A decade and a half before the MeToo campaign became a global phenomenon and films like Pink and Thappad talked about women empowerment. Bollywood The epic became the voice of the challenges in which women India have to face everyday. A contingent of the greatest Bollywood actresses and actors of the time were all set to stand out for women and harness the power of film to make the world a better place and make India a safer place for women. We are talking about Rajkumar Santoshi’s Lajja Ki, which starred industry stalwarts like Rekha, Madhuri Dixit, Manisha Koirala, Mahima Chaudhary, Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor and Ajay Devgn. The film, which released on 31 August 2001, completes 21 years today.
Lajja by Rajkumar Santoshi was a horrific depiction of the mistreatment of women in India because men saw them as things with no function other than trophies and to deliver a child to the family. The film can be divided into four sections, with Manisha Koirala’s character Vaidehi acting as our guide. She portrays the abuse against strong feminist women, which was shown before the term “feminism” was popularized. Four women are featured in the plot: apart from Manisha Koirala’s Vaidehi, we have Maithili played by Mahima Choudhary, Janki played by iconic actress Madhuri Dixit and Rekha’s Ramdulari. All four women were subjected to the regressive norms of patriarchy and misogyny and their struggles were beautifully highlighted. It is interesting to note that the names of all the four characters are versions of Sita, which in itself has an underlying message.
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The idea of making a film on this issue came to the mind of Rajkumar Santoshi when he got a chance with a news. She read about a 42-year-old woman from a village near Kanpur who was held captive for 9 days and burnt alive after being a victim of sexual assault for several days. Hurt by this news, Santoshi realized that women are subjected to various forms of abuse, both physical and emotional on a regular basis. Santoshi along with Ranjit Kapoor and Ashok Rawat finalized the story and script of the film.
He also visited the village in Kanpur where the incident took place, however, in an earlier interview, Santoshi had revealed that not a single soul in the village was ready to talk about the incident.
Be it for the unconventional plot or not having larger-than-life action or a romantic hero as the protagonist which was the norm at the time, the film failed at the box office. However, Madhuri Dixit and Rekha were awarded the Filmfare Award for their best performance in the film. Despite Lajja’s commercial failure, it went on to become the precursor to many women empowerment-focused films that we see today.
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