Impuritites: Zinda Laash, Representation of Sex Workers in Bollywood.
Duration: 00:30:44; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 17.157; Saturation: 0.098; Lightness: 0.249; Volume: 0.239; Cuts per Minute: 17.856; Words per Minute: 68.723
Summary: In this vast selection of clips, it becomes clear that women in prostitution are definitely portrayed as outside society, being different from other women and even in some cases not recognized as women. Prostitution then almost becomes another gender among women. All sections of society are shown to be ashamed and disgusted with them, mothers, brothers, shop keepers, social workers, domestic helpers - everything associated with the sex worker is a huge taboo. On the one hand these representations enforce what is already known and accepted in everyday language and society about women in prostitution, on the other hand the object is in most cases to make the audience sympathize with the lead heroine, in this case a sex worker. Though this process of sympathy can be stretched to various levels of patronizing and an overwhelming desire to domesticate the non-woman to make her into a woman, it is important to bear in mind the power of popular cinema in shaping one's consciousness about issues such as sex workers. Most stereotypes about them - their mannerisms, speech, clothing, brothels - all come from the regular reinforcing of these norms by Bollywood cinema. In some ways, they may have even helped in sensitizing the audience towards women in prostitution, as cinema ensures that the audience is aware that these women live outside the purview of society. Though there may be varying degrees of truth to the way they are showed shunned by their own families, deceived into their profession, treated brutally by the police, stigmatized by all - it does perhaps help in creating certain bonds of awareness and sensitivity about these issues and the audience. Another interesting phenomena may be the weaving of the star subtext into characters. Most leading actresses of their time have played sex workers (Kareena Kapoor, Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Rekha, Sharmila Tagore, Meena Kumari, Madhuri Dixit, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukherjee, Tabu)- the popularity and adulation that these actresses gained from the audience may often interact with the way the characters played by them on screen are perceived.
Bengal
Devdas (dir: Sanjay Leela Bhansali, 2002) was an adaptation of a Bengali novel by the same name written by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. An earlier version of this novel was made in Bombay cinema in 1955, but it is definitely the more glamorous version starring Shahrukh Khan (Devdas), Aishwarya Rai (Paro) and Madhuri Dixit (Chandramukhi) that is better remembered. Parental opposition to get married to his childhood sweetheart, Paro, makes the protagonist Devdas a depressed alcoholic who eventually starts living in a brothel, forming a strange friendship with a famous courtesan Chandramukhi, who is hopelessly in love with him. The film is an interesting take on courtesans, Devdas would initially not allow Chandramukhi to even remotely touch him, he was disgusted by her and her profession and even lectures her on the roles of an ideal woman. Eventually he is able to see her despite her profession and even falls in love with her. The second angle to this is added by the female lead (Paro)- completely improvised on by the director (such a narrative is missing in the original novel), there is a friendship between Paro and Chandramukhi in the film. The two women are united in their love for Devdas, one married to someone else and one a prostitute. In this clip Devdas almost implies that a prostitute is an un-woman or non-woman, as she does not conform to any of the the domestic aspects of womanhood as defined by society.
It is impolite to get up and leave like this.
And it is downright shameful to dance in front of men like this.
You are a woman Chandramukhi, recognize yourself. A woman is a mother, a sister, a wife, a friend. When she is nothing, she is a prostitute. Can you be something else Chandramukhi? Here, the price of the time spent between us. Take it.
Aishwarya Rai
Bengal
Chandramukhi
Devdas
Durga Puja
Madhuri Dixit
Paro
Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay
Shahrukh Khan
courtesan
friendship
prostitute
sex worker
women
zinda laash
Bengal
Various
Bastard! Talk with respect.
Get out!!
I won't! You get out!
What's the problem? Why are you both fighting?
This bastard! How dare he hit me! I will kill his entire family. Bloody...
You keep quiet Kajli. Cook, you tell me, what's the matter?
Sir, I had asked her to not enter the kitchen. She didn't listen to me.
Who the hell are you to stop me? Is this your father's house?
When I dragged her out, she abused me!
Why did you stop her?
Sir, so many days I had kept quiet because of you. But I know very well who she is. I cannot eat anything cooked by her. If you can, then make her cook.
Okay I will. You can leave.
