If you were to ask any Hindi speaking millennial about some of their favourite films from Hindi cinema, there is a good chance that Farhan Akhtar’s 2001 film Dil Chahta Hai will be on their list. Starring Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Preity Zinta, Sonali Kulkarni and Dimple Kapadia in lead roles, Farhan Akhtar’s debut film was truly a moment in pop culture, for until then, mainstream Hindi films always had a playbook. Dil Chahta Hai challenged traditional visual grammar, the bulky sound effects and even the idea of recording the dialogues live on set changed the feel of the film. With all the actors being dressed like they were, and even experimenting with their looks a fair bit, Dil Chahta Hai set a new benchmark for Hindi films. And as good as those things were, one can’t help but question, why, like most traditional Hindi films, the female characters were shown as dependent individuals whose lives only revolved around the men in their lives? Why didn’t they have any jobs?
When the film introduces Aakash, Sameer and Sid, they are just finishing college. But as the film progresses, we see Aakash joining his father’s business in Sydney, Sid is already deeply involved in his career as an artiste, and even Sameer, by the end of the film is visibly busy at work (even though we aren’t told what it is) but the film does not grant the same luxury to Preity Zinta’s Shalini or Sonali Kulkarni’s Pooja. Dimple Kapadia’s Tara, who is older than all of them, has a career, but she is probably the only woman in the ensemble, except for maybe Sid’s mother, who seems to have a professional life outside of the events of the film.
Until recently, women in Hindi films were never shown to have jobs or careers. Even now, when we see films like Mr and Mrs Mahi or Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, the professions of these women are treated just as background, and are not relevant to the plot of the film. But even this is a massive improvement from the time when women were limited to just being the love interests.
Dil Chahta Hai, which is remembered as a generation-defining film, treated friendships and relationships in a non-dramatic way, but even the then-young Farhan, who was, as Lena Dunham would put it, ‘the voice of a generation’, forgot to turn these women into wholesome characters, and limited them to just being love interests. The film is the story of the three men so it is understandable that we see more of their lives, but the women serve no other purpose than being their girlfriends.
Preity Zinta’s Shalini, for instance, is shown to be dependent on Rohit’s family as they took her in when she was quite young. After her parents’ death, Rohit’s parents raised her and now that she is an adult, she feels emotionally indebted to them, which is probably why she agrees to marry Rohit. She sees them as parental figures and doesn’t wish to hurt them, and believes that if she breaks up with Rohit, it could potentially hurt her relationship with them. We see her living a nice life in Mumbai, and even in Australia, and watching all this, one can’t help but wonder how Shalini finances her lifestyle. It’s not extravagant in a filmy way, but it’s still something. She doesn’t have a job, and has no plans of getting one either, so what does she do all day long? Even if Akash hates staying at his father’s company, he still has something to do. She, on the other hand, doesn’t.
One cannot deny that getting a job makes one financially independent, and this kind of independence can certainly help you get over any kind of guilt you might have, which, in Shalini’s case, definitely has something to do with Rohit’s family funding her life. It would be safe to presume that Shalini is an educated woman, which makes you wonder why she isn’t even thinking about financial independence and is just spending her time thinking who she should marry.
Maybe it’s one of those things that was easy to ignore back in the day, but watching a film in your adulthood, in this day and age, makes it hard for you to ignore that Shalini is doing nothing and just sitting around, getting upset over her possible future with Rohit.
Dil Chahta Hai is one of those rare films that has actually aged well, but once you start noticing how female characters are just +1s to the men, you can’t look at it the same way again.
Sampada Sharma has been the Copy Editor in the entertainment section at Indian Express Online since 2017. ... Read More
