When one thinks of the quintessential Hindi film heroine it is invariably someone of statuesque proportions and a certain melancholic beauty such as Meena Kumari, Nutan, Madhubala, Rekha and Rakhee or someone with lissome grace and vivaciousness such as Waheeda Rehman or Madhuri Dixit. These were women who brought a dramatic intensity to their roles creating memorable characters which, in turn became archetypes of Indian women : the wronged woman, the long suffering wife or mother, the warm-hearted prostitute, the sacrificing sister etc. etc.

The character of the heroine evolved through the decades. A significant step was the merging of the heroine and the vamp which saw a more modern and zestful personality emerge on the screen. Actresses like Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman and Kareena Kapoor could play bad girls as well as good ones, spoilt chicks as well as coy ones. Over the years women on screen began to have careers (Priety Zinta as a journalist), extra marital relationships (Rani Mukherjee in KANK) so on and so forth. The heroine became more individualistic and at the same time more active in the world rather than being confined to the home.

Films tend to reflect trends in society which is what makes one look at the recent crop of women characters in film as a fascinating insight into the contemporary environment. The heroines of two current box office hits -- Love Aaj Kal and Kaminey could give any hero a run for his money. Both, played respectively by Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra, are passionate, strong willed, sincere and tough -- not in the self sacrificing manner of their predecessors but in pursuit of their emotions. Padukone's Meera will confront the truth regardless of what it does to her marriage while Chopra's Sweety will pick up a gun and shoot wildly at anyone if she or he stands in the way of her happiness. These are not special women, in fact they are ordinary women -- the girl next door -- resourceful, self reliant, volcanic, fun loving and, most important, a real person unlike the melodramatic, over the top characters of previous years.

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