Sir, you are not doing the right thing. A respectable man like you...
You don't have to worry about my status. I can handle it. You take your fees and leave.
Darjeeling
This clip is from the film Mausam (dir: Gulzar, 1975).Dr.Amarnath Gill (Sanjeev Kumar) while studying for his medical exams in Darjeeling has an affair with the local healer's daughter Chanda (Sharmila Tagore). He promises to return, but he never does. Twenty five years later he returns to realize that the local healer is dead, his daughter was married off to an old crippled man. He also finds out that Chanda had a daughter. He discovers her in a brothel, a foul mouthed prostitute. Overtaken by guilt, he asks this girl, Kajli (also Sharmila Tagore) to come and live with him. He suceeds in 'reforming' her and a relationship of care and affection grows between them. Kajli leaves her profession and stays with Amarnath. This film makes a clear distinction between prostitutes and ordinary women, in their speech, clothing and mannerisms. Though the deep seated societal bias is clear, everything about the prostitute is conspicuous and must stand out. Here her impurity becomes clear, as the cook, who himself is not a man of status or wealth is acutely aware of Kajli's identity and cannot eat any food touched by her.
Bollywood
Darjeeling
Gulzar
Mausam
Sanjeev Kumar
Sharmila Tagore
kitchen.
prostitute
prostitute
sex worker
zinda laash
Darjeeling
This clip is from the film Mausam (dir: Gulzar, 1975).Dr.Amarnath Gill (Sanjeev Kumar) while studying for his medical exams in Darjeeling visits the local healer, and has an affair with his daughter Chanda (Sharmila Tagore). He promises to return, but he never does. Twenty five years later he returns to realize that the local healer is dead, his daughter was married off to an old crippled man. He also finds out that his former love interest Chanda had a daughter. He discovers her in a brothel, a foul mouthed prostitute. Overtaken by guilt, he asks this girl, Kajli (also Sharmila Tagore) to come and live with him. He suceeds in 'reforming' her and a relationship of care and affection grows between them. Kajli leaves her profession and stays with Amarnath. This film makes a clear distinction between prostitutes and ordinary women, in their speech, clothing and mannerisms. Though the deep seated societal bias is clear, everything about the prostitute is conspicuous and must stand out.
What is this?
What?
What are you wearing?
Clothes. Which I wear everyday. What's there to be surprised in this?
Get up and change your clothes.
Look, don't boss around like a man. I am not your wife. Why? What's wrong in these clothes?
You look dirty in them. They look like they're from the brothel.
Have you forgotten from where you have brought me?
Look Kajli, I don't want to argue with you. Go and change your clothes.
Have you ever heard that proverb? A crow tried to walk like a swan, and forgot himself? I had started to forget my real profession. Today I had gone to the brothel...
Where had you gone??
To my client, Chaudhuri. I had once introduced you.
Darjeeling
Gulzar
Kumar
Mausam
Sanjeev
Sharmila Tagore
guilt
prostitute
sex worker
societal bias
zinda laash
Mumbai, India
Open the door!! Break it!!
Pack up your stuff and leave. We don't want a whore living here!!
What are they saying?
It's true. Enough of your innocent act. You pretend you work in films?? Actually you are a whore!!
Yes, I am. I am a whore. My father died six years ago, my mother has been ill for ages, I have to educate two young brothers. I had come here to look for work. Forget about work, even if people give charity, they want to touch something. They put up cages all around and wait for you to become helpless. I became helpless. Sold my body. But my mother is still alive because of it, my brothers still go to school.
Just look at her. Like Sita on her trial by fire.
Enough, enough. We don't want you here. This is a place for married respectable women.
This clip is from the film Praan Jaye Par Shaan na Jaaye (dir: Sanjay Jha, 2003).Aman Joshi (Aman Verma) is on a research assignment. His subject is the chawl dwellers in Bombay City. He rents a small tenement there and talks to the people living there. Aman's kindness is mistaken for generosity by all the chawl dwellers, and they swarm him for his money, trying to get loans and gifts, to improve their lives. Then the lives of this small community are turned upside down, when the owner announces that he intends to tear the building down. This clip is an example of the kind of mindsets people living together in a closed society have towards a sex worker living among them.
