Three Women, Three Films - Nargis, Madhubala and Meena Kumari
I was thinking to write about Sahib,Bibi aur Ghulam.I saw it first as a child about 15 years ago,and its impact can be gauged from the fact that with this single viewing, I still have a clear visual memory of most of its scenes.But as I thought about the film, I started to ruminate on Meena Kumari's eternal representation as a 'trapped woman'. The 'Bibi' is so completely powerless in this film. She is so suffocated by traditional mores that even when she does something rebellious-becoming a drunk-it has to be couched in the familiar language of morality.It's only obeying her lord's orders,after all.
In the end, even her pathetic wish to have a grand funeral - with her ornaments intact,so that people know that a woman of good family has died- is denied. She is buried like a piece of rubbish in a dark corner of the haveli which was her life long prison.Sahib.... has certain components of the Gothic tradition.There's a decaying house, male persecution,female psychological breakdown in the face of this domination,a sense of doom-these are familiar Gothic motifs.However,Meena Kumari played this character in film after film.Even her swansong 'Pakeezah', the titular character cannot, herself, break out of the societal mould to which she is constrained.Only men can fully rescue her-she can't autonomously escape it.
This inability to take action is by no means common in other heroines of the era. Nargis in 'Mother India' suffers suffers and suffers some more.She is equally assailed by the patriarchy.But the climactic end does show her taking action against her son.He sins against her moral code and she reacts by killing him.However negative and desperate this may be, it is an act of courage and individual choice.Meena Kumari would've probably killed herself.
The third woman in this triumvirate is Madhubala,in her role as Anarkali in Mughal e Azam.Most filmmakers would have concentrated on the two men,not developing her role further than to serve as cat's paw between them.Anarkali does display these shades-collapsing theatrically between the two men.However,her travails,incarceration and defiance of the Emperor's authority are delineated well.She even gets to aim the choicest taunt at Akbar.He called himself z'ill alla fil'arz, or the shadow of God on earth,the closest that a Muslim can approach to God.For such a man,to be told that he was a 'banda' and not 'khuda' is an outright negation of his authority and a testament to Anarkali's spirit.
My favorite of these three is, and always will be , Meena Kumari.I don't know if her personal history was reflected in the roles filmmakers offered to her,her real life predicament inspiring the pathos she brought to the screen.I'm hardly the first person to advance this hypothesis. I just wish she was given an opportunity to create a different,more autonomous persona, once in a while.
I was thinking to write about Sahib,Bibi aur Ghulam.I saw it first as a child about 15 years ago,and its impact can be gauged from the fact that with this single viewing, I still have a clear visual memory of most of its scenes.But as I thought about the film, I started to ruminate on Meena Kumari's eternal representation as a 'trapped woman'. The 'Bibi' is so completely powerless in this film. She is so suffocated by traditional mores that even when she does something rebellious-becoming a drunk-it has to be couched in the familiar language of morality.It's only obeying her lord's orders,after all.
In the end, even her pathetic wish to have a grand funeral - with her ornaments intact,so that people know that a woman of good family has died- is denied. She is buried like a piece of rubbish in a dark corner of the haveli which was her life long prison.Sahib.... has certain components of the Gothic tradition.There's a decaying house, male persecution,female psychological breakdown in the face of this domination,a sense of doom-these are familiar Gothic motifs.However,Meena Kumari played this character in film after film.Even her swansong 'Pakeezah', the titular character cannot, herself, break out of the societal mould to which she is constrained.Only men can fully rescue her-she can't autonomously escape it.
This inability to take action is by no means common in other heroines of the era. Nargis in 'Mother India' suffers suffers and suffers some more.She is equally assailed by the patriarchy.But the climactic end does show her taking action against her son.He sins against her moral code and she reacts by killing him.However negative and desperate this may be, it is an act of courage and individual choice.Meena Kumari would've probably killed herself.
The third woman in this triumvirate is Madhubala,in her role as Anarkali in Mughal e Azam.Most filmmakers would have concentrated on the two men,not developing her role further than to serve as cat's paw between them.Anarkali does display these shades-collapsing theatrically between the two men.However,her travails,incarceration and defiance of the Emperor's authority are delineated well.She even gets to aim the choicest taunt at Akbar.He called himself z'ill alla fil'arz, or the shadow of God on earth,the closest that a Muslim can approach to God.For such a man,to be told that he was a 'banda' and not 'khuda' is an outright negation of his authority and a testament to Anarkali's spirit.
My favorite of these three is, and always will be , Meena Kumari.I don't know if her personal history was reflected in the roles filmmakers offered to her,her real life predicament inspiring the pathos she brought to the screen.I'm hardly the first person to advance this hypothesis. I just wish she was given an opportunity to create a different,more autonomous persona, once in a while.
