Javed Akhtar, who is known for writing iconic films like Mr. India and Sholay, recently took a dig at a dialogue used in Yash Chopra’s last film Jab Tak Hai Jaan. In a recent interview, the writer-lyricist was asked about the concept of the modern woman and why there is a lack of strong female characters in films.
To answer this, the experienced writer used the example of films and dialogues to criticize society for its lack of clarity, which meant that talented actresses like Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit never received substantial roles.
In an interview with We Are Young, Akhtar said, “When you are not what you are pretending to be, you exaggerate. There was a film by Yash Chopra – Jab Tak Hai Jaan – there were two heroines in the film – one of them had the dialogue that ‘I will marry only when I sleep with people from every country of the world.’ Why would you go to so much effort?’ You are strong, modern, and visionary, I accept it.
There are many countries in the world. Don’t waste your time on that. What do you mean by this dialogue? And this is Yash Chopra’s film. Because they want to pretend that this is a strong girl and they are not clear what a strong girl is so they are exaggerating.
He further said, “There is debris there.” The old structure collapsed. Those self-sacrificing Indian women whose husbands would come home drunk from the bar and collapse on the bed and she would take off his shoes. He no longer exists. But what is a modern woman? I think people are not clear about it. The society itself is not clear about this concept. Talented Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit were ruling for about 10-12 years. Throughout her career, she never got the role of a larger-than-life woman. However, Meena Kumari got one. But, Meena Kumari got it because the morality of that time was clear. When Nutan was a victim, she got larger-than-life roles in Bandini and Sujatha”.
Javed Akhtar then claimed that because they (the film industry) are not clear about what a modern woman is, they cannot give even a single role to talented actresses like Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit.
“People who are conservative believe that they will lose a lot of ground if they define the modern woman. The liberal is afraid that if he defines it then someone will become a liberal than me. So the problem is that it’s still unclear. However, the female characters in Zoya’s films are women of today. Be it Luck By Chance or Dil Dhadakne Do or Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, they are all modern women”, Javed concluded.
