 "How Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Heeramandi' and Tricia Brock's 'Bridgerton' on Netflix empower narrative for women")
Few storytellers have been able to capture the many shades of power held by women in society as effectively as Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Shonda Rhimes. The women that exist in the stories of Netflix’s Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar and Bridgerton wield many weapons, whether it be the inscrutable power of Lady Whistledown’s pen or the tantalizing allure of a tawaif. Both Bhansali and Rhimes don’t try to box their female characters with stereotypes of either femininity or feminism, showcasing a diverse range of women who are both strong and imperfect. Let’s look at the five ways Shonda Rhimes and Sanjay Leela Bhansali portray powerful women on screen:
The matriarchs of Bridgerton and Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar
From Violet Bridgerton, fighting tooth and nail to ensure that her children choose love over societal norms, to Mallikajaan leading an army of tawaifs to ensure her daughter Bibbojaan knows she’s not alone in her final moments, these women show vastly different sides of the matriarchal figure. Yet, both Rhimes and Bhansali understand the fierceness with which the matriarchs love their own, and the extent they’re willing to go to protect them, damned be the rules of their society.
The silent revolutionaries of their stories
Penelope Fetherington through the persona of Lady Whistledown is completely able to shake up the status quo of London’s Ton simply through her sharp wit. Bibbojaan uses her enchanting allure to extract key strategic secrets from the unassuming men of the British government who play a key role in the rebels’ independence movement. While one lady might be a wallflower utilizing people overlooking her to her advantage while the other uses the rapt attention and affection given to her to help her comrades in their struggle against the ruling forces, both yield incredible power in their own right.
Romances that empower
Both Bhansali and Rhimes have never treated romance as something frivolous or anti-feminist. With Kate Sharma in Bridgerton, we see a high-strung older sister who has sworn herself to a life of spinsterhood for the sake of her family, choosing love and happiness for the first time in her life through her romance with Anthony Bridgerton, freeing herself from the responsibilities that shackled her. In Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, Bhansali crafts a romance between Alamzeb and Tajdar that allows Alamzeb to finally explore the freedom beyond the huge walls of her mother’s Shahi Mahal. While their love story might have had a much more tragic ending than Kate’s, both narratives prove how love can also liberate women just as much.
Breaking the moulds
Eloise Bridgerton stands out as a character who challenges traditional gender roles with her keen intellect and curiosity, actively seeking knowledge and questioning the norms that confine women to domestic spheres. In Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar Fareedan depicts the figure of a woman who defies societal expectations. In Tilasmi Bahein we see her dancing with abandon, completely free and uncaring of the sort of delicate allure typically associated with a tawaif’s mujra. Through Alamzeb and Bibbojan on the other hand we see woman who rebel against their mother, to forge their own paths in life whether it’s for love or for freedom. These women challenge the expectations inflicted by their society to follow their own paths, granting them agency in their narrative despite the era the story takes place.
The power of female solidarity
In Bridgerton season 3, we get to see Eloise explore female friendships with the other women in the London Ton. While she starts out hesitant and dismissive of their interests, her newfound friendship with Cressida Cowpler makes her rethink the way the women of the ton are pitted against each other, finding solidarity with someone who while having completely different views on marriage from her is also shackled by the same patriarchal system as her. Similarly, in Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, Fareedan sets aside her rivalry with Mallikajaan upon learning of Bibbojaan’s arrest and the impending British attack, recognizing the greater need for tawaifs to unite. Both Bhansali and Rhimes understand the power of female solidarity and its ability to empower women against the systems that disable them.
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