Aman Verma
Bombay
Praan Jaye Par Shaan na Jaaye
Sanjay Jha
prostitute
sex worker
society
zinda laash
Abbas Mustan
Bharat Shah
Chori Chori Chupke Chupke (dir: Abbas Mastan, 2001) probably is worth remembering more for its alleged funding by the Mumbai underworld and the controversial Bharat Shah case, than for its narrative or creative content. A thorough process of domesticating the sex worker, this film is the story of a high society couple, who fall in love and get married. An accident renders the wife infertile. The couple then decide to hide this fact from the rest of the family and adopt a surrogate mother. This surrogate mother is a sex worker, who is paid a lot of money to bear their child. After some grooming, and a fair amount of lifted scenes from the Hollywood smash hit Pretty Woman, the sex worker slowly transforms from a crass streetwalker into a sophisticated, domesticated, ideal Indian woman, who eventually even manages to fall in love with both the husband as well as ideas of motherhood and family. She eventually sticks to her promise, gives her child to the couple and leaves her profession as a sex worker for something more 'respectable'.
How much is this?
It's not for you.
Speak in Hindi.
It's not meant for you.
Why? Is the material bad or will the colour run out?
It's expensive. You can't afford it.
What are you saying? I have money.
Come on, get out.
Why? I have money.I have come to buy clothes.
I told you once. Get out!
Bloody. Showing me your temper. I can buy your entire shop. You think I am a beggar?
We are not interested in selling you any clothes or the shop. Please leave. This is a place for civilized people. Leave.
Are their sweets attached to civilized people's money?
Watchman!
Don't touch me! You have opened such a big shop and your manners are so small. I will not leave you!!
Mumbai
Mumbai, India
Preity Zinta
Rani Mukherjee
Salman Khan
Underworld
chori chori chupke chupke
crass
family
prostitute
prostitution
sex worker
sophisticated
streetwalker
zinda laash
Chori Chori Chupke Chupke (dir: Abbas Mastan, 2001) probably is worth remembering more for its alleged funding by the Mumbai underworld and the much controversial Bharat Shah case, than for its narrative or creative content. A thorough process of domesticating the sex worker, this film is the story of a high society couple, who fall in love and get married. An accident renders the wife infertile. The couple then decide to hide this fact from the rest of the family and adopt a surrogate mother. This surrogate mother is a sex worker, who is paid a lot of money to bear their child. After some grooming, and a fair amount of lifted scenes from the Hollywood smash hit Pretty Woman, the sex worker slowly transforms from a crass streetwalker into a sophisticated, domesticated, ideal Indian woman, who eventually even manages to fall in love with both the husband as well as ideas of motherhood and family. She eventually sticks to her promise, gives her child to the couple and leaves her profession as a sex worker for something more 'respectable'.
I will give my life, but not my child.
Madhu, you have nothing lacking in you like me. You can get married, have children. I am incomplete, I cannot have kids. Please give me this child.
In return for this, I will give you whatever you want. Money or whatever.
I am ready to give you my child. Can you give me your husband?
After all, you showed your true colours. I used to think a prostitute is also a woman, but you have proven that a prostitute can never do anybody any good.
I asked for your husband, and you showed me my place. You are asking a mother for her child. It does not matter if the mother is a prostitute or a wife, a mother is just a mother.
Mumbai, India
Abbas Mustan
Bharat Shah
Mumbai
Preity Zinta
Rani Mukherjee
Salman Khan
Underworld
chori chori chupke chupke
crass
family
prostitute.
prostitution
sex worker
sophisticated
streetwalker
zinda laash
Don't come here again, after today. This is a place for downtrodden people. People who come here don't care about their reputation. You are going to live in the world of civilized people. So don't come here again, even by mistake.
I won't come here, but I will not let you stay here either Zohra.
Where will i go? A courtesan's life begins in a brothel, and ends in the graveyard. There is no life between these two.
No, Zohra, there is a life between them, which you cannot see trapped within these four walls.
No Sikandar, no, if your life is prosperous, then I will imagine that my life is prosperous.
