A return of Real Women in Indian Cinema?

I recently watched Gautham Menon's latest offering, Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya, and I enjoyed seeing real women gradually returning to the Tamil screen. Many of the popular Tamil films have been hitherto plagued by unreal female characters. Films made for the “thaikulam” (women) were probably the worst culprits when it came to reinforcing negative gender stereotypes and deepening gender cleavages.

Few directors have dared to feature real women in mainstream Tamil movies.
K. Balachander made a few attempts to do this in films such as Thaneer Thaneer and 47 Natkal. Balu Mahendra has also tried featuring more real women in his films but his offerings have been few and far between. Anyway, his films occupy the nebulous area between parallel and mainstream cinema.

Probably the first popular director who has continuously broken the mould of formulaic female leads is Mani Ratnam. His women are real, often urban. Unlike in consciously “feminist films”, Mani Ratnam's heroines are not brash, overly sexualised, or masculine. They are just normal woman. They are strong, existent, romantic, attractive and possible. They talk to men like equals, they aren't constantly paranoid about their fragile virtue and they are independent of the men they care for.

Director Vasanth who made interesting films such as Keladi Kanmani, Aasai, Rhythm and Satham Podathey is another director who features real woman in his films. Suhasini, after her unorthodox TV series Penn, which featured regular women, gave us Indira, a heroine who blended the vulnerable and the determined.

Director Cheran is yet another director who has been making films with real women. I have seen only a few of his films. But Pandavar Bhoomi, Autograph and Thavamai Thavamirindhu all featured interesting women. A couple of films he acted in, Raman Thediya Seethai and Pirivom Sandhipom, also have realistic small town women. From his first film Minnale to his latest offering Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya (Ye Maya Chesave), Gautham Menon has chosen to explore believable urban women rather than the creatures of fantasy.

Among the hundreds of films released each year, these are a handful of films over the last 3 or 4 decades which have made an attempt in this direction. For the rest, they continue to feature unidimensionally bubbly, arrogant, innocent or docile women. However, considering that realistic women are appearing in more and more mainstream films over the past decade or so, perhaps the conventional portrayals will finally peter out, leaving women smiling.