December 3, 2010 04:10:27 PM IST Enkayaar, Glamsham Editorial

Hindi cinema, it seems is slowly gravitating to the manner in which cinema of Hollywood has evolved. The suggested conversion emanates from the frequent use of cusp words by the female actors of Hindi cinema in the recent times, a phenomenon which was and is quite apparent in the Hollywood cinema. After all, what is a lexicon or a dialogue without the use of cusp words, some swearing etc? It might be a characteristic feature of the women in the day-to-day dialogue, but the holier than thou approach of the censor board and the conscious decision of the female actors to maintain an on screen-sati savitri image meant that they would always utter dialogues which would be highly sanitized and would conform to the norms of the society, it altogether being a different fact that in real life the argument would stand on its head.

But the times are changing and so the wave of change has also been ushered in Hindi cinema as well. If one were to discern one single moment or a dialogue that defined this trend, it could be, Hatt Saale that Hema Malini had used in SHOLAY which became one of the underlining features of the film. As a matter of fact, Hema Malini through her various character portrayals has been quite liberal in using the cusp words, like Halkat, haraami etc., but SHOLAY was the first time when a word of abuse, quite common in the lingua franca of the common man was used by a female actor in Hindi cinema.

What was a trickle during the early days has now become a common feature in the cinema of the present times. The flag bearers of this movement that is silently being ushered in Hindi cinema have been Karisma Kapoor, Vidya Balan and Rani Mukerjee. As a matter of fact the lead in this direction was taken by Karishma Kapoor through the role that she had enacted in JAB WE MET and she took it to different plane through the role which she performed in GOLMAAL 3. Karishma Kapoor with the effortless utterance of abuse in GOLMAAL-3 underlined the fact that the abuse also forms a part of the lexicon of a lady and cinema needs to understand and also underline this fact. Rani Mukerjee would be doing the same through her yet to be released film NO ONE KILLED JESSICA. Credit however needs to be given to Vidya Balan for her role in ISHQIYA, the use of the cusp word 'Ch***aym Sulphate', that Vidya's character used to fire at the drop of a dialogue shocked the nation but it became the USP for the film as also the character as well.

May be, in the coming times to come would see more manifestations of such kinds with more regularity. After all, it is a part of daily existence, so why should cinema also not underline and emphasize the same?

Tweet

Read / Post comments on this article