Mumbai, India
Muqaddar ka Sikandar (dir: Prakash Mehra, 1978) is the story of a young man, Sikandar (Amitabh Bachchan) who is unable to forget his childhood love, Kaamna(Rakhee Gulzar) and takes refugee with a prostitute Zohra (Rekha). Though he never falls in love with the prostitute, he is deeply concerned about her, and she ultimately commits suicide in Sikandar's arms by drinking poison. The sex worker narrative in the film is only a sub plot, and it falls within the typical representations of sex workers in Bollywood.
Amitabh Bachchan
Muqaddar ka Sikandar
Prakash Mehra
Rakhee Gulzar
Rekha
prostitute
sex worker
zinda laash
Amar Prem (dir: Shakti Samanta, 1972)is about Pushpa (Sharmila Tagore) a village girl who is sold to a brothel by her unscrupulous uncle. She then finds a regular patron in a unhappy, alcoholic businessman Anand Babu (Rajesh Khanna). Love blossoms between them, and Pushpa is also very attached to her neighbour's young son, Nandu. Amar Prem appears to be an attempt towards highlighting the common prejudices against sex workers in society, hence Nandu is constantly and brutally reprimanded by his step mother for visiting Pushpa's house. Also interwoven in the narrative is the unhappiness of characters who live in so called respectable sections of society, and how they ultimately end up finding refuge in Pushpa. However, Pushpa appears as a typical Hindu wife and mother in her relationships with both Anand Babu and Nandu, which can be seen both as an attempt to humanize the sex worker and also an attempt to ultimately domesticate her.
Mumbai, India
Sir, come I'll take you to the true pride of this place. Munnibhai.
Leave him! Can't you see he's educated? Sir, you must have heard of Sushma.
Leave me! Why have you brought me to this dirty place?
Sir, if anything tells me that this hour of the night, 'take me anywhere' I usually bring him here.
Amar Prem
Mother
Rajesh Khanna
Sex Worker
Shakti Samanta
Sharmila Tagore
Wife
prostitute
zinda laash
Amar Prem
Amar Prem (dir: Shakti Samanta, 1972)is about Pushpa (Sharmila Tagore)a village girl who is sold to a brothel by her unscrupulous uncle. She then finds a regular patron in a unhappy, alcoholic businessman Anand Babu (Rajesh Khanna). Love blossoms between them, and Pushpa is also very attached to her neighbour's young son, Nandu. Amar Prem appears to be an attempt towards highlighting the common prejudices against sex workers in society, hence Nandu is constantly and brutally reprimanded by his step mother for visiting Pushpa's house. Also interwoven in the narrative is the unhappiness of characters who live in so called respectable sections of society, and how they ultimately end up finding refuge in Pushpa. However, Pushpa appears as a typical Hindu wife and mother in her relationships with both Anand Babu and Nandu, which can be seen both as an attempt to humanize the sex worker and also an attempt to ultimately domesticate her.
Mother
Mumbai, India
Prostitute
Pushpa, don't speak to me after today.
Why, brother?
Because the milieu, the dirt that you live in is outside society. And I live in society. I do not want my reputation to be ruined. So I don't want anyone to be aware of the fact we even know each other.
Rajesh Khanna
Sex Worker
Shakti Samanta
Sharmila Tagore
Wife
zinda laash
Courtesan!!! She's a courtesan!!
Hindi cinema
Kamal Amrohi
Lucknow, India
Meena Kumari
Muslim social
Pakeezah
Raaj Kumar
This clip is from the film Pakeezah (dir: Kamal Amrohi, 1971). Nargis (Meena Kumari) was brought up by a brothel madam, and grows up to be a popular and beautiful courtesan. Salim (Raaj Kumar) falls in love with her, and convinces her to escape with him. But her identity is inescapable - and she is recognized as a courtesan wherever she goes. Salim renames her Pakeezah (the pure one) and takes her to a priest to be legally married. She refuses and returns to the brothel, only to save Salim from the stigma attached to her name. Later she discovers that she is actually the daughter of a wealthy nawab, who does not deny this fact. The film highlights that the courtesan's life is full of luxuries and she is economically independent, however she finds her profession so shameful, that she calls herself a living corpse. She believes that her soul is dead. This film also falls within the genre of Hindi cinema that can be called the Muslim social.
beautiful
brothel
corpse
courtesan
daughter
economically independent
identity
luxuries
prostitute
sex worker
shameful
soul
zinda laash
Mumbai, India
Sir, leave me your address as you leave. I have to return your money. I won't come myself, I know you must be having a family, your reputation will get ruined. I'll send Johnny.
