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Why do female-centric films of modern times come with a baggage?

Bollywood might just be relying too heavily on high decibel drama

Undoubtedly, it's a welcome sign: women-focused themes in the movies aren't considered box-office poison anymore to the degree that they were, say, a decade ago. Financiers and corporate companies - in these days of the so-called 'content driven' films - are willing to fork out reasonable amounts of funds for films that don't always glorify heroes displaying their muscular power.
Yet, here's a trend which has to be viewed with some caution.
The moneybags may be more open to woman shakti (power) subjects and bankroll projects toplining Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut, Kareena Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor and Vidya Balan. Still, the budgets are nowhere in the league of the huge spends on the films of the three Khans, Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan, Ranbir Kapoor, Varun Dhawan and Tiger Shroff.
The point is that standalone leading ladies can be prime factors essentially vis-à-vis medium-budget products from the conveyor belt of Bollywood. Moreover, if the Anushka Sharma ghost-flick Phillauri, Ranaut's Rangoon and Balan's Begum Jaan don't exactly rock the cash counters, there's an immediate deleterious impact on their market equity.
Can they be trusted to entice footfalls at the multiplexes? Panic buttons are pressed. Consequently, either budgets for their movies are reduced substantially or there's a massive re-think on the viability of women-oriented films. The pendulum of 'yes' and 'no' swings on.
That's the law of movie-making nature. Last year, when Neerja, a tightly-budgeted biopic, proved to be a commercial as well as critically-lauded whopper, trade barons were convinced that there are options to A-lister heroes. Most male superstars in any case charge astronomical fees, as well as a major share of the profits. However, when Begum Jaan disappoints and how, the trade indulges in overthink. Or should that be re-think?
Also, the 'content' of some of the women-driven films - especially that of the recently released Begum Jaan - is questionable. Throwing caution and subtlety to the wind, Kolkata's writer-director Srijit Mukherji portrayed Vidya Balan as a despotic, hookah-puffing madam, minus any nuances, given to yelling her lungs out at anyone who crosses her path. The inmates of her haveli, affected by the Partition of the subcontinent, are equally one-dimensional. As for the males in the vicinity, they are shown as either venal monsters or as wimps and losers.
Contrast Begum Jaan with Shyam Benegal's Mandi (1983) or Ketan Mehta's Mirch Masala (1987), from which the Vidya Balan film is so clearly inspired, and you understand that the war of the genders calls for a far more insightful and balanced treatment.
As for dealing with the tragic repercussions of Partition, Mukherji's approach was shallow at best, conveyed largely through mundane shots of groups of junior artistes, in freshly laundered costumes, trekking through perilous terrain.
And the ambassadors of India and Pakistan - out to evict Begum Jaan and her wards from their home - enacted by the otherwise competent actors Rajit Kapur and Ashish Vidyarthi, were hopelessly caricatured.
In sum, here's a film that tested your endurance threshold. Just the way Omung Kumar's Sarbjit (2016) and Sanjay Gupta's Jazbaa (2015), both toplining Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, did last year.
Characterisations of women as protesting, lung-blasting heroines indicate that extremism in cinema isn't the best route to connect with the audience. It's only when a filmmaker adds to the inherent courage of women, the elements of vulnerability, pragmatism and awareness of the reality around them, that they command your respect instantaneously.
Perhaps that's asking for too much in today's mainstream cinema, where every point - major or minor - is sought to be sledgehammered.
Please believe me, it's not only romanticism or nostalgia that make the women of the 1950s cinema infinitely more believable and independent. Take the oeuvres of V. Shantaram, Mehboob Khan, Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt and Raj Kapoor. Now that was indeed the golden age of women-centric films.
How you wish Srijit Mukherji and directors of his ilk would realise that female protagonists are made of sense and sensibility. And not lung-power blasting through the Dolby speakers.
wknd@khaleejtimes.com