According to Tantra-Chudamani Lord Shiva warned his consort Sati not to visit her parents’ uninvited for the yagna, but Sati was determined. On reaching the palace she discovered that her husband was deliberately not invited. Affronted by the insult, Sati jumped into the yagna. When Shiva learnt what had happened, he was furious and arrived at king Daksha’s palace; picked up Sati’s corpse and unable to control his anguish, danced the tandav. Lord Vishnu sensing doom darted his sudarshan chakra in Shiva’s direction and fragmented Sati’s body into fifty one pieces, all manifestations of Goddess Shakti.
Ever since, the goddess has been worshipped in various avatars, some of them visible in our films…Presenting the Nav Durgas.
The most well-known amongst the mother goddesses is Goddess Lakshmi, who originated from the sagar manthan. According to the legend, when the devta and the asura began churning the ocean, 14 objects emerged from the sea, the last being Lakshmi, seated on a lotus, holding precious jewels in her hand. Lord Vishnu immediately chose her as his consort.
In the 1973 film Saudagar, Amitabh Bachchan a gur seller, chooses to take a widow Nutan as his consort, because life would be comfortable in her association. In Sanjog Mala Sinha is an incarnation of Lakshmi, who arrives in all her finery carrying loads of gifts for the hero’s family. And in Judaai, Urmila Matondkar is so wealthy that she can purchase a groom/Anil Kapoor from his bride/Sridevi.
The scriptures describe Lakshmi as the most compassionate goddess, generous and forgiving. As a result Mala Sinha forgives her former husband Amitabh for abandoning her, and Urmila Matondkar vanishes on her white lotus (aeroplane) so that her beloved/Anil Kapoor can live happily ever after with his family.
Goddess Durga/Amba are manifestations of Shakti, created to nurture good and vanquish evil. The fable has it that when the demon Mahishasura was unconquerable, Lord Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva concentrated their energies to create Durga, the goddess extraordinaire, to combat the evil. Sculpted from the essence of the trinity, she was bestowed with exclusive armour, that would revoke her invincible.
In Rakesh Roshan’s Khoon Bhari Maang, Rekha emerges as the avenging angel to destroy Mahishasura/Kabir Bedi. And just as Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu had aided Durga with their powers, Rekha is nurtured by the trinity of a stranger who saves her life, a caring doctor who gives her a new identity, and her loyal staff and dogs who boost her morale. Rekha in Durga’s avatar is inspired by her children to battle against her oppressor and emerges victorious.
According to poet Bana from the seventh century, demons Shumbha and Nishumbha, two megalomaniacs, dreamt of ruling the universe. One day, Shumbha sent his aides with his marriage proposal to the beautiful goddess Kali. She was outraged by Shumbha’s audacity and perished Chanda and Munda (the demon’s messengers), then the brothers Shumbha and Nishumbha, and finally the demon Raktabeeja too.
N Chandra’s Pratighaat, the story of a housewife who is raped in broad daylight, is a crusade of a woman affronted. The protagonist hacking her rapists in the climax is the modern day goddess Kali demolishing anti-social elements. Unafraid and towering over everyone, Sujata Mehta represents power, triumphing over moral and societal injustices.
Goddess Vaishno Devi was created in order to control evil forces. It is believed that Goddess Lakshmi, Saraswati and Kali combined their powers to produce a goddess who would free humanity from suffering, and this would be possible after severe penance and timeless devotion.
One saw glimpses of this pious, ascetic character in Govind Saraiya’s Saraswati Chandra, essayed by the magnificent Nutan. Her character Kumud Sundari is established as a woman of extraordinary beauty and strength, who is betrayed by destiny time again and again. After a merry-go-round of hope and disappointment, she lands up in an ashram, convinced that only penance can find her salvation.
In the ashram Kumud Sundari meets her departed lover saved by the monks from the banks of river, quite like Lord Ram discovering goddess Vaishnavi on the sea shore, during his search for Sita in Ramayana.
Legend has it that Vaishnavi is so enamoured by Ram that she proposes marriage to him, but he declines because in the present incarnation, Ram is committed to Sita.
In Saraswati Chandra there is a reversal of roles where the hero proposes marriage to Nutan, but she declines because in the present birth, she is committed to widowhood. She pleads him to marry her younger sister instead and both hope for a union in rebirth, exactly the way Vaishnavi hoped to marry Lord Ram in her next avatar.
Saraswati is the goddess of learning, knowledge and wisdom. She symbolises the creative power of Brahma. On Basant Panchami day, Brahma is said to have created Saraswati, infused speech into her and presented a veena in her hand.
In Hindi films she is seen in different manifestations imparting knowledge, skill or creativity. Raj Kapoor saw her as Vidya/Teacher in Awaara. Aishwarya Rai plays a healer to bedridden Hrithik Roshan in Guzaarish, Hema Malini reforms a challenged Jeetendra in Jyoti, Madhavi trains Kamal Haasan in dance to distract his attention from Rati Agnihotri in Ek Duje Ke Liye. Neetu Singh grooms a village bumpkin (Amitabh) to become a singer in Yaarana and recently, Katrina Kaif tutors underwater diving to Hrithik Roshan in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.
According to the puranas when Vishnu’s sudarshan chakra fell upon devi Sati, she fell into not 51, but 108 separate pieces and all these acquired different forms of worship.
Our cinema has many examples of the woman coming into her own, be it Raakhee in Shraddhanjali or Rani Mukerji in Mardani, both films about evolvement and power.
Goddess Bhawani is a manifestation of the all powerful and mighty goddess Amba. She is a familiar reference when it comes to our dacoit films like Mujhe Jeene Do, Mera Gaon Mera Desh or Omkara.
Goddess Savitri, an avatar of Goddess Sati, is devoted to matrimony. The all virtuous heroine in the olden films, who never went against her husband’s wishes, like Main Chup Rahungi, Dil Ek Mandir, Sangam and Khaandan, are manifestations of goddess Savitri. Meena Kumari praying for the recovery of her ill/Dil Ek Mandir or wayward husband, Kaajal pleading the lord to save her consort, are an ode to Savitri bringing Satyavan to life after Yamraj has taken away his soul.
Goddess Gayatri is the unusually attractive, independent and virgin wife of Lord Brahma. Hindi cinema has innumerable stories where a marriage has not been consummated because of complex circumstances and misunderstandings, of which a prime example is Humrahi. Yamuna loves her husband but will not give into him on grounds of her principles.
The other example is where the hero loves the woman but cannot marry her. In short, films celebrating the anguish of ‘the other woman’, be it Asha Parekh in Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki, Raakhee in Yash Chopra’s Daag, where Rajesh Khanna lives with her but does not have sex with her, or Jeetendra who sleeps with Rekha but won’t marry her in the melodramatic Maang Bharro Sajna.
(Bhawana Somaaya has been writing on cinema for 30 years and is the author of 12 books. Twitter: @bhawanasomaaya)
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