Mainstream Hindi entertainment has a bad track record when it comes to giving heroines their due, but if 2023 is any indication, we may be on the brink of change. This year we got some of the coolest heroines, women who redefined the very essence of coolness. Here are our top five:
Lady Superstar Nayanthara graced our screens with an entrance that was rich with heroic swag and panache, courtesy of Atlee's pitch-perfect use of slow-motion. Playing a single mother and a celebrated police officer, she was a heady cocktail of steely determination and tenderness. Also, it's impossible not to be completely enamoured by the mole on her philtrum. Whether leading her team in negotiating with the metro hijacker or stepping out of a helicopter with elegant muscularity, Nayanthara was a worthy rival and comrade for Shah Rukh Khan.
Stealing the spotlight from Tabu is no easy task, and yet Badhon’s performance as Heena Rehman is so intensely enigmatic and alluring that you can’t take your eyes off her. Take the scene in which Krishna (Tabu) visits Heena at home, in which the sexual tension is incandescent. Badhon folds sensuality, intelligence and the desperation of one cornered by circumstance into her performance of Heena. When she looks at someone, it’s almost as if she sees through them, and her every gesture, for all its casual grace, is calculated and deliberate. Despite being a severely underwritten character, Badhon made Heena feel complex, imbuing her with intention, magnetic appeal and the complexity of a double agent.
Chitra Das, the Director of Social Services at Bombay General Hospital, becomes the standout character of this season as she’s forced to confront the past that she thought she’d escaped. A survivor of domestic abuse, Chitra’s worst nightmare is realised when she has to work alongside her estranged husband and abuser, Dr. Sourav Chandra (Parambrata Chatterjee). The show and Sen Sharma delve into the complex psychology of abuse and leave us wondering if monsters can be reformed. Sen Sharma skillfully embodies the emotional nuances that come with being triggered and there are few false notes in this performance. You feel her paralysing fear in your stomach, much like you experience the adrenaline rush of her bravado. As Chitra, Sen Sharma effortlessly earns our support and affection, leaving us yearning for more representations of such multifaceted women on our screens.
We’re still smarting from the Mona-baiting (drawing audiences in for a fantastic looking performance by Mona Singh only to kill her off after the first episode) of Kaala Paani, but despite that grudge (or maybe because of it) we have to concede that Dr. Soudamini Singh was one of the most interesting female characters on our screens this year. The Chief Medical Officer of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a one-woman whirlwind with a no-nonsense approach in training new doctors, a House MD-esque spirit, a prosthetic leg that we need to know the story behind, and a dog named Mister whom she goes home to feed during a serious outbreak. Unpopular but admired, Soudamini establishes herself as a favourite within minutes of appearing in the first episode and we have rarely prayed as hard for someone else’s salvation as we did during her nightmarishly prolonged final moments. Hey Netflix India, we're not above begging — Dr. Soudamini Singh spin-off, pretty please?
Dimple Kapadia owns the aura of the ruthless matriarch, Savitri or Rani Baa, who runs a deadly drug cartel under the garb of a textile and jari-booti company called Rani Cooperative. She can do more with just those mesmerising eyes, kohl-rimmed and glinting with menace, than most actors can with an entire body of dialogue. Savitri has limited screen-time but her presence in every frame is piercing and chances are, Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo would have felt more watchable if it had more of Kapadia. She’s thunderous as the drug-lord with a heart of gold who supports and empowers — in a twisted way — women who have had their lives destroyed by abuse and violence. At sixty-six, Kapadia effortlessly wields guns, tosses around expletives, and romances Mark Bennington's Donze with unparalleled aplomb. She is, rightfully, both mother and queen.
With inputs from Rahul Desai and Deepanjana Pal.