One might wonder why one might exchange public adulation for the opprobrium of the unparliamentary politics of India. More so when that one’s star rose before the gossip of the filmwaalas, and during the time when media deference to political figures was on the decline. Top actors won’t tell you that there is a price to be paid for fandoms any more than politicians will confess to play to their vote banks. But Jaya Bachchan, like several women politicians, stands outside the business of pandering.
In the book Neta Abhineta, author and journalist Rasheed Kidwai theorises that the Indian political system is “inherently conducive to a shift from a star-fan relationship to a politician-voter one.” Right from the start, cinema was used as a tool to communicate social change and justice. Just like the freedom movement was a movement for self-respect of the downtrodden, and where women and the young found agency, cinema was considered as a universal medium cutting across class, caste, creed, gender and religion. Jaya Bachchan chose to take her double role seriously, winning four terms as Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha since 2004.
Bacchan broke out as Guddi, without the pile on hair and the pronounced winged eyeliner sported by the actresses of the time and broke the stereotype that heroines had to be glamorous to be commercially successful. She is remembered for the modest and frugal characters she portrayed as the wife, mother, sister, friend and the girl next door. And yet she has fought off the ‘amma', ‘tai’ and ‘didi’ sobriquets imposed on other women of Indian politics. In one instance, she even schooled an overfamiliar paparazzo against calling her famous daughter-in-law by her first name. She moved deftly from the role of a grieving mother taking up the cause of her dead Naxal son in Hazaar Chaurasi ki Maa to a subdued mother who yearns for her son’s return in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.
Who can forget Sujatha Chatterjee’s observations of a bougie party, her revulsion at the soulless, dancing bodies who hog all the poetry and beauty in the world? Or Nandini’s rejoinder and call back to husband Yashvardhan Raichand’s iconic catchphrase to end all discussions, “Keh diya na, bas keh diya” (I said it right, that’s it).
She is the butt of several headlines that say she should laugh more, and take herself less seriously, describing how the husband-wife’s angry personas have been swapped in reality. With the force of a cudgel, she demanded the protection of Opposition members from the Speaker or cursed BJP members for making personal remarks about her family members. With great defiance, she declared that she was not the spokesperson for her family. She didn’t mince words to her son either, calling the movie Happy New Year, in which he was cast, ‘nonsensical.’
Where Big B avoided any political controversy after his stint with the Congress party in the 1980s, Jaya Bachchan has pushed media mics away when she didn’t want to comment, and fans away from rallies when she didn’t want to be photographed.
Anger, we know, is also framed by male gaze. And though women leaders in India have owned being ‘shrill’ or ‘hysterical’ long before the #MeToo movement, there’s now a small but growing reluctance to fault them for being unlikable and unreasonable. TMC’s Mahua Moitra had the full attention of the House and the internet as she opposed farmer laws, UAPA and fascism. Even Smriti Irani’s speech citing workplace harassment after a fellow parliamentarian waxed eloquent about Speaker Rama Devi’s eyes drew an apology.
At every step, she has thwarted narratives that were projected onto her, whether it’s the controversy surrounding Rekha, her husband’s health, or even objectifying remarks from her political colleague Naresh Aggarwal. Marriage, which drowned the careers of many yesteryear heroines, didn’t touch her. She quit acting, she returned to it, and she continues to act, besides having a political career, seemingly she proves she has it all. The fierce guarding of privacy while speaking her mind, and arresting any spillover properties of her onscreen persona can be construed as savvy ambition and inspiring self-assertion. But this again is conjecture. We also desperately want our favourite artists to be role models.
Eisha Nair is an independent writer-illustrator based in Mumbai. She has written on history, art, culture, education, and film for various publications. When not pursuing call to cultural critique, she is busy drawing comics.
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