Mother Maiden Mistress
Publish By Harper & Collins
Released in 2012
Priced at Rs 299/-
It’s been a long hundred years since Dadasaheb Phalke had to settle for a man to play the heroine in India’s first feature film, Raja Harishchandra (1913) and women in Hindi cinema have come a long way since then. Mother Maiden Mistress documents that journey: from a time cinema was considered a profession beneath the dignity of ‘respectable’ women to an era where women actors are icons and idols.
Bhawana Somaaya, Jigna Kothari and Supriya Madangarli sift through six decades of history, bringing to life the women that peopled cinema and the popular imagination, and shaped fashion and culture.