Mother India said both positive and
negative things about women in India. This film made the lead woman, Radha,
seem empowered, loyal, and intelligent. However, it also placed her into a
false over exaggeration of her role as a woman. The bits of the film and
reading made her role seem impractical and unlikely to actually be the case.
The film was over the top and it made India look like they are covering what
the women there do. I say this because the extremity of the film covers any bad
views people could have on Indian women. Clearly, not all of these women are
empowered like Radha or willing to kill their own son for their community. It
makes me want to see for myself how these women really act and behave.
As
for Fire, the film is much more
realistic in my opinion. The women are subservient to the men and they are
treated as less than their husbands. It is about family pride and behaving appropriately.
The film shows the consequences of not following the traditional roles of
women. The wife was set on fire because she chose a woman over her husband and
shamed him. The men only care about the way they are perceived, which has a lot
to do with their families. The women are still intelligent and persistent and
empowered in the film Fire. The major
difference is that it is realistic empowerment and defiance. They have to be
more sly and sneaky to achieve the respect and things they desire. They risk a
lot as women to break away from their husbands but yet they are brave and attempt
to do so. The men are portrayed as pigs and awful husbands. It makes you see
the actual suffering many of these women go through due to arranged marriages
and traditional roles. Yes this makes India look bad but it is also more along
the lines of the truth to a small degree. They are known for their strict
values and expectations and the film highlights these.
The traditional roles are shown differently between these two films. Mother India shows that women can be respected as single mothers and providers for their family. It shows that women can be happy in an arranged marriage and fight against a marriage they do not agree with. However, in Fire the roles are much different. The women get a bad reputation for divorce or going against men in general. They have little say in who they marry and some do end up unhappy with the outcome. They do not stand as the head providers of a family and usually live with other family members who help care for them. Lastly, They are not supposed to stand up to men and speak their minds openly.
It's interesting how you mention that Fire is about family pride because Mother India is about pride to. I wonder if its about the culture. Its weird because in Mother India the main character has pride as a woman and for her village so that's why she kills her son. However, in Fire the pride thing is about doing what is expected of the women. I agree overall that both films show women leading lives where they can be happy, even if they go against social norms. I really liked how they challenged their expected roles and think that in a way it does demonstrate the roles of women in India.
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