We live in a society that is deeply threatened by women claiming what is rightfully theirs, that is, their autonomy. A world that birthed the gender imbalance and nourished it to become so widely prevalent that the biggest pandemic in the history of human civilisation is nothing but patriarchy and the way it branches out in every aspect of our lives.
From restricting our life choices to claiming authority over our very bodies, violation of autonomy has become so deeply embedded in our society that it is barely perceived as something wrong. Often, it comes disguised under the playful teasing or unfounded advice that women are subjected to, with regards to bearing a child. Whether due to infertility issues or by choice, a woman not having a child is often looked at as incomplete.
Cinema often performs two important functions—it exhibits the social mindset of an era and/or aims to change it. If we trace the history of the depiction of infertility in Bollywood, it tells a tale of reformation and evolution, amalgamating aspiration and reality in a humble mix of cinematic brilliance.
Let’s take a look at the evolving perception of infertility through the lens of Bollywood.
Doosri Dulhan (1983)
Director Lekh Tandon made a movie back in the ‘80s, which was way ahead of its time. Doosri Dulhan is about a childless couple, played by Victor Banerjee and Sharmila Tagore, who reach out to a sex worker, played by Shabana Azmi, for being a surrogate for them. Unfortunately, the film didn’t do well at the box office, mainly because India wasn’t ready for a subject like that back then.
Gharwali Baharwali (1998)
David Dhawan tried to give the issue of infertility a comic twist, but we can’t deny not feeling a sense of boiling anger when we watch a woman being constantly harassed by her father-in-law for not being able to give him a grandchild. The movie has Raveena Tandon, Anil Kapoor and Rambha in lead roles. The desperation to have a child leads to complicated situations in the film that leads to accidental polygamy.
Filhaal (2002)
The movie is a tale of two best friends (Tabu and Sushmita Sen), in which one friend volunteers to step in as a surrogate for the other. In most movies that talk about infertility and surrogacy, the surrogate is often shown to be a woman in the sex trade. But this movie aimed to de-stigmatise surrogacy. Unfortunately, it didn’t garner as much appraise as it deserved back in the day.
Chori Chori Chupke Chupke (2003)
Two decades after Doosri Dulhan, surrogacy had come a long way but it was still something one couldn’t talk about openly. Chori Chori Chupke Chupke starring Salman Khan and Rani Mukerji as the childless couple, and Preity Zinta as the surrogate, showed that new-age couples were opening their minds to non-traditional methods of having a child. But it also exhibited the unnerving pressure that families still exerted on newly-weds to give them a child. In fact, it showed how women, due to years of social conditioning, end up feeling that they are incomplete if their wombs cannot bring a child into this world.
Parched (2015)
A remarkable film set in rural India has Radhika Apte playing the wife of a man obsessed with having a child. The couple is unable to conceive and the blame is placed on the wife, who is brutally abused and raped by her husband for being infertile. However, it turns out, it was the man who was impotent. This film depicted the sad reality that even the guilt that society places on childless couples is gender-biased. It also showed that in terms of progress, there is a huge disparity in different sections of our society. We cannot take our progress for granted and believe that it represents entire India.
Good Newwz (2019)
Starring Kareena Kapoor Khan, Akshay Kumar, Diljit Dosanjh and Kiara Advani in lead roles, this film spoke of the impeccable advancement of medical technology in India, as well as the attitudes of people about non-traditional methods of pregnancy. The film shows couples opting for In vitro fertilisation (IVF) to conceive and normalised it, as a way out for couples with infertility issues. However, it talks about the costs associated with the treatment thus establishing that it benefits a certain section of society. It should also be noted here that many women feel pressurised to undergo the treatment, even though it can present a threat to their health.
Mimi (2021)
Starring Kriti Sanon as the surrogate, this film shows a childless couple investing all their money in getting a mother to birth their child. This movie shows that today, conversations around infertility and surrogacy are not frowned upon by everyone, but these still happen in close circuits, and in hush-hush tones.
While we are in 2022, and Bollywood has shown evolving perspectives of infertility, surrogacy and other non-traditional methods of pregnancy, it shows we are still not where we should be. We should be in a space where women are not constantly asked to conceive, treating us as baby-making machines. We should be in a place where women are not made to feel incomplete and not abused for being infertile. We should be in a place where couples must not feel pressurised to seek alternate methods of having a child if they don’t want to. And that is what I hope the coming years in cinema bring to us.
Also Read: Women Open Up About Their First Period And The Things They Wish They Knew Back Then