This clip is from the film Chameli (dir: Sudhir Mishra, 2003). The narrative of this film is an one night encounter between an investment banker and a prostitute, who are stranded together in south Bombay on a very rainy night. Chameli is a fresh take on the usual cliched oppressed sex worker narrative of mainstream Bollywood cinema. Though Chameli shares certain typical characteristics of the prostitute in Hindi cinema, like smoking and swearing profusely, she is not somebody who is sorry about her profession. She's spunky, has loads of attitude, a strong character and in her interactions with the different sections of society, like the rich investment banker, the police, her pimp, the orphan boy she has adopted, she is a substantial person and hardly ever sees herself as a downtrodden shameful woman.
Bollywood
Chameli
Kamathipura
Kareena Kapoor
Prostitute
Rahul Bose
Sex worker
Zinda Laash
south Bombay
zinda laash
Tell me Mumtaz, even if Potiya gave me the money, why should I give it to you?
- Because I am his widow, Uma Bhai.
Bar Dancers
Beer
Chandni Bar
Chandni Bar (dir: Madhur Bhandarkar, 2001)was a hard hitting film about Mumbai's murky underbelly. Prostitution here was masked behind bar dancers. Mumtaz (Tabu) follows the predictable narrative of a young abandoned girl brought to the city by a corrupt uncle who forces her to become a bar dancer in a beer bar, called Chandni Bar. These girls are basically both sex workers as well small time dancers. Mumataz has a love affair with a gangster, who eventually marries her. She leaves the bar, to make a better life for herself with her husband and two kids. Tragedy strikes them again, when her husband is killed. She is left helpless, resorting to prostitution to save her son who had taken to crime. Her daughter ends up becoming a dancer at the same bar where Mumtaz had started. This film was highly acclaimed critically for its somewhat realistic portrayal of bar dancers; however Madhur Bhandarkar's later films all fall into very similar narratives of controversial professions, lead female heroine and a doomed ending.
Gangster
Madhur Bhandarkar
Mumbai
Mumbai, India
National Awards
Tabu
prostitute
sex worker
underworld
zinda laash
When a man dies, his wife is his widow, not his mistress.
You were his whore, not his wife!
Potiya had so many of them in Bombay. Now if they all line up and start demanding money, will I pay everyone?
- Uma bhai!
Leave and don't come back. I am a minister, not your pimp. If beer bar dancers like you come here, my reputation will be ruined. So get out!
Hi, I am Julie. A professional call girl. I'm coming to your television screen this week.
Havoc! We'll create havoc. They'll forget all the popular soap operas. Everybody will say only one thing, there's no one like Julie.
Do you think we'll get ads on such a short notice?
Of course. Show the family promo.
I am Julie. Maybe your husband, brother or boyfriend has met me somewhere? Didn't mention it? How will they? Because I am a call girl. Julie.
Now see how ads come!
We have tapped every corner of society.The third one is a little arty, for literature, social movement types.
Somebody says Radha, somebody says Tulsi, somebody says Meera. What is my true identity? I am Julie. Prostitute.
Condom people want full sponsorship.
Now see this promo for men.
People say I sell my body. But the truth is I buy masculinity. That too not by paying money but taking it. What sort of a bargain is this? Hear from me, this week. I am Julie.Prostitute.
Can there be anything more daring than this? To publicly declare that I am a prostitute? First film stars and businessmen used to sell, now the prostitute will sell directly.
Government won't ban it?
No no, we're in support of HIV prevention.
So should we telecast?
Yes yes, here come the fireworks in two days.
Julie (dir: Deepak Shivdasani, 2004)in some ways manages to raise some pertinent questions about double standards exercised towards sex workers in Indian society. Julie is your average innocent heroine who after getting ditched by two opportunistic lovers, suddenly decides that her true identity lies in being a sex worker. Here is where the plot falters deeply, however it is only after a rich tycoon falls in love with her, that the couple comes together on a reality TV show to challenge some of the perceptions about prostitutes. Her boyfriend pertinently questions why prostitutes must always be kept at the level of patronizing charity and never really brought within the fold of marriage and family. By ultimately standing by his girlfriend, despite her profession, staunchly defending their decision to get married, Julie is an otherwise fresh take on the ultimate plight of the sex worker. Also interesting about this film is the fact that Julie is a catholic girl from Goa. The connotations of this are clear: making it easier to build a character who openly mixes with boys, wears skimpy clothes and sleeps with her boyfriends before marriage. Otherwise this film is remembered more for a number of so called bold scenes by the ex Miss India, Neha Dhupia.
