When was the last time when a female actor making her debut in Hindi cinema was shown entering a bathroom to have bath as Sonakshi Sinha has been shown in DABANGG. In the recent memory no such debut has been made, while in the good old days it was a norm. There may be a voice of dissent from the feminists and the liberalists that such kind of introduction denigrates the woman and therefore should not be there at all.
We forget the fact that our mythology is replete with the instance. All the heroes who serenade on the silver screen consider themselves to be Krishna and as Krishna used to play pranks with the gopis and was privy to their bathing rituals, same kind of sentiment has been the leitmotif of the old school of film making patronized majorly by Raj Kapoor. The element of titillation that is perceived in such kind of introductions is not there for the audience as the audience is transported to the playful activities of Lord Krishna when it plays out on the silver screen. Were it not the fact then Raj Kapoor's picturizations would have been termed vulgar but they never are.
As in the case of Sonakshi Sinha, such occasions provide the directors to show case the female actors as a typical Indian beauty and that is how Sonakshi has been projected in DABANGG. The sense of coy and shyness, the hallmark of the definition of Indian beauty is what has been personified through portrayal of Sonakshi in DABANGG.
It also is applicable in the same manner to the dance of Malaika Arora Khan which is in the tradition of the nautanki the leitmotif of rural life and it has been the primary reason for phenomenal success of the dance Munni Badnam Hui.
One only hopes that the notion of beauty in the typical Indian sense as it has been portrayed by the role of Sonakshi Sinha in DABANGG would be carried forward and the directors would again start portraying the female stars in the typical notions of Indian beauty and the roles would be written for them that way. After all, a Hema Malini is not remembered for her role of a dream girl but the role of Basanti that she portrayed in SHOLAY.
