A Look Back At 2019 Bollywood: 4 Women Youth Icons For 90s Kids

Amid the rising trend of patriotic, army movies, and misogynist comedy films, there are some mesmerizing contributions from Bollywood to set youth icons for the society. Where the 90s movies had portrayed the obedient and sensitive females as the victims; the previous decade is trying to turn the tables to portray women as the strong leading personalities, bringing about a change in society.

Right from Priyanka Chopra playing Susanna in 7 Khoon Maaf, Vidya Balan in Kahaani to Rani Mukherjee in Mardaani, the female characters have evolved to leave a remarkable impression on the viewer’s minds.

The women empowerment mission of Indian society, though falters a lot in its execution and creation of safe grounds for women, is striving hard to better its picture and touch all the strata of the Indian social system. As it is said, literature is the mirror of society, we can now invest our faiths in the improvement of women’s status in the Indian society due to the following characters from the 2019 Bollywood Movies.

Tara Shinde From Mission Mangal

Tara Shinde, the Project Director of the MOM, is the perfect mother, wife, and an enthusiastic scientist. The movie revolves more on her family life struggle, with an orthodox husband and teenage kid. But Tara is a smart and focused lady, who handles both her personal and professional lives with perfection.

She is the reason why Rakesh Dhawan starts believing in the MOM. She not only dreams of the perfect mission but also executes it with determination and faith. She truly shows that when you have passion for your work, you can do miracles. Where the plot of the movie didn’t do much justice to the women characters, Vidya Balan impressed the audience with her great acting skills.

Gaura From Article 15

A young, Dalit activist, she is seen leading a protest of people and singing revolutionary songs in a tiny village. Though the village is full of upper caste people plotting and harassing the Dalits, Gaura (Sayani Gupta) fights against them fearlessly. Her sister is kidnapped and abused even by the police officers, but she never backs down.

She is the one who leads Ayan (the protagonist) to the villain and helps him till the end to finally rescue the kidnapped girl. She is the true hero, who fights for the rights and justice of people despite knowing that her life is at risk.

SP Shivani Roy In Mardaani 2

Posting of a female SP in a male chauvinist Police Station can be difficult to the self-respect of a capable, smart, and brave police officer like Shivani played by Rani Mukherjee. But she never losses her sense in the toughest situation and emerges successful. She is a caring leader, determined human and alert and smart police officer.

She even refuses to follow the orders of a senior politician and officers to catch the rapist and murderer. She also slams the sexist reporters and people around her with her attitude and acts of bravery. Shivani is a courageous woman, who inspires and provides strength to the people around her. Only if the world could be filled with people like Shivani!

Latika From Bala

A dark-complexioned girl, Latika (Bhumi Pednekar) is a strongly opinionated person, who acts as a villain in Bala’s life. She is an advocate by profession and has accepted her skin tone, which people see as some sort of ugliness and pass it on as a personality trait too. She is not ashamed of her skin colour and presents herself as a simple girl.

Being a girl who has been hearing about her dark skin since childhood, she doesn’t turn out to be a shy and low-esteemed girl. In the age of fairness creams, she struggles to make the society accept her and love her for what she is and not how she looks. She even liberates Bala from his embarrassment of being bald. Latika sees everyone without the spectacles of stereotypical elements like colour and fairness meter. The world needs such unbiased people.

Many such iconic female characters have changed the parameters of the portrayal of heroines in the Bollywood industry. The qualities that were once assigned to men like courage, bravery, and smartness are now shared by both male and female characters on the screen equally. Let us take a step forward and appreciate this new female characterization in the film industry.

Let me know in the comments which female characters have become your inspiration.