Vidya Balan: A non-conformist actor who makes the personal political come alive

Vidya Balan's been stubborn in doing films that depict stories of loss, vulnerability and daily struggles of being a strong woman who dares to be different.

Vidya Balan is one of the most dependable actors in Hindi cinema. In an industry that has since its inception been dominated by men, this is in itself an achievement and firmly in the personal political. There will be others who will say that there are many female-oriented films and superstars shouldering films on their own, producing them and changing narratives - all true, but there is only one Vidya Balan- who has steadily been breaking stereotypes, one choice, one incredible portrayal at a time.

Hindi cinema always has over-indexed on the idea of a perfect female. This idea itself has transformed over time. Originally it was about patriarchal conformism - the mother, sister, daughter, daughter-in-law. The non-conformist was slotted into roles of the vamp, who owned their sexuality, body and agency, and doomed to perennially be used as parallel tracks, glamour insertions or a lesson to learn with her pain of unrequited love. This notion of the 'perfect female has now expanded - finding increased space within diffused patriarchy.

So, while Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma, Alia Bhatt all push the narratives of women representations on Hindi mainstream screens, Vidya Balan attempts to revolutionize them by unapologetically being who she is.

Watch her celebrate and own her body with abandon and elan, far from conformist ideas of female beauty, with sexuality in The Dirty Picture. She has refused to conform to the body expectations from a mainstream Hindi cinema actress across films and has stamped her agency on her own body with every act.

Add to this the representations of age. Tumhari Sulu, in her filmography, is a glorious example of how she plays an excited, positive, middle-class homemaker, driven purely by her passion for doing something beyond age-old patriarchal roles.

In her latest offering Sherni, she doesn't cover up experience and age under any synthetic. She brings to the fore the raw, authentic side of a DFO (district forest officer), struggling with patriarchal expectations on the one hand, and sexism at work, and the innate desire to be true to what is right and the demand of her job on the other. The portrayal is startlingly sharp, empathetic and vulnerable in equal measure.

With Kahaani, we saw an image in mainstream media we hadn't seen before. That of a heavily pregnant woman navigating through odds to find her missing husband. As the film's lead protagonist, Vidya Balan's portrayal of that woman - her body language and walk sans glamour - was one of the most significant steps in inclusive, body-positive depictions that mainstream Hindi cinema needed to see.

The politics and agency of sexuality, as is the question of gaze, have been long-standing issues with mainstream Hindi cinema. The Dirty Picture faltered in its script that glorified the male gaze and attempted to tell the story of Silk Smitha from the vision of a man. But Vidya Balan's stellar performance, understanding of male desire, and complete control over her body and sexuality gave the film dignity and the conversations it triggered. Her human portrayal of a sex icon enabled us to see the woman who dared to dream beyond the body she was reduced to by a film industry plagued with objectification.

Paa is another example of a well-written character (and her choice to play it) who is comfortable with the idea of body autonomy, chooses to go ahead with her pregnancy out of wedlock and is fiercely protective of her child as a single mother. Her anguish, refusal to have her partner govern decisions on the unborn child or her body and her rebuttal of him claiming a stake in her son's loss is testimony to immense strength and control over her sexuality and decisions. Also, in Parineeta, her very first Hindi film outing, where she chooses to be intimate with the man she loves when she does.

Agency is the hallmark of almost every role she has willingly played. Paa, Sherni, Tumhari Sulu, The Dirty Picture, Shakuntala Devi - every film doesn't just have the woman at the centre. It has a woman who can take control, decide narratives of her life, and play a specific role in her decision-making process. It is also the agency of body and mind, sexuality and vitality, desires and conflicts, themes prevalent in each narrative.

Then there are the very choices of films she has made. Her stubborn need to do films that bring not only stories of triumph but stories of loss and throw into sharp relief vulnerability, daily struggles of being a strong woman who dares to be different. Ranging from Paa to Sherni, Parineeta to The Dirty Picture, and every single film in between, has had a political feminist stance, which gets accentuated by her choice to do the films in the first place.

Ably guided by tight, empathetic writing, sharp editing, and cinematography that heightens such conflicts, Vidya Balan's filmography is a rich study of how stereotypes must and can be broken by maintaining a steadfast presence and biting into well-defined roles for women. These are roles where the identity of the characters she plays remains stronger than the relationships they are viewed against.

Lastly, the very persona of Vidya Balan. A straight speaking woman embracing the idea of health over the body and refuses to change to fit in. She shatters glass ceilings because that is what they are for, a woman who makes wearing sarees mainstream and brings back the love for them, pulling them away from being a mummy's garment to taking them to the Cannes film festival red carpet (as a jury).

Vidya Balan is the veritable outsider who worked her way through television, music videos and movies. She battled body conformity issues and emerged just like her latest offering, Sherni, and continues to win - being her raw, individualistic, empathetic, beautiful, natural self.

(The writer is a poet, gender activist and ad-woman)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.