Sanjay Leela Bhansali‘s Gangubai Kathiawadi had everything going against it. No 100% occupancy at the movies, a major tentpole release after the omicron virus lockdown, a poorly received album, lacklustre promotions, miscast allegations and major hate campaign against the lead actor Alia Bhatt and major clashes from Ajith starrer Valimai and Pawan Kalyan starrer Bheemla Nayak. The film yet emerged victorious and how. The film opened to double digits on its first day even when trade expected single digit opening and is on its way to enter the coveted 100 crore club… amidst a pandemic.
The rampage Gangubai Kathiawadi led by Alia Bhatt : The Superstar has been creating at the box office right now is a testament of the fact that larger than life celebratory movies are not just for men. Yes, You can mount big films around women too. And they’re superstars in their own right and might. They can churn in numbers too. Male superstars for years had autonomy over masala genre (as we call it) or heroic larger than life biggies, but here in 2022 amidst a pandemic we have a woman playing a larger than life hero while also bringing the audience back to dusted theatre seats. She is full on a swagger, her dialogue-baazi gets whistles, claps, hoots and howls. Women are rushing and flocking in numbers to watch her carve her own space in a genre that was dominated by men all these years. We are witnessing audience celebrating a woman centric biggie at a time when a cricket film helmed by a male superstar underperformed. Theatres are embracing ‘housefull’ boards to watch A SUPERSTAR reign high while subverting genre cliches in her white sarees and black sunglasses.
In Gangubai Kathiawadi, we have our scorned HERO Gangu dancing to garba beats in trance. She has unfathomable rage, disgust and disappointment in her as she realises she lost herself in order to become the revered HERO that she is today. She then folds her hands high acknowledging the love women of kamathipura have bestowed upon her. The song in itself has subverted the genre cliche that is the hero introduction song we’ve been so used to seeing in tentpole films led by men.
So you might hate to admit it, but Alia Bhatt in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi has changed the game for the better, or so we believe. Women have waited long enough to see this in bollywood. We may have had an Anushka Shetty playing THE HERO multiple times in Telugu Cinema, there was also a Vijaya Shanti who helmed action blockbusters single-handedly on her shoulders or say, a Rekha in Khoon Bhari Maang but how often did we get a larger than life Masala Hero like Gangubai in Bollywood? How often did we see a woman herself becoming the saviour of her kind? Gangubai is all of this and more. A true Hero, the bigscreen Bollywood audience was craving for. And we are only getting started. We are going to see many more films like these henceforth.
If anything, Gangubai Kathiawadi is a loud wake-up call for bollywood producers to start hunting for big heroic scripts mounted on our female superstars. Our women are also HEROES. Our women can in fact do the male dominated genre, much better than them.
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