‘Gunday’ through a feminist’s lens

“Pistol ki goli aur laundiyon ki boli jab chalti hai, toh jaan dono mein hi khatre mein hoti hai.”
When bullets are fired from a gun or words fired from a woman, then there is danger for your life in both, says Irrfan Khan in his role as police officer Satyajit Sarkar, in the recently released film Gunday directed by Ali Abbas Zafar.
Priyanka Chopra’s entry in the film is also dramatic and quite contradictory, as she casually walks into the men’s restroom and intimidates the male heroes. Hence the film raises many eyebrows in its portrayal of woman in stereotypical roles. Priyanka plays Nandita, a fiery cabaret dancer used as bait for Bikram and Bala, Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor.
Although she’s introduced to viewers very glamorously, it doesn’t take long for her to take a pavitra rishta turn and become a saati savitri. The movie had actually got off to a good start before Priyanka’s character entered and then the plotline went downhill from there. The film became very predictable; girl comes in between two guys who then lose track of their goals and run after the girl in a war of winning her over.
The guys are then seen tossing coins (literally) over who gets to woo her first. Meanwhile Nandita plays it safe, toying with both their emotions and encouraging them. The scene which had me cringing the most was when Nandita tells Bikram she will never meet him again if he doesn’t come to the Durga Puja, which in turn will make him break his promise to Bala. As both friends had agreed not to see her until Bala returned, but of course Bikram pursues Nandita. And from here is where the irony starts from, as the story is now solely centred on revenge and betrayal, all because of one woman… Sigh.
There was even a scene where Bala asks Bikram if they can divide Nandita between them, and yes by this time my eyes were urging to pop out. It was almost as if women were toys, you could play with them whenever you wanted or mould them into what you desired.
Nandita’s character fits the cliché “ek aaurat hi saari phasa ki jaar hoti hain” (a woman is the root cause of all problems) perfectly. It played on those typical scenarios where a guy makes a foolish decision by listening to the damsel and you can almost see them trotting off into the sunset, and with a song included, being Bollywood.
And no, the movie doesn’t redeem itself when Nandita reveals herself to be an undercover cop, only makes it much more pathetic as she now has to choose between duty and love.
Studies have also been done on Bollywood films portraying feminism and how they’ve been so consistent in putting women in stereotypical roles. Whether it be Maa, behen, beti, biwi or bahu, Bollywood fails to communicate equality.
Nidhi Shendurnikar Tere, in her research on Gender Reflections in Mainstream Hindi Cinema, analysed the film Fashion, another Priyanka starrer, in which she comments saying her character of Meghna is seen more as a victim than a person who goes through hardship to create her own identity.
She mentions how women should not be seen as objects of male gaze and that cinema should seek a redefinition. And also emphasizes that cinema is a popular choice of mass media consumption which in turn moulds opinions.
Therefore Bollywood needs to accommodate the newer notions of women in empowering roles more often, regardless of society accepting this; else women will always be seen as the weaker gender.
And yes, we do realise films are released with a commercial motive too, they aim to make profit and as Vidya Balan’s character in The Dirty Picture so famously said “filmein sirf teen cheezo keh wajah se chalti hai, entertainment, entertainment, entertainment…”
But filmmakers should also realise the stereotypes they depict onscreen can become the norm as well.
Take another of Priyanka’s previous films Dostana, guys pretend to be Gay in order to share a flat with her and again a similarly recycled plot, two guy’s ga-ga over one girl. In this case, the guys spend the entirety of the movie fighting over the girl. And as viewers are led to believe that Priyanka has a substantial role in Gunday, it has failed miserably to communicate inspiration to the female viewers.
The film has nothing new to offer, it’s just a masala entertainer which you can watch for nostalgia’s sake.