There is a possibility that the idea of celebrating women was inspired from India. Our mythology has venerated women, the Devi in all her incarnations and our cinema has put the supreme woman, the mother on a pedestal from time immemorial.
In present times when all of us have become obsessed with empowerment, the original naari shakti, that is the homemaker, both on screen and in real life, is feeling isolated and nobody seems to notice that she is suffering from low self-esteem.
Therefore, I dedicate this week column to all the homemakers on the big screen who made me smile, sometimes fear and cry and sometimes, want to protect too.
On top of the list is the kohl-eyed Sulochana singing ‘Nanhi kali sone chali…’ to her newborn in Bimal Roy’s Sujata, all the time overlooking the other baby of a lower caste, who has by coincidence landed in a Brahmin household. What I remember of the sequence is the husband conning the wife to believe that the other baby is feverish and Sulochana unthinkingly touches the ‘untouchable’. The more Sulochana disconnects herself with Sujata, the more determined Sujata is determined to win her affection.
To be concluded