Being a Women Is Not a Shame - Lajja: The Movie Review

Picture Source: Sacniik

Lajja, a multi-starrer Bollywood film released in 2001 was one of its kind. A Rajkumar Santoshi-directed movie having Madhuri Dixit, Manisha Koirala, Rekha, Mahima Chaudhry, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Ajay Devgn and Sharman Joshi in pivotal roles was made to show the condition of women in our society but failed.

It was not like, the movie was not up to the mark or that it could have been better but the reason behind the failure of the film was the enormous amount of truth shown to the public on their face. According to me, the movie showcased everything in the best way but the topic was so sensitive in 2001.

The audience was not ready for such a harsh reality of Indian society to be shown on big screens. Let me tell you some major pointers of the film.

Film is Women-Oriented

The motive of the film is to show feminism, hence instead of giving centre stage to male actors, females are given the central characters. In the movie, different aspects of the women are shown- a kind mother, a loving daughter, and a loyal friend, but above all of them, they are shown as strong and fierce women.

They were shown speaking for themselves, making decisions for themselves, protecting themselves and even fighting for themselves- a rare to see kind of concept in Bollywood.

Women Personified as Goddess Sita

Four stories are going on simultaneously in the entire film keeping one character Vaidehi played by Manisha Koirala as the central character. The names of the characters of the other three women are Maithili, Janki and Ramdulari. The writer has attempted to show that every woman in India is living the same life as Goddess Sita lived in the Ramayana.

Different Social Evils Shown Simultaneously

The film has tried to show the maximum it can in the minimum time. Various social evils against women have been tried to be included in the film to present everything before the audience. 

The film has shown the dowry system as an evil and simultaneously shows that it is high time, women start raising their voices against such evils and gives the message that the marriage of the daughter should not be a burden for the father. 

The orphan independent girls are not public properties- this is what they have shown via the 2nd story. It also shows how easy it is for a man to distrust the woman and disown her. And how society always believes in what a man says and ignores the screams or pleads of a woman.

The next story shows how age doesn’t determine the safety of a woman. Not even the old women age of our mothers are not even safe. And how it becomes legal for men to exploit women just because the women are from the lower caste.

A New Point of View of Ramayana

Here, I don’t intend to hurt anyone’s religious sentiments, but I am just giving my opinion about a scene shown in the movie. 

In a scene, it is shown how Janki playing Sita in a theatre act, questions Ram when he asks her to go for the fire test(Agni Pariksha). The questions she asks are very genuine but harsh. She questions the difference in rules for men and women. She questions the coexistence of love and trust. 

And you know what’s the most realistic about that scene- the reaction of the audience. What do you expect, the audience would do in real, in such circumstances, the same happened in the movie. Instead of focusing on anything Janki said, they started creating hindrances, throwing stones, and ultimately they killed her child which got her traumatised.

The reality of the society was very truly shown in the movie. Like the way, the mob reacts when they are shown the truth. 

What I Loved the Most About the Film?

The best part of the movie is certainly the screenplay. Keeping all the stories connected to each other via a central character’s point of view is something to be appreciated. 

The dialogues used in the film are so apt. Especially the ones used in the Ramayana act, no matter how secular or religious you are, but if you expect a woman to be Sita, you need to be the Ram first - this is what I concluded from the scene.

All the characters were written so nicely and the actors who performed them were equally good.

One more thing I loved about this film is that the makers have not shown women as a competition with each other, instead, they have shown women supporting each other which is very rare to see in some mainstream Bollywood films.

Conclusion

The overall film was quite good and deserved to be a hit, but the audience in 2021 was not mature enough to accept everything that was shown in the movie, hence it failed at the Box Office.

The filmmakers were daring enough to show such social evils on big screens and even challenge the religious sentiments as well. But what’s problematic is the film was released in 2001 and even after 2022, the condition of women is still the same.

“A woman was Sita then, a Woman is Sita now, But Man is nowhere near the Ram.”

Message to the Readers

If you have not seen this film ever, you should try watching it, you may not like some parts of it as it is a Bollywood-kind of film, but overall you will relate to it, you will connect to it, you will love it.

Written By: Nidhi Jha