1. What’s With Indian Cinema And
The “Commodification” Of
Women?
By Pratik Mantri

2. Subject of object?
• There are a lot of songs which have become very popular
everywhere, from nightclubs to marriages.
• The lyrics of such item numbers are surely creative but it has
portrayed women as objects.
• The item numbers still cater to the liking of males with a
song-dance sequence showing a woman being stalked and
wooed by a bunch of men in a playful manner.
• For long, women have been described as objects or
equivalent to it in various films particularly those falling in the
category of popular entertainment.
• Men raise their voices for the upliftment of women but once
in a movie theatre, they start whistling at heroins dressed in
skimpy clothes.

3. Anything for a hit?
• There is very little doubt that Bollywood has shown women in
poor light with raunchy item numbers, double meaning
dialogues or semi nude posters outside theatres.
• There have been some women centric movies displaying the
atrocities faced by women but that sort of movies have made
rare appearances.
• Even during the 70’s and 80’s, Bollywood was deeply infected
with cultural stereotypes with men being prime producers
and consumers, the objectification of women dominated the
cinema.
• But the situation today is a labyrinth to me with the two
recent popular item numbers, Munni Badnam Hui and Sheila
Ki Jawani were both choreographed by a woman.

4. Society and cinema! Mere reflection
• The films and media are a mirror of the society and if children
grow up dancing to the songs like fevicol se then society is to
be blamed for allowing such vulgarity to creep in.
• Films are a commercial product and in a bid to generate more
revenues, the movies tend to be low on moral grounds.
• Young parents are taking their little girls to coach and learn
item numbers from Bollywood films.
• Another reason for such commoditization of women is the
deeply ingrained theory of a submissive female to a
dominating male borrowed from the ‘Ramayana’.
• Voyeuristic camera angles and extreme show of sensuality
have not helped the matters either.

5. • If the cinema portrays women as strong natured and fearless
then this would gradually kick start the process of changing
the image of the fairer sex in the society.
• The actresses, producers, choreographers, directors and
everyone has a role to play.
• It can also be argued that whatever is displayed on screen
presents only a partial picture and many times the movies
also talk about peace and communal harmony, but still the
problem remains.
• Filmmaker Sudhir Mishra is of the view that the nation does
not follow whatever is preached by Bollywood.
• Some of the actions which are acceptable in movies are
considered as obscene in real life.

6. Truth stranger than fiction?
• For the people who are campaigning for a Bollywood without
any misogyny, what about the violence and regressive
remarks which make their way through newspapers and
websites?
• In the end, it’s the mindset and the intent that matters in a
country where truth is stranger than fiction.

7. • Read more on Youth Ki Awaaz at http://bit.ly/UTMqg2