You wouldn't be very surprised because these kind of Hindi flops keep flooding the theaters every week with saas, bahu, sindoor, maa, beti etc etc. A lot has been written bout their sacrifices, loyalties towards husbands, 'mamta' towards children and so on. Women could be the good bad or the ugly in Hindi cinema catering to what kind of role they will be in. Unusually it is them who are the central characters.

Lately there has been a growth in the breed of filmmakers who say "no to satis and savitris", but want to make something which portrays a stronger and much more concrete image of women. These are films without mothers like Kamini Kaushals who wanted nothing-but-the-very-best for their husbands and sons always.

 
The other 10 percent of the films made give opportunities for girls, be it the romantic Shalini (Preity Zinta) who will do anything to convince Akash that love exists, Pooja (Sonali Kulkarni) who doesn't believe in an arranged marriage or Tara (Dimple Kapadia) in DIL CHAHTA HAI who accepts the man who loves her without falling for him, Aditi (Tabu) in ASTITVA, Reva (Tabu again) and Sia (Sushmita Sen) or Rambhi Behn in and as GODMOTHER (Shabana Azmi) - women characters are more carefully sculptured than ever before. This 10 percent is all set to give a new definition to the kind of cinema India will produce in the coming years, keeping in mind the series of flops the industry has suffered in the past couple of years.

A few films released in the past couple of years, which can be called successful have women sticking to their given scripts and not exhibiting much of their characters. This is exactly what happens most of the time in Indian cinema. No one wants to take a risk. Nobody wants to experiment except a handful of people who have come out with films like CHANDNI BAR and RAAZ. These films have women who have worked with the masses as much for their storylines as for their women characters. Neither of the films had any typical sad, self-pitying women.

 In DIL CHAHTA HAI we had Tara (Dimple) who on one side was capable of saying no to Sid (Akshay) and on the other hand was mature enough to continue being friends with him. All the three mothers in the film did not interfere in their son's lives but still involved themselves when it came to having a say in matters of love and careers. This is the kind of women those 10 percent of movies want to show people; A much more mature image of a woman, than a weak human wrapped around in saree running around trees with macho man.

A large part of the acknowledgement for the strong character roles offered for women in Bollywood should go to Madhuri Dixit who has played virtually every role with a great sincerity. With some great performances like TEZAAB, DIL, PRAHAAR, MRITYUDAND and sailing through LAJJA and DEVDAS, Madhuri has proven that she can play any kind of role. Dixit is perhaps the only actress to emerge out of the Hindi film industry who has had the privilege of having scripts written for her. Her achievements have become milestones for actresses such as Tabu, Karisma and now Preity Zinta.

Time has changed and its high time movies changed too. We do not need any vamps with short hair and cigarettes in their hands or old saas cursing bahu all the time. Its time to watch more DIL CHAHATA HAI's, ASTITVAS's, GODMOTHERS's and hopefully many more of these kinds.

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