Neeraj Pandey's film inadvertently addresses a problem that has persisted in Indian cinema for terribly long—the male superstar's reluctance to romance a female actor of the same age.
Published Aug 01, 2024 | 6:00 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 01, 2024 | 6:13 PM
Ajay Devgn and Tabu in 'Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha'. (X)
Writer-director Neeraj Pandey might have made a name for himself for his patriotic, hyper-alert films but his latest outing—Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha—indicates a prominent and pleasant shift in his sensibilities.
Billed as a romantic thriller, the film—set to release in theatres on 2 August—traces the tumultuous journey of a couple over 23 years with Ajay Devgn and Tabu playing the lead roles.
Audiences, of course, are keenly looking forward to seeing the two seasoned actors strike up their chemistry once again. Having worked together in many memorable films over the last three decades, Ajay Devgn and Tabu have explored varied genres ranging from cop actioners and slapstick comedies to mystery dramas.
While Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha adds a new dimension to their long-sustaining collaboration, what it also inadvertently does is address an enduring problem in cinema—of male superstars’ reluctance to romance or be paired with appropriately aged women actors.
Devgn and Tabu played a divorced couple in De De Pyaar De (2019) but this time around, one would say that it is refreshing to see two mainstream actors in their fifties play their age and operate willingly on a level playing field, as they go about exploring a relationship under distress.
That show business across the globe is severely ageist towards women isn’t a recent criticism and the fact that every major film industry—including Hollywood—is guilty of not addressing it with intent proves just how rampant (and not-so-stealthy) the phenomenon is.
Well-known author and film critic Sowmya Rajendran points out that the problem is reflective of how social conventions work to highlight that whenever older women are seen with men younger than them (a considerably less common occurrence than the other way around), they are subjected to incessant trolling or abuse. And quite indeed, it is the men in cinema who have dictated terms for the longest time.
Jayalalithaa & MGR in ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’. (X)
Superstars of all generations, from MG Ramachandran, NT Rama Rao and Amitabh Bachchan to Shah Rukh Khan, Mahesh Babu and Vijay are often pulled up for working with actresses much younger than them and over-extending their ‘on-screen youth’.
The compulsion to remain the hero of the masses—the one who embodies his predominantly male audience’s aspiration and fantasy—has forever urged men in cinema to avoid challenging themselves as performers.
“Many say Priyanka Chopra looks like Nick Jonas’s ‘older sister’. French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron have also been constantly mocked for the age gap between them. Women are primarily valued in patriarchal societies for their ability to bear children, and this is why older women are considered irrelevant and forced into cruel stereotypes. Cinema, which is mostly controlled by men and caters to such an audience, reflects and magnifies these ideas,” rues Sowmya Rajendran.
Consequently, mainstream cinema has been rendered as a mere escape that is devoid of nuance or maturity and where roles for women are as flimsy as the plots themselves.
“Earlier, you understood why male stars wanted to remain heroes,” says noted film journalist Sangeetha Devi, adding that there existed a clear demarcation in the past for male actors, in that they could either be the hero or a character actor.
“That has changed over time which means that there is no compulsion anymore to be the conventional hero who can dance, fight and generally looks young.”
Very recently, the makers of the Telugu film Guntur Kaaram (2024) were criticised for pairing 48-year-old actor Mahesh Babu with 23-year-old Sreeleela while Kannada actor Darshan Thoogudeepa, 47, attracted flak for his on-screen romance with 22-year-old Aradhana Ram in Kaatera (2023).
Ravi Teja and Bhagyashri Borse in ‘Mr Bachchan’. (X)
Ravi Teja, 56, will soon be seen in Mr Bachchan opposite Bhagyashri Borse and the 31-year age gap between the two actors has become a point of gripe among filmgoers.
When Shah Rukh Khan was compelled to speak on the age difference between himself and his many leading women, he said in jest that he “cannot go and tell them to grow up”; the core issue, though, remained unaddressed.
Vanity, then, becomes a huge factor among male stars who are further boxed in by producers wanting to play to the gallery.
“The hero does fantastical things like beating up 20 men at the same time or romancing a woman who is considered unattainable by his fans. Even if he is jobless or old, it is still possible for him to get what he wants. It is a form of wish fulfilment,” says Sowmya Rajendran, in the same vein.
But it is rather startling to note that the term age is always, and only, attached to women in cinema. While male actors often start their careers with female actors of the same age, it is the latter group that is forced to relegate itself to the backdrop. The former, on the other hand, finds itself ‘evolving’ at each rung of the ladder.
As women near a predetermined age limit, choose to get married or simply prioritise personal life for a fleeting moment—their opportunities as marquee names reduce drastically in number—whereas men enter into a new realm of stardom and begin working with a newer lot of actresses.
