Simi Garewal was delivering the Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture at Melbourne University
Melbourne:
Representation of women in cinemahas been in spotlight post the Delhi gang rape incident andactress Simi Garewal agrees that Bollywood continues toperpetuate values and customs that should have been buriedlong ago.
While delivering the Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture atMelbourne University on the sidelines of Indian Film Festivalof Melbourne, Simi Garewal spoke at length on the topic TheEvolution of Women in Indian Cinema.
"Bollywood has been complicit in the process bycontinuing to show films that perpetuate values and customsthat should have been buried long ago.
"It's a problem because there are a lot of people inIndia for whom films are their school, their way of learning.They may be illiterate, they may not read books but they lookat films and think: 'This is the way things are. This is whatI am and how I should be treated'," she said during herpresentation to a jam packed audience here.
The 65-year-old actress and chat show host said theIndian woman on screen has been designed and defined by themale.
"If she's a wife she has to put up with all her husband'snonsense. If she's a girlfriend she has to play a littlefirst, but finally succumb and worship him. The lyrics ofpopular songs exhort a woman to worship her husband even if heis wicked, even if he is cruel."
Even now in most Bollywood films if a woman isintelligent and a career or ambitions, she will have to pay aprice, she said.
Simi Garewal concluded by pinpointing breakthrough moments,like Tabu's film Astitva which questioned existence of bothmale and female and Vidya Balan's Kahaani.Simi Garewal said Indian cinema has not been able to use itspowers to bring about the much needed social change.
Talking about the December 16 gang rape incident thatsparked nationwide protests, Simi Garewal said, "What is happeningin India and Delhi, there is only one way to stop it that isto put fear of God. I would love to see public hanging. Thereare policies and laws but no one to implement them. A courtcase can take 15 to 14 years."
While delivering the Satyajit Ray Memorial Lecture atMelbourne University on the sidelines of Indian Film Festivalof Melbourne, Simi Garewal spoke at length on the topic TheEvolution of Women in Indian Cinema.
"Bollywood has been complicit in the process bycontinuing to show films that perpetuate values and customsthat should have been buried long ago.
"It's a problem because there are a lot of people inIndia for whom films are their school, their way of learning.They may be illiterate, they may not read books but they lookat films and think: 'This is the way things are. This is whatI am and how I should be treated'," she said during herpresentation to a jam packed audience here.
The 65-year-old actress and chat show host said theIndian woman on screen has been designed and defined by themale.
"If she's a wife she has to put up with all her husband'snonsense. If she's a girlfriend she has to play a littlefirst, but finally succumb and worship him. The lyrics ofpopular songs exhort a woman to worship her husband even if heis wicked, even if he is cruel."
Even now in most Bollywood films if a woman isintelligent and a career or ambitions, she will have to pay aprice, she said.
Simi Garewal concluded by pinpointing breakthrough moments,like Tabu's film Astitva which questioned existence of bothmale and female and Vidya Balan's Kahaani.Simi Garewal said Indian cinema has not been able to use itspowers to bring about the much needed social change.
Talking about the December 16 gang rape incident thatsparked nationwide protests, Simi Garewal said, "What is happeningin India and Delhi, there is only one way to stop it that isto put fear of God. I would love to see public hanging. Thereare policies and laws but no one to implement them. A courtcase can take 15 to 14 years."
