Mulling over that thought though, