Looking at radiant bride Rashmika Mandanna as she wed the love of her life Vijay Deverakonda, the 80s’ thought that marriage meant retirement didn’t surface in any well-wisher’s mind.
It may be considered progressive that from Kajol and Kareena Kapoor to Aishwarya Rai, Alia Bhatt and Deepika Padukone, actresses now have a career after marriage and motherhood. But is it really a modern concept? Since when did a switch from Miss to Mrs mandate retirement from the arc lights?
Let’s study this land that’s renowned for feisty women like Jhansi ki Rani. A hark back to the past provides proof of how progressive Indian women, actresses included, used to be in the 1930s and 40s.
Devika Rani, often referred to as the First Lady of Indian Cinema and the first recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, ran a bustling filmmaking studio called Bombay Talkies as an equal partner with her first husband Himanshu Rai and she continued her career as an actress. She was Ashok Kumar’s first heroine in Achhut Kanya (1936) when she was Mrs Himanshu Rai. Jubilee, the OTT show that was patterned on the lives and times of Ashok Kumar, Devika Rani and Himanshu Rai, never refers to the retirement of the working wife.
In the 50s and 60s too, most leading actresses were married and not always to men who lived off their income. Bina Rai, who was married to Premnath, was so sought-after that she had to choose between Anarkali (1953) and Mughal-e-Azam (1960), both of which were offered to her. She chose the eponymous Anarkali, understanding that the same role later played by Madhubala would be overshadowed by the impactful father-son conflict in Mughal-e-Azam. Much after motherhood, Bina Rai starred in blockbusters like Ghunghat (1960), for which she bagged a Filmfare trophy as Best Actress, and Taj Mahal (1963). Her son Prem Kishen remembers going with her to the premiere of Taj Mahal and, to this day, he has the chartbusting Jo wada kiya woh nibhana padega from her film as his caller tune.
Becoming Mrs Shammi Kapoor and the mother of two children did not end an ebullient Geeta Bali’s career. In fact, in movies like Jab Se Tumhe Dekha Hai (1963), where she was paired opposite Pradeep Kumar, husband Shammi and brother-in-law Shashi Kapoor featured as guest artistes in a qawwali sequence. One could say that Geeta Bali died with her boots on when she went on an outdoor shoot for Rano (based on Rajinder Singh Bedi’s Ek Chadar Maili Si) and succumbed to an attack of smallpox.
Many famous actresses of the day, like Meena Kumari and Mala Sinha, were married career women.
While Mrs Shammi Kapoor had her own identity till the end and Shashi Kapoor’s wife Jennifer also did the occasional film after marriage and three kids, the restrictions showed up in later generations. Babita didn’t work after marriage to Randhir Kapoor and Neetu sent notices to producers to wind up her work before she became Mrs Rishi Kapoor. Randhir wouldn’t have permitted daughter Karisma to become an actress if Babita hadn’t walked out on him. Neetu didn’t have to walk out on her marriage but was relieved when daughter Riddhima sensed her father’s displeasure and decided not to rebel. When Neetu returned to films, it was as Rishi’s partner until he passed on in 2020. And Riddhima didn’t act in a film in her father’s lifetime.
When did such objections come into existence in an industry that feted Bina Rai and Geeta Bali? One isn’t sure but the first time a wife’s income was seen as an affront to a man’s self-respect was perhaps when Sunil Dutt decided that Nargis would not continue with her career. Dutt had told me that someone had commented the family would now enjoy two incomes. “I decided on the spot that my wife would not work.”
It has taken five decades to retire that bruised male ego.
Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and an author