November 9, 2009 5:54:49 PM IST Enkayaar, Bollywood Trade News Network

While the world of advertisement keeping in sync with the developments of the time, has adopted in projection of the married women as per the emerging paradigms, same kind of change is slow to come by in the world of Hindi cinema. The change in the advertisement copies where married women were projected was noticed for the first time in the advertisement of a body deodorant. It had a symbolic connotation. However in the recently released advertisement of Mahindra Bolero where a lady in distress is saved by a guy driving Mahindra Bolero is concerned, the closing shot shows the women under question having a twinkle in her eyes, hiding her telltale signs of marriage in the form of mandated jewellery.

Indeed the notion that is being suggested through this attempt is that why should only men have fun, women also can have fun and marriage is not a hurdle in having fun. It was expected that MAIN AURR MRS. KHANNA would be able to address this issue in some manner, but it could not do, as the lady in question kept on waiting for her husband to come back. May be, it was Salman Khan as the lead actor, that could have been the reason as a hero cannot be left twiddling his thumbs while the other actor walks away with the lead lady. The scornful laughter that Salman Khan had in the end in the aircraft was reflection of the notions that we have.

Karan Johar had dealt with this issue with great sensitivity in great detail in KABHI ALVIDA NA KEHNA. As a matter of fact it was B.R. Chopra the great sociologist of the Hindi cinema who had dwelt on this issue within the constraints of the time when he was making the films, with great sensitivity in HUMRAAZ and GUMRAAH. How could Mahesh Bhatt not cast the light on this topic? He had done it from a female perspective and titled it JURM? But the moot point is whether JURM, if it were to be made in present times would have the same level of success? It would not have, and the counterpoint to this was AITRAAZ that became immensely successful. It was an urban film with an urban message that marriage or no marriage situations at time indeed crop up that makes it difficult not to flip on the wrong side of commitments. It has been the norm, and it is heartening to note that even the world of advertisement is catching up to it, while Hindi cinema is slowly -slowly warming up to its possibilities.


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