LAGAAN & CHAK DE INDIA

THE REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN THE

FILMS “LAGAAN” & “CHAK DE INDIA

 

 

   The story of “Lagaan” was set up in a remote village called Champaneer. The village and their local king were protected from the attack of other local kings by the British army under the leadership of Captain Russell. For maintaining the army Russell imposed double tax (Lagaan) on the villages. It was unaffordable for them. So the villagers became so frustrated and they went to meet the king and the captain. Russell put forward on option; it was a cricket match between villagers and English. If villagers win the match they need not pay Lagaan for the coming three years. Bhuvan, one of the villagers agreed his condition.

 

                   The film could arise national spirit. Cricket is a foreign game during the pre-independence period the people were unaware of this game. In Champaneer the villagers were playing a game, called “Gilli” which was almost similar to cricket. So they called this alien game as Gilli. The whole village including both men and women supported Bhuvan, though at first they opposed him. The representation of women characters is very significant in this film. The central women character Gauri gave her moral support to Bhuvan when the whole village turns against him. She was portrayed as an ignorant woman .She doesn’t know anything about cricket. But she worked for the victory of the village in the match. She supported the village only because her lover Bhuvan was the captain of the team. In the portrayal of Gauri we can see the traditional kind of presenting the women by the Bollywood in the 1980’s. She is presented in the film as the embodiment of the Indian traditional woman. Even though she is limited in the domestic sphere, she contributed a lot for the team. She always keeps pestering the players to eat. Gauri also shows other typical female behavioral traits established in the tradition of Hindu mythologies and Epics. In this film she shows her jealous on Elizabeth and she has some other weaknesses such as envy and pettiness. By showing the ability to dance and make good food she shows the true nature of Indian woman hood. Her dress style is also suitable for an Indian woman.

 

              Elizabeth, the white lady on the other hand was portrayed as educated and civilized. She knows cricket well. So she helped the villagers to play without considering the objection from Russell. She shows her ability to understand the Indians and also tries to understand the sufferings of the villagers due to the double tax. When Bhuvan agreed the condition of Russell the villagers opposed him. At first they failed to understand what Bhuvan was trying to say. Where Indians failed a foreign woman wins.  Elizabeth supported Bhuvan and encouraged him well. Initially she finds very difficulty in teaching them the rules and regulations of cricket.  She learnt Hindi for teaching them cricket. She could fully understand the tradition of the village. She wanted to be an Indian. In one sense she gradually becomes as an Indian. So she showed her respect to the local traditions and participated in the Holi celebrations, prayers at the village temple and she even applied “Sindoor” on her forehead. She shows the Indian notion of feminity through these acts. Finally she falls in love with Bhuvan.

 

         The other women of the village contribute to the game by sewing the pads and gloves for the team. The critique on the women representation in this film is that, in Champaneer there are a few talented women who can bowl because of their skill in keeping the birds away from the drying drain in the courtyard with well- aimed stones and some other who invents the sweep shot from endless practice in sweeping the house. But unfortunately there is no woman representation in the cricket team. Even Gauri also shows her willingness to play for the team. In this village, women are limited in the domestic sphere. Even in the sports field also the women teams are marginalized by the male dominated society. The Government spends more money for the development of the men’s sports teams. The film “Chak De India” critiqued these kinds of discrimination in the sports field.

 

             In the 1970’s and 80’s the Bollywood films portrayed women in saree as virtuous and girls in jeans as naughty. Bollywood underlines what is already prevalent in our tradition bound society that women need to uphold the cultural traditions like wear the Indian type of dress, visit temple, and conduct poojas, maintain relationship with family. “Chack De India” broke away the tradition of Bollywood by portraying women in a modern manner. In this film, women are seen in sports dress. But they formed the national spirit of Indian women hockey team. The lack of support from the government for promoting the women hockey team has highlighted in this film. In the interview scene of Kabir Khan with board members including one lady, completely ridiculed the women hockey team. They said these ladies could do nothing.  Participating in world cup matches considered as a government tour. They maintain the team only for the namesake. Some players have come for the camp by discarding the opposition from their family. Their relatives, husband and lover made objection in playing hockey. For example when Priety Sabarwal talks about her carrier in hockey to her lover, he simply replied what carrier for you in hockey? He gives more importance to cricket. He represents the men, who are neglecting the participation of women in the sports field.

 

 

           Though the film claims to undo stereotypes it has plenty of them. For example the player from A.P is called as “Madrasi”. Then she replied that she is form Andhra. Then he asked “does it make any difference?” The girls from Jharkand are portrayed as backward and unable to speak English. The other players called them as “jungle girls”. When they went to the registration counter the person in charge of registration asked them “are you coming from Lunatic asylum?” The other stereotype is the quarrel among the players. Kabir Khan finds difficulty in uniting the players. The major quarrel is between Komal and Preity. Their quarrel ended just before the final world cup match against Australia. This made the film a popular one. This film is about the Indian women hockey team but in the film only some faces especially the faire ones are repeatedly seen. Always Preity is scoring goals. Another stereotype is the portrayal of the girls from the North-East. In the fighting scene in the restaurant between the players and a group of eve-teasers, only the girls from North-East are targeted for teasing because they wear western clothes.

 

                The degrading of women has seen in the climax scene. An Australian woman took the last penalty shot and the Indian goalkeeper defended it. How did she defend it? The idea of how to defend the goal had come from a man, the coach Kabir Khan. Here a man marginalizes the woman. The women players in the film are in one sense handicapped. They find no takers for their efforts. We empathize with them as they struggle against families, fiancés, uncooperative Governments and a chauvinistic society at large to play and get ahead.