Fem Throwback: Kal Ho Na Ho has a strong female angle

Yesterday, I got to watching the 2003 Bollywood blockbuster, Kal Ho Na Ho. It was the hey day of Shahrukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan had still not proven his Langda Tyaagi acting chops and Preity Zinta was the hip, urban, cute ‘it’ girl, fresh from successes like Dil Chahta Hai.

It now seemed like a lifetime ago in a number of respects, most obvious among which is the attire. If you doubt that, please check out SRK’s orange track pants in ‘Pretty Woman’, I doubt he will be caught dead in them today. But it worked then. There is one aspect to KHNH that struck me on the latest viewing, however, which never stood out earlier: The film shows not one, but two households being run by women who are single.

So there is the Kapur household, where Jaya Bachhan’s character – Jennifer - is the main provider. She lives with her mother in law, played brilliantly by Sushma Seth, her grown up daughter and the film’s protagonist Naina, played by Zinta and two kids, one girl and a boy. Their next door neighbours, the Kapoors, are also two single sisters. I raced my memory to find another instance of such a portrayal in any mainstream Bollywood film from the time, but couldn’t find one. The closest instance I could find was the 2004 film Bride and Prejudice, to the extent that it has a female dominated household. But that, frankly, doesn’t even come close to this.

What is interesting about this portrayal is the fact that none of the Kapur women is looking for men to save them or lamenting their lack. Jennifer, whose husband commits suicide, is the strong lady who carries a heavy family responsibility on her shoulders and bears the taunts of her mother in law regularly. She fights, and sometimes gets cranky, other times vulnerable but has her lighter moments too.

There is Naina who is studying management at NYU and has no expressed interest in men, because she has become too cynical about them at an early age. Her character evolves as the film progresses, but through it all, she pretty much has her act together. In fact, she is the smarter between her friend, Rohit, played by SAK and her. He is the quintessential sweet, but childlike and clueless character that SAK has aced over the years.

And then there is the granny, who is looking for good grooms through a matrimonial agency for her granddaughter and is probably the most traditional of the lot. She also has some fairly orthodox expectations of her daughter in law. But she is one progressive granny when it comes to a little something between her and her next door neighbour as well as her attitude towards life. She is shown to have a voice from hell, but neither lack of talent or age, dim her enthusiasm for singing.

Of course, SRK is the hero of the film, so he pretty much swoops in and saves the day. But it is not that without his support all would be doomed in the ladies’ lives. They are shown flailing in some respects, yes, but they are still quite capable. And to be fair, he helps the men too, so there is little gender bias as far as his support goes. That everything is accelerated, beautified and abracadabra-ed because of him is the core of the story. But its not as if the hero is provided a convenient setting to win over. And this is what made KHNH interesting to watch this time around, never mind that it doesn't quite entertain like it used to all those years ago.