Mumbai, India
Julie
Neha Dhupia
charity
family
marriage
prostitutes
reality TV
sex workers
zinda laash
Julie (dir: Deepak Shivdasani, 2004)in some ways manages to raise some pertinent questions about double standards exercised towards sex workers in Indian society. Julie is your average innocent heroine who after getting ditched by two opportunistic lovers, suddenly decides that her true identity lies in being a sex worker. Here is where the plot falters deeply, however it is only after a rich tycoon falls in love with her, that the couple comes together on a reality TV show to challenge some of the perceptions about prostitutes. Her boyfriend pertinently questions why prostitutes must always be kept at the level of patronizing charity and never really brought within the fold of marriage and family. By ultimately standing by his girlfriend, despite her profession, staunchly defending their decision to get married, Julie is an otherwise fresh take on the ultimate plight of the sex worker. Also interesting about this film is the fact that Julie is a catholic girl from Goa. The connotations of this are clear: making it easier to build a character who openly mixes with boys, wears skimpy clothes and sleeps with her boyfriends before marriage. Otherwise this film is remembered more for a number of so called bold scenes by the ex Miss India, Neha Dhupia.
Mumbai, India
Prostitute. Who is a prostitute? Where does she come from? She is born in our society. For centuries we have believed that prostitutes are necessary, so that our wives and sisters are safe. Rapes in society would be rampant.So to safeguard our houses, we need prostitutes. Then why don't we make our own women prostitutes? Like they become doctors, engineers, why don't they become prostitutes? Prostitutes are needed to serve society after all. All cities and towns have brothels. To safeguard our own homes, we let the lives of thousands of women get wasted. Why? Are they not somebody's daughters, mothers, wives or sisters? For me, the world's biggest terrorism is to make a prostitute out of a woman. My family is also watching this, I want to ask them and all of them. If my company works among NGOs supporting prostitutes, opens schools for their children and does other charitable work, then I earn a lot of fame and win awards. We don't want prostitutes in our houses, but we want them in our society. We swallow evils like we swallow sweets. It's difficult to digest the truth sometimes, because it is bitter.
Julie
Neha Dhupia
brothel
prostitute
reality TV
sex worker.
sex workers
society
Baaghi (dir: Deepak Shivdasani, 1990) is the narrative of a young boy Sajaan (Salman Khan) who falls in love with a prostitute, Kajal (Nagma). The film then follows all the known tropes of such a plot; the girl enters the profession through deception, there is an evil pimp involved and staunch parental opposition to such a marriage. This is typical scene from a Hindi film, where the hero's father is opposed to his marriage to the heroine and more so here because she is a sex worker.
Bastard! How dare you visit a brothel and bring dirt from there into our house? I will kill you!
Please listen to me sir, Kajal is a good girl from a decent family.
No public woman can ever be decent.
At least don't use the same terms of abuse that the world uses for Kajal.
I am not separate from this world and you have to live in this society as well.
If this is your world, then I don't want to live in your world. Where a woman is robbed of all her rights to be a daughter, a sister and a wife! Where a human being is placed like an inanimate object to be sold and bought in the market. If these are the rules of your world, then I don't want to be a part of it!
You dare to speak back to me??
Mumbai, India
Baaghi
Deepak Shivdasani
Nagma
Salman Khan
pimp
prostitute
sex worker
zinda laash
Mumbai, India
Sadak (dir: Mahesh Bhatt, 1999)is the story of a traumatized young man (Sanjay Dutt)who is unable to get over the death of his sister, who had become a prostitute and died while trying to run away from her profession. He meets a girl (Pooja Bhatt) who is later sold off to a pimp, an evil transgend character called Maharani. One day Sanjay Dutt visits the brothel and seeing Pooja Bhatt there, memories of his sister's plight come flooding back to him. His sole aim in live becomes rescuing Pooja out of the the evil world of prostitution. It is a completely negative portrayal of prostitution, all the characters associated with it are shown to be seedy and evil. It falls within the pattern of the boy-girl-villain love story of the typical Hindi film.
