This article was last updated on April 16, 2022
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This week's much-talked-about film, Pan Nalin's Angry Indian Goddesses is not the first Indian film about female bonding. Here's listing the 10 that tried it before.
1. Mandi (1983): When the redoubtable Shyam Benegal brings together a gallery of gorgeous women to play happy prostitutes it's time to rejoice. Mandi is one of Indian cinema's most accomplished films about female bonding with Shabana Azmi, fat and flamboyant as the Madame, and Smita Patil, Neena Gupta, Aneeta Kanwar and Sreela Mazumdar excelling as the happy whores. Interestingly for a film about female heroes the male characters were well fleshed-out too.
2. Queen (2013): Blatantly lifted from Parvathi Balagopalan's little-known film Phir Zindagi about a girl who takes off on a solo honeymoon when ditched by her husband-to-be, Queen worked mainly for the terrific chemistry between Kangna Ranaut and Lisa Hayden who painted Paris purple. Hungama ho gaya!
3. Kamla (1984): Jagmohan Mundhra's dark and desperate film about the relationship between a woman who is 'sold' to a journalist and the journalist's wife. Memorable mainly for the bonding between Deepti Naval and Shabana Azmi who played the two powerful women characters who discover a lot in common.
4. Paisa Wasool (2004): Directed by Shrinivas Bhashyam this is a little-seen film about a struggling actress and a divorce. Sushmita Sen and Manisha Koirala shared a crackling chemistry.
5. Cocktail (2014): This film was not really about Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone. But about Deepika and Diana Penty, one smart sassy urbane the other conservative and repressed. Director Homi Adjania should've just kept Saif out of the picture. But oops, Saif was the producer.
6. Mrityudand (1997): Shabana Azmi and Madhuri Dixit playing the daughters-in-law of a feudal family who finally revolt against the patriarchal code. Shilpa Sirodkar, Abha Dhulia joined the gang. Prakash Jha's best work by far.
7. Fire (1996): Deepa Mehta's film showed the two lonely daughters-in-law of a small time business family turning to lesbians. A bit of a stretch, really. Sexual orientation is not dictated by social-cultural circumstances. But Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das were brilliant together.
8. Gulab Gang (2014): Madhuri Dixit, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Priyanka Bose and Divya Jagdale played members of the Gulab Gang, loosely inspired by Sampat Pal's pink-saree gang. Soumik Sen's direction made this film a hodgepodge of feminism rant and filmy melodrama. Very disappointing.
9. Rajkahini (2015): Director Srijit Mukherjee's overblown melodramatic and morbid take on Shayam Benegal's Mandi, with Rituparna Sengupta playing the Madame of a brothel, terrific ensemble cast of female actors is the saving grace.
10. Angry Indian Goddesses (2015): What happens when a bunch of women from different cultural backgrounds meet in Goa? Pan Nalin's inviting film features an interesting cast of female actors, from Sara Jane Dias to Tannisha Chatterjee with Anushka Manchanda, Sandhya Mridul and Amrit Maghera pitching in from the rear. Can't go wrong. Long live woman power!
11. Kajariya (2015): A blasé rookie journalist Riddhima Sud from Delhi befriends a woman played by Meenu Hooda from a primitive Haryanvi village accused of mass female infanticide. The result is ….explosive!
Article written by staff at Bollywood Hungama. Read more
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