woman who dreams of becoming a designer but also wants to get married to the ‘perfect man’.

The characters Janaki, Pappamma and Satya in Magalir Mattum.

A point of interest here is Janaki’s husband. He hates his unemployment but ultimately makes peace with the fact that he’s the primary caregiver at home, while his wife is the breadwinner.

Now, of course, there are countless examples. Kangana Ranaut as Rani in Queen undergoes a metamorphosis that is not usually seen on screen. Evolution of a female character is something we rarely see on screen, but here was a film that told us — this Rani, she’s a person. Look at how she grows.

Not to mention Mani Ratnam’s OK Kanmani . The best moment, for us, from the film has to be when the hero asks the heroine to not take up her scholarship in Paris and fly to the U.S. with him. “Why ask me. You can quit your U.S. job and come to Paris with me too!” she says. Her retort drew loud cheers from the theatre, most of them from men. That dialogue alone could have wiped our memories of countless heroines cast as arm candy.

So if we got a Kabir and Kia that flout society’s gender norms now, it is because we had a Pudhumai Penn to push the envelope a little first. Maybe we needed Guide ’s Rosie to tell us that choosing a career over family life was all right. Or a Satya to tell us that dreaming about the perfect man and the perfect career was okay too.

For Kabir and Kia to make an appearance, we needed all these wonderful women to show the way.

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