She's not our Rupa. She is impure! That woman told me everything. She has lived in a brothel for two years. The boy she ran away with sold her to a brothel. She has STDs. She has died for us. Her blood is impure.
What are you saying? She's your daughter and my sister. We will take her away from here.
Let's go from here. We are the priests of the village temple for three generations. People swear by us, they worship the gods in the temple and worship us in the village. Do you think we can this impurity there? No,she has chosen her own hell. Let's go to the village and wash away our sins.
Bollywood
Mahesh Bhatt
Pooja Bhatt
Sadak
Sanjay Dutt
pimp
prostitute
sex worker
sister
transgender
zinda laash
Beauty
Courtesan
Culture
Lucknow
Lucknow, India
Mirza Hadi Ruswa
Mother, this is not Amiraan, this is the famous courtesan of Lucknow, Umrao Jaan.
Brother!
You have ruined our reputation. We thought you were dead, but you are still alive. You should die in shame. It's better if you leave.
Muslim Social
Muzaffar Ali
Pleasure
Rekha
Umrao Jaan
Umrao Jaan (dir: Muzaffar Ali, 1981) is one of most famous films to have ever been made in Bombay cinema. It is based on the Urdu novel by the same name written by Mirza Hadi Ruswa, about Umrao Jaan, the famous courtesan of Lucknow. It is a period film, and tries to evoke the forgotten era of Muslim high culture in Lucknow. Umrao Jaan, is no common prostitute, but a woman of great beauty, talents, and fame. The story revolves around a young girl Amiraan (Rekha) who is kidnapped by her neighbour and sold to a brothel. These in 1840s Lucknow, were not just brothels but centres of learning etiquette (adab), young girls were trained in all aspects of culture as well ways of pleasure. Amiraan grows up to be Umrao Jaan, much sought after. Two doomed love affairs with her patrons, and the British takeover of Lucknow that forces her to flee the city, leave her in the end a defeated and sad woman, who curses her profession. It is because she is a courtesan that she is not taken back by her family, from whom she was separated years ago. It is interesting to note that Umrao Jaan also falls within the genre of Hindi cinema that can be called the Muslim Social.
prostitute
sex worker
zinda laash
Mandi (dir Shyam Benegal, 1983)revolves around a brothel run by Rukmini Bai (Shabana Azmi). Shanta Devi, a local social worker rallies up against the brothel and its inhabitants taking a moral stand, and soon everyone in the area jumps the bandwagon. The politicians offer to put up an alternative residence for the brothel, except this place is miles away, isolated from the city, near the dargah of Baba Karak Shah. Ironically, things take a turn for the better as this attracts a lot of people and the patronage of the brothel increases. The film is an interesting exploration of the double standards and hypocrisy that underlines societal attitudes towards prostitution. The local social worker in her nurse's costume, out to purify the city, is a caricature that is used to highlight this. Also, it is ironical that a barren land turns into a flourishing town when a brothel is relocated there.
Mumbai, India
Remove Prostitutes! Remove Prostitutes!!
Are we never going to wake up? Are we going to let our five thousand year old civilization bite the dust? We should be worshipping women, instead we let her be sold! Never! We will never let this happen. I don't want to preach, I want to fight the problem directly. We will march into this brothel today and request our sisters to leave this dirty work.
Then how will we eat?
Food is not everything in this world.
She must be getting it for free then.
I swear.
Mandi
Shabana Azmi
Shyam Benegal
brothel
hypocrisy
moral
nurse
prostitution
purify
sex worker
social worker
zinda laash
Mumbai, India
Sonu, you look really happy? What's up?
I am pregnant...
Abort it no?
No, I want to keep the baby.
Why?
It's yours.
What did you say? Whore! You want to trap me! I'll kill you. Make her understand- she's should live in the gutter, where she came from. My child?? My child?? Bloody. Stay within your limits, or else I'll burn everything here.