Taapsee Pannu in ‘Saand Ki Aankh’. (Facebook)
Just as an actor like Prabhas went on to work with younger or ‘younger-looking’ actresses following the Baahubali (2015, 2017) movies, an actor like Anushka Shetty finds herself in a bit of a rough spot today, where not many—including writers, directors, producers and audiences—see her being paired with any of the top actors of her age bracket.
And just as an actor like Shefali Shah (32 years old at the time) played mother to Akshay Kumar (37 at the time) in Waqt (2005), other actors like Simran, Sonali Bendre, Jyotika and so many more—who once worked alongside Mahesh Babu, Vijay and the likes—find themselves nowhere in the reckoning to be cast, even as the love interests of their former collaborators.
“Women actors are, indeed, frustrated by the lack of good roles as they grow older. They know the rules are different for them. Jyotika, for instance, has started doing more work in Hindi because she was getting the same kind of roles in Tamil. But it’s not like everything is great in Hindi either. When they made Saand Ki Aankh (2019), they cast two young women in the roles of elderly women, but with makeup,” points out Sowmya Rajendran.
Writing, as a result, becomes such an important tool in countering this bizarreness. The age gap in a romantic relationship is hardly the problem, but when writers fail to or refrain from contextualising it, the impact that a woman (in this case) would have on the story is significantly diminished.
The problem arises when it starts to look odd on-screen, observes Sangeetha Devi. “One way to look at it would be that if a male actor—in his 40s or 50s who manages to look younger than he is—is paired with a female actor much younger in age, it may not look all that distorted on screen. But when the ‘hero’ of the film doesn’t look young enough and there is still no reason behind the odd pairing, then it is all the more grating on the nerves because audiences do point that out now.”
Another aspect is to consider the woman actor’s autonomy to choose her roles, adds Sangeetha Devi.
Chiranjeevi and Shruti Haasan in ‘Waltair Veerayya’. (X)
“Nobody feels the compulsion to say ‘yes’ to working with actors much older than them. Because at the end of the day, they know that big names do bring good visibility and help in going a step ahead in their careers. One hears chatter about women actors also being cautious about working with aged stars because it runs the risk of being bracketed—film producers might not want to cast them opposite a younger star in the future.”
Shruti Haasan, who was questioned for opting to work with both Chiranjeevi (in Waltair Veerayya) and Nandamuri Balakrishna (Veera Simha Reddy) in 2023, defended her choices by asserting that she doesn’t take the criticism personally and that age-inappropriate pairings in Indian cinema are the still very much the norm.
“On many occasions, actresses could also choose to work on a big project for the pay package and go on to work in a more niche film. It’s about balancing it out,” Sangeetha Devi says.
If quality writing is one major contributor to the change that’s due, actors with clout and fan following can be influential in their choices.
Sowmya Rajendran names Vijay Sethupathi, who turned down to star opposite a much younger Krithi Shetty in a film, as an example of how popular actors could take stock of the situation.
Similarly, many others—writers and filmmakers included—operating in the mid-budget zone are making sincere attempts to make cinema more egalitarian for men and women.
Ramya Krishnan and Akkineni Nagarjuna in ‘Soggade Chinni Nayana’. (Facebook)
“You also see a superstar like Rajinikanth feeling far more relieved playing someone his age in Jailer (2023),” says Sangeetha Devi.
“When Nagarjuna reunited with Ramya Krishnan back in 2016 in Soggade Chinni Nayana, it felt so nostalgic to everybody because they were one of the most popular pairs of the Telugu cinema of the late ’90s. So, why not write something refreshing like that and bring them on board?”
A film like Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha stands out in the current era as an anomaly considering its subject matter, its treatment of characters and its general lack of bombast.
But the same template, that of the ‘mature’ relationship drama, was once very much in vogue and saw filmmakers like Basu Chatterjee, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Gulzar, Sai Paranjpye, Yash Chopra, Bapu, K Balachander, Padmarajan, Puttanna Kanagal, Mani Ratnam and many others wield their magic in. And they also had the services of the biggest stars of the generation to their name.
“We aren’t making more such films because the quality of writing has come down and post-pandemic. There’s this perception that only certain kinds of films will do well in theatres—action and spectacle. But what we need to understand is that even in male-centric films, it’s possible to have well-written characters for women of all ages. An Amma character doesn’t just have to keep making dosais. She can have a character arc too,” Sowmya Rajendran says, before underlining another harsh bit of truth that there are fewer takers today for stories led by older women.
Well, the fact that Payal Kapadia’s film All We Imagine As Light, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes 2024—is still struggling to find theatrical space in India indicates quite strongly that a fundamental shift in the culture—and the mindsets—is definitely in order.
(Edited by S Subhakeerthana)
(South First is now on WhatsApp and Telegram)
