REMEDIATION: ICONIC IMAGES AND EVERYDAY SPACES

1.
The idea of the beautiful and sexually attractive woman, who, as the narrative progresses, can morph into the devoted wife and/or nurturing mother, is presented through the following images. Rekha, Fig.3, in Indian attire, shot at a slightly low angle, with highlight on right cheek and 3/4th of her face visible, is part of the series that includes Hema Malini, Fig.4, in a low angle mid-shot, a welcoming look. However, Zeenat Aman, Fig.5, had a variegated representation. Aman was accepted as India’s first sex symbol, who projected a westernised look (bell bottoms, short hair etc.), and the image of post-sixties girl. While here we see her in a sari and adorned in traditional jewellery- including head and nose ornaments predominantly used during wedding ceremonies- another set of images project her as her own ‘sexy other’. Also cited here is the back of the same photograph, which has the Censor Board stamp on it that declares the photograph is ‘PASSED’ (Fig. 6). Aman particularly appears like an archetypal example of the alluring and attractive woman who becomes dutiful wife/nurturing wife as the narrative move forwards.

Shabana Azmi also had a shifting ‘image’ or a shifting star persona. While in Fig.7 she holds a (marriage) necklace, wears a bindi and flowers in her hair, and makes a reassuring gesture, she later emerges as a significant political icon along with Hema Malini. Note the similarity of attire, posture and her ‘look’ with the most important female star of the period – Sridevi in Fig.8.

While the first category of photographs (of Rekha, Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman et al) shows the transition of the sex symbol into dutiful wife, the second or the following category shows how ‘overvaluation’ of the female figure is also a common tendency. See Fig.9 of Hema Malini as Durga (shot in a low angle iconic pose), which indicates how Hema Malini graduated from the nurturing beloved into a nurturing mother figure, while her personal history was connected with the ‘star persona’. Hema Malini’s political image seems to grow out of such representations and she is later seen with Somen Mitra (Congress I, MLA, from Calcutta).

Note Vaijantimala Bali in Fig.10 and 11, where she is seen in a dancing posture, and also in a more mournful bearing standing by a window, with her head covered, tightly clutching the end of the sari. Her look is directed towards the floor, which evokes respect as well as pity. (Publicity still released by Gemini Studios (copy right) for the film Zindagi. Likewise, Raakhee (categorised as ‘Film Star, Hindi’, for 21.7.95, Cinema Jugantar, p.8) in a still from Tapasya, produced by Rajashri Productions, in Fig.12, holds a ‘colourful’ sari, which throws into stark contrast her own white sari, with its associations of widowhood look. Interestingly, the caption of the photograph was: Raakhee, “in the role she was born to play!”