Bollywood has survived post-Valentine gloop with two films portraying women as made of sterner stuff than men -Ram Madhvani’s Neerja and Prakash Jha’s Jai Gangaajal. Neerja had Sonam Kapoor play Neerja Bhanot, based on the true story of the 23-year-old airhostess, who lost her life helping passengers escape the hijacked Pan Am flight in 1986 – and left most audiences moist-eyed. In Jai Gangaajal, Priyanka Chopra plays SP Abha Mathur, an upright police officer, who almost single-handedly fights a corrupt nexus of politicians, police and land mafia in Lakhisarai, Bihar. The film proposes that it takes a woman to set things right. While this is not new, and mainly a ‘realistic fantasy,’ in mostly regressive Bollywood, it is still worth applauding. Read More…
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