Vaastav (dir: Mahesh Manjrekar, 1999)is not really a film about sex workers or prostitution. It is primarily the narrative of the notorious Mumbai underworld, of gangs, police, and gangsters. Prostitution is interwoven in the narrative as the protagonist Raghunath (Sanjay Dutt) ends up getting married to a prostitute who is pregnant with his child. Though he marries her, she is unable to escape the stigma attached to her profession and feels that despite being a wife and a mother, she cannot escape her primary identity as a prostitute even in the eyes of her husband. Otherwise, she is a typical wife who is constantly opposed to her husband's criminal ways and tries to protect their child from taking the same course in life as his father.
Mahesh Manjrekar
Mumbai underworld
Sanjay Dutt
Vaastav
father
gangs
gangsters
identity
mother
police
prostitute
sex worker
wife
zinda laash
Vaastav (dir: Mahesh Manjrekar, 1999)is not really a film about sex workers or prostitution. It is primarily the narrative of the notorious Mumbai underworld, of gangs, police, and gangsters. Prostitution is interwoven in the narrative as the protagonist Raghunath (Sanjay Dutt) ends up getting married to a prostitute who is pregnant with his child. Though he marries her, she is unable to escape the stigma attached to her profession and feels that despite being a wife and a mother, she cannot escape her primary identity as a prostitute even in the eyes of her husband. Otherwise, she is a typical wife who is constantly opposed to her husband's criminal ways and tries to protect their child from taking the same course in life as his father.
What happened Raghu?
Nothing nothing, go away.
How much will you drink?
Don't bug me, just leave.
Its 3 am in the morning!I won't let you drink anymore.
Get lost! Bloody whore!!!
Whore. An abuse for others. But a bitter truth for me. 20 years ago, because of some man like you, I did not get a father's name. My mother lovingly named me Soniya. But for the world, I was a whore, an abuse. You expect me to be a perfect wife, handle your house, your bed, your kids and what status will you give me? That of a wife? No, for you I remain a whore.
Mahesh Manjrekar
Mumbai underworld
Mumbai, India
Sanjay Dutt
Vaastav
gangs
gangsters
identity
police
prostitution
sex workers
wife
zinda laash
Aishwarya Rai
Bengal
Chandramukhi
Devdas
Devdas (dir: Sanjay Leela Bhansali, 2002) was an adaptation of a Bengali novel by the same name written by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. An earlier version of this novel was made in Bombay cinema in 1955, but it is definitely the more glamorous version starring Shahrukh Khan (Devdas), Aishwarya Rai (Paro) and Madhuri Dixit (Chandramukhi) that is better remembered. Parental opposition to get married to his childhood sweetheart, Paro, makes the protagonist Devdas a depressed alcoholic who eventually starts living in a brothel, forming a strange friendship with a famous courtesan Chandramukhi, who is hopelessly in love with him. The film is an interesting take on courtesans, Devdas would initially not allow Chandramukhi to even remotely touch him, he was disgusted by her and her profession and even lectures her on the roles of an ideal woman. Eventually he is able to see her despite her profession and even falls in love with her. The second angle to this is added by the female lead (Paro)- completely improvised on by the director (such a narrative is missing in the original novel), there is a friendship between Paro and Chandramukhi in the film. The two women are united in their love for Devdas, one married to someone else and one a prostitute. This clip clearly shows Devdas's disgust towards the prostitute and his offering of money and hand gestures are extremely insulting.
Durga Puja
Madhuri Dixit
Paro
Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay
Shahrukh Khan
Who brought me here?
sings
Very unfortunate!. A courtesan has brought me here?
Very ungrateful of him! I was kind to him, and he was rude to me?
Yes it's true, that poor girl brought you here, out of humanity. Brought you here when you were lying sick on the road. Took care of you for two days. You should be grateful, but you are insulting her.
Let it go!It's a trait of landlords. You had gone like you'd never return. Here take your medicine.
Don't want your medicine. It would be good if I was lying there.
Fine, you faint again, I'll go and leave you there.
Chunni babu said you were here for two days, your brothel must have been empty.
Now I know why Paro left you. Forget about love, you know nothing about kindness.
Have you heard this, I have to learn about love from a courtesan.
courtesan
friendship
prostitute
sex worker
women
zinda laash
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