Vishal Baradwaj once said Deepika Padukone is a combination of superstar and good actor. He described it as a rare combination that a performer is a superstar and at the same time has great acting abilities. As a superstar, Deepika can reach a larger audience and the characters she play have more visibility and discourses around it. And as an actor, Deepika is a master of her craft enabling her to translate the heart, mind and soul of her characters. They breathe beyond the screen & sometimes even more than they do on the paper. And that is exactly why Deepika portraying the unconventional women, the ones who ditch the boxes they are pushed into, are revolutionary.
Deepika Padukone and Shakun Batra in a recent interview said that they’ve often seen ambitious women being portrayed with a negative connotation on celluloid and they wanted to change that perception with Alisha of Gehraiyaan. But honestly, Deepika Padukone has been doing that right from her second film. Even before she peaked as an actor she has been making choices where her roles charter into the uncomfortable territories. She has portrayed ambitious women with clarity and given them voice in mainstream cinema. Deepika easily transitioned the words dream and passion with ambition and drive onscreen.
In her second film, Bachna Ae Haseeno, she essayed Gayatri Jhakar, a hardcore independent woman who believes in earning her bread and living life to the fullest. She defies the norm of wanting a married life with happily-ever-after and considers it a distraction in her well planned life. While the film ultimately takes the detour to proper bollywood happy ending, diluting the character, Deepika’s choice of voicing Gayatri’s ambition in her second film is interesting.
The next time she donned the cape of an ambitious woman was in Lafangey Parindey as Pinky Palkar. Pinky, coming from the slums in Mumbai, is desperate to channel her future in a different direction. Pinky can only be described with ambition. She has the drive and works hard towards her goal. Even when struck by a tragedy, she gets ready to go back to her ambition. The film brings a knight in shining armour to help her but we are not seeing a woman wallowing in self pity who has to be ‘awakened’ again. She needs agency and she takes it when she gets it. It is one of the best female characters to come from Bollywood and Deepika who was sharpening her talent then is able to do justice to the fire in Pinky.
In the same year she did Aaliya Khan, another ambitious woman. Her intro scene begins with a bride advising a smoking Aaliya that it is injurious to women’s health. Aaliya retorts by saying she thought it was injurious to all. That one dialogue sets the tone for her character. Aaliya is unapologetically herself encouraging the people around her and beyond the screen to see her as an annoying and rigidly ambitous girl who would value her goals over relationships. A tough trope for a mainstream bollywood actress to play in a romcom. The film sees her being selfish for herself, choosing her happiness, breaking away from the relationships that stifles her. She is unreasonable at times but has it in her to rectify her decisions and apologize for taking her loved ones for granted. But she never lets go of her goals. She learns to embrace it along with the relationships in her life. A very empowering woman character and her shades come through in Deepika Padukone’s safe hands.
Two years later, came the turning point in Deepika Padukone’s career, and it was again with a flawed character who had the label of alcoholic party animal with a selfish streak to her. But Deepika who had found her tuning with her craft by then, portrayed Veronica of Cocktail with her layers of selfishness and selflessness, making Veronica one of the most endearing characters of her career. The narrative or Deepika doesn’t hide Veronica’s weaknesses and flaws. But they also convey the goodness in her, taking the character’s perception from black and white to an acceptable realm. Veronica hits the right notes with audience more than the stereotypical vanillaic Meera, and that was a major win.
In 2013, with Leela in Ramleela, she pushes the boundaries of her character once again. A woman who is clear about not wanting to rot in the ancestory of vengeance, seeks out her love & escape. She walks away with a man who killed her brother and while he is still torn over the decision, Leela is making plans for her wedding and future. The narrative could have painted Leela as a sick in love, impractical character but Deepika portrays Leela with clarity. She is today’s woman seeking out what she wants and is willing to fight for it and not care about the names she is labelled with.
In 2015, Deepika Padukone christened herself as her character Piku, in the minds of audience. Shoojit Sircar was rewriting the sugar coated bond between a parent and child with the film Piku. Piku takes care of her father diligently, most often putting his needs and desires above having her own life. But she is not the stereotypical docile loving daughter we are used to. Piku never hides her irritation, never hesitates to yell at her dad, she becomes his parent/caregiver and makes sure that it is loud and clear that this isn’t easy on her. Deepika’s co-star in the film Irrfaan Khan said in an interview, that Piku as a character was as irritable as her eccentric father on the paper. But Deepika Padukone played Piku with a depth that we see the concern behind her yelling, the care behind her actions, her love behind her exhuasting equation with her father. Piku resonated with audience in a way that the real life Pikus in our society felt seen beyond their anger tantrums.
In the same year, she played Mastani in Bajirao Mastani, who like Leela seeks out the love and life she desires. Inspired from a real life legend, Deepika portays Mastani with dignity and presented her with an authoritative agency. Even while caught in a sea of hate, Mastani is unshaken. She accepts her situations and never takes an insult lying down. She lives the life she wants unapologetically and doesn’t get bowed down by the challenges that come her way. While the centuries and situations might be different her spirit and attitude is something that resonates with today’s woman.
Five years later, she became Malti of Chhapaak onscreen. Using her stardom she highlighted a social issue, bringing it into dinner table conversations. She played the role of an acid attack survivor, inspired from the life of Laxmi Aggarwal and went through the beats of Malti’s life with dignity and strength. The narrative goes beyond the agony and trauma of Malti and focuses on resurrection of her life back to normal and her fight for a better tomorrow. It is a story about triumph and with ease Deepika as Malti made audience uncomfortable.
Going beyond the screen, as one of the producers of the film, Deepika conducted social experiments offscreen where she walked the streets in Malti’s avtar and gauged the eyeballs that come in the way of an acid attack survivor, effectively holding a mirror to the society. With an expert team, they tried to see how easily acid is bought and sold in the country conveying the gravity of the situation. With her reach she took the issue to a larger context and minor changes showed soon after the release when acid attack survivors said they felt a change in the acceptance from society. This role actually underlines Vishal Baradwaj’s statement.
This year, with Alisha Khanna from Gehraiyaan, Deepika has again proved she is not going to go by the rulebooks. She essays Alisha who commits adultery and is dealing with mental health issues owing to childhood trauma. By etching out the layers of Alisha she impacts the audience and once again gives rise to discourse around her character. She goes against the mainstream heroine expectations when Alisha sleeps with her cousin’s fiancee, discusses abortion with a practical head, enlivens panic attacks. She is again an ambitious woman who wants to rewrite her life from what that was of her mother’s and goes about it ruthlessly. She takes the plunge and faces consequences but as director Shakun Batra wanted, Alisha like other characters in the film is able to gain acceptance and understanding as a grey character. There are no justifications, no crutches to soften the edges. Alisha is a painfully honest portrayal and seeks acceptance for the way she is.
Coming to the conclusion, I would like to make it clear that this post is not made because I am a fan of this artist. I would be writing this piece for any actor who would play these roles with the same panache. It has more to do with my relief at being seen, represented in the language of cinema. Over the years and across languages I’ve seen characters that resonate with me being portrayed by credible actors. But often the narrative or the execution tends to highlight the grey in those characters without giving them a voice to be real and acceptable. Deepika Padukone as an actor has been that authentic voice I have been seeking on celluloid, that resembles and resonates with me. With her, even when the narrative tends to take the opposite direction she plays her characters with an intelligence and genuinity that they exist beyond their flaws. I am eagerly waiting to see what unveils with the remake of The Intern; hopefully the pressures of motherhood on working mothers is addressed and Deepika adds one more role to her filmography that speaks the unconventional language.
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