Author Maithili Rao opens up about The Millennial Woman in Bollywood

Indian cinema has long been a reflection of the society of that particular time. “No popular cinema can afford to be immune to what’s happening around the society,” says Maithili Rao, film critic, journalist and author. 

YS Life caught up with Rao during the release of her second book– The Millennial Woman in Bollywood- A New ‘Brand’? (Oxford University Press India), which was launched by actor Vidhya Balan on February 17, in Mumbai. 

With a Masters in English Literature, Rao began her journey with a brief stint as a lecturer of English. She drifted towards films in the 1980s, when she started writing reviews for foreign films at the Sunday Observer. She also did a film appreciation course to understand the various aspects of a film– its construction, etching and evolution of characters.

It was during a chance meeting with journalist Pamela Philipose, of Eves Weekly-fame, who would write a monthly column under the title The Images of Women in Indian Cinema, that Rao’s interest moved to the portrayal of women in cinema. 

“Consciously or otherwise, I drifted into writing about the way women are portrayed in films. I try to be balanced between my view of a film as a whole, and the portrayal of a woman in that particular film,” Rao tells YS Life during a candid conversation. “In a way, it is a conflict of interest. Sometimes you might like a film a lot for its narrative and technique. However, there is always a ‘but.’ When women are presented as the object of sexual desire and nothing more of a personality comes through, I find that problematic,” she adds.   

Throughout her life, Rao has penned chapters for several books on women in Indian cinema. Her first book, Smita Patil- A Brief Incandescence was published in 2015. 

“I have always written passionately about parallel cinema, and rather critically about popular cinema. And just so happened, I wrote the book on Smita Patil,” Rao says.

She has also co-edited books like Films Through Women’s Eyes- a study of 17 women directors of India, and has contributed chapters to Stardom in Contemporary Hindi Cinema, Icons, Frames of Minds, and The Man who Spoke in Pictures among others. 

As she spent summers in the US, she found herself reading and researching about millennials, their changing attitudes and expectations from life. It sparked her interest and made her realise how India too had a huge population of the post-millennial generation, and thus, the idea to write the book on millennial women of Bollywood sprung up. 

“In the last two decades, there has been a sea of change in popular cinema. From Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge to Band, Baja Baaraat, there has been a huge difference in the way women have been portrayed,” Rao explains. 

 “They (women) have more agency now. More often, she has an interesting character and the male character has sort-of become he vulnerable one. They are not all-conquering her anymore,” she adds. 

To explain, Rao shares the example of Deepika Padukone’s characters in movies like Cocktail and Love Aaj Kal, and how they were not just westernised but were more generous, and giving, and emerge as standout characters in these films. Topics like live-in relationships partnerships and premarital sex, that were once taboo, are not a big deal anymore. 

“The women of today are better educated. Even if she’s a small demographic of the population, she is very influential. She is both the message and the medium,” she says. 

In her book, The Millennial Woman in Bollywood, Rao has consistently used examples of the modern and liberated women of the Hindi film industry. She speaks about Padukone and Anushka Sharma being brands in themselves.

Rao points out how modern women are dismissing the idea of Bollywood being “politically cowardly”, by coming out and supporting political causes like for instance Padukone supporting activist Aishe Ghosh during the anti-CAA protests.“Bollywood’s millennial women are catering to the aspirations of the younger generation. They are causing furore, but also reflecting the changing attitude (of the society),” she says. 

Through the course of writing this book, Rao notes particularly enjoying writing the chapter on the subversives the most. In it, she references classic films like Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam and Devdas, and how no one dared meddle with these movies. And yet, in Dev.D, a modern take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's Devdas, its character Paro expresses female desire– a topic of that was considered taboo earlier. 

“Running around trees while singing is absent from films now. They are clued with item numbers, there are no disguising expressions of desire,” she explains. 

Rao also draws similarities between the women of parallel cinema of the 80’s and the women of today. “No cinema exists in a vacuum. There are references to the past and going forward from the past,” she adds. 

Both of Rao’s books–one on Smita Patil and the recent one on Bollywood’s new-age women deal–with women in Hindi cinema.  Are there going to be more such books, asks YS Life.

To that, she says, with more women directors and writers bringing in a woman’s perspective on stories and storytelling, she was inspired to write on the topic. “The latest work of Anvita Dutt Guptan– Bulbul and Qala, may not have commercial hits but they are remarkable pieces of cinema. So I think I will continue writing about it,” Rao says. 

However, she finds herself more fascinated with fiction writing rather than delving into critical analysis. She reveals that she has been writing a couple of short stories, and that her next book might not be about cinema at all. 

In Rao’s own words, she is very open-minded and adventurous in her thinking but not so much in life. Her greatest adventure has been moving out of Mumbai, the hub of Bollywood, to the calm and vibrancy of Mysuru. “It has been very productive,” she responds, breaking into a smile.