I had wrote this essay ages back for the British Film Institute's website about the representation of disability in Bollywood. The weblink
www.bfi.org.uk/disablingimagery of this has gone missing, so, I'm posting it here:
“Movies are so rarely great art, that if we cannot appreciate
great trash, we have very little reason to be interested in them”.
Pauline Kael
This somewhat acerbic thought of long time film reviewer with
the New Yorker, stands true for most - probably every film industry
in the world, and specifically for the Hindi film industry or
Bollywood as it is popularly called; which is famous for churning out
trite formulaic stuff year after year. So, what you get at the end,
is hundred odd variations of a couple of storylines with the staple
Masala (i.e. ingredients) to satisfy the taste of the average film
buff, like - five songs, three fight sequences, a couple of
melodramatic emotional scenes that can force open the floodgates of
your tear ducts and two comical interludes, which may sometime border
on plain buffoonery by a couple of sidekicks. This has been passed on
generation to generation, from time immemorial.
In the given scenario, it is really an onerous task to analyze the
representation of disability in Hindi Cinema. Here, Bollywood proves
the adage that ‘Films are merely a reflection of the society’ to
be true. Since the disabled lot are marginalised in the Indian
society, the same is reflected in Hindi films. So what you see is a
fleeting moment where a crippled beggar extends his begging bowl into
the window of a flashy imported car, or our good hearted protagonist
helping a visually impaired person cross the busy city road and in
return getting heart felt blessings from the less fortunate.
If we ponder over the films in the history of Hindi Cinema, where the
disabled characters have got some decent footage (length of role in
Bollywood parlance) or where they have got anything to do which is of
consequence; we may find, not more than what we can count on our
fingers and toes put together.
Initially, directors resorted to showing physical deformity as
a symbolic representation of negative traits in a character. So, in
agrarian times of black and white films, one would find the lecherous
land owner/money lender with an awkward gait or deformity in any
other part of the body. As time passed by, the villain or character
with negative traits became physically subtler. Now he/she comes with
cerebral traits like paranoia or psychosis. Some films have also used
disability to evoke hilarity, like a stammering sidekick or a lame
supporting actor.
On the other hand directors like showman Raj Kapoor and Manoj Kumar
have taken physical deformity to the other extreme. One still vividly
remembers bald David who is shown using a crutch in Raj Kapoor’s
‘Boot Polish’ (a black and white film released in the
early 50’s propagating the Utopian dream of post-independence
India) singing to his adopted street urchins - ‘Nanhe Munne
Bache Teri Muthi Me Kya Hai?’ (Little children what are you
holding in your fists?); and the children reply by singing ‘Muthi
Me Hai Taqdeer Humari/Humne Kismet Ko Bas Me Kiya Hai’ (We are
holding our destiny in our fists /we have taken our fate under
control). And, who can forget the character of the ‘Good Samaritan’
with an amputated leg, played by Pran in Manoj Kumar’s ‘Upkaar’
(Favour) released in late 60’s.The impact of the character on the
audience was not due to any intrinsic qualities, but because of the
shock value. This was probably the first time that Pran was
portraying an out and out positive role in his long film career.
The first real attempt to make a film with disabled characters in a
central role was by Gulzar in the early 70’s with ‘Koshish’
(Effort) which showed the life of a speech and hearing impaired
couple played by Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bhachchan. In ‘Sparsh’
(Touch) Naseerudin Shah plays the part of a visually impaired
principal of a special school for blind children, who falls in love
with a widowed volunteer (played by Shabana Azmi) who comes to serve
in the school to fill the vacuum in her life after the death of her
husband. Made by a female director Sai Paranjpe, ‘Sparsh’
was the most sincere attempt to tell both sides of the story with a
rare unsentimental equilibrium, dealing with the complexes embedded
in the minds of both the characters. The early nineties saw the
release of the most hyped film about the disabled: ‘Khamoshi-The
Musical’ (Silence) directed by Sanjay Bhansali, which dealt
with the trauma of a deaf - mute couple who find it difficult to come
to terms with the personal aspirations of their daughter who is the
pivot of their life. Though this film failed to deliver what it had
promised, it is still remembered for the superb acting by the three
main actors - Nana Pateker, Seema Biswas and Manisha Koirala.
In fact there are numerous other films that reinforce the stereotypes
about disability - from ‘Super Crips’ to wallowing,
philosophising invalids.
The liberalisation of the Indian economy over the last decade has
seen the emergence of niche films in what is called ‘Hinglish’
shown in multiplexes in the metros, catering mainly to the urban
westernized audience. The mainstay of these films is either spoofing
the hypocrisy entrenched in traditional lifestyle or showing the
angst of people marginalised because of their sexual orientation. So,
we can hope that one day one of these niche filmmakers will find
interesting stories from other groups of marginalised people such as
the disabled.
