Dumb Tamil heroines are passe, it's high time bold women of the 70's make a re-entry

While Tamil cinema’s curves on a graph has never remained constant, the one thing that needs to be addressed is how Kollywood is unable to cope up with the standards set by legendary directors like K Balachandar and Balu Mahendra when it comes to making characters of the female leads.

While a lot of women-centric movies have come up in the recent past, they are only a handful and only a few actors like Nayanthara and Jyothika are able to get the privilege to be the stars in the movies that they act.

A typical Tamil movie will have a heroine whose screen presence will be seen in only five songs or those five songs will be made to get the female lead some screen space.

There will be no professional life, no aspirations, or anything for her to do. Women, even in the form of a robot cannot talk more than soap operas or crack innocent jokes. In the movie 2.0, Nila had to carry Vaseegaran to an ambulance and then to a hospital to get a first aid performed on him.

Whereas Chitti in Endhiran could deliver a baby even when the experienced female gynaecologists gave up on the mother. Nila could not even protect herself when Chitti tried to molest her.

A movie does not need to be women centric to let the female character have the brain of an adult. It doesn’t have to be an Aruvi, Aram or Katrin Mozhi. Why the heroines of non-female-centric movies are made to look like a bunch of dolls still remains a never-ending question.

If directors could come up with scripts that have better roles for women, it will be more empowering as the industry as such is male-dominated. Movies like Mahanadhi (biopic of Actress Savithri), which in the beginning was not received greatly by the audience, started picking up with word of mouth.

Movies in the 70’s had heroines who had a professional life. They were free to make choices. For example, in the movie Moondrumudichu, Sridevi married the father of her stalker after he murdered her lover. The stalker was portrayed as a villain and the act was not glorified. Back then it was not necessary for a hero to be a stalker.

On the other hand, even the top heroes of Tamil cinema are not getting tired of making sexist remarks and shaming bold female characters in their movies. When Padayappa preached 'Pombala Pombalaya irukkanum', Singaaravelan yelled 'Pottu vekka theriyuma, poo vekka theriyuma, podava katta theriyuma'.

While actors like Jyothika, Samantha, Anushka Shetty and Nayanthara are getting to perform in strong female roles, the others are still being ‘Muyal kutties’ who don’t even know to cross roads.