ABSTRACT
Women in India, for a long time, have existed in fear under a patriarchal and misogynistic authority. A woman's identity is appropriated based on her conventional gender roles of being a daughter, wife, mother or sister. Their inferior status in society is also reflected in the on-screen roles that displayed and further established women's submission to the prevailing socio-cultural positions. Their only purpose, both in life and as shown on screen, is to provide significance to patriarchy at the expense of their own self-actualization. Investigating the restrained traditional roles for female actors in Indian commercial cinema, it is discerned that early 20th century Bollywood films uphold the patriarchal social order, which despised and feared the sexuality of women, while subjugating their longings. This chapter studies the lives and stardom of Indian actresses of the early 20th century and how they influenced and were replicated on screen through Mehboob Khan's Aurat (1940) and its remake Mother India (1957). It specifically addresses the evolution of female protagonists in both films, their obedience, submissiveness, struggles with self-reliance and stance to defend another woman's honor. The films reveal every aspect of an idealized woman of the Indian society with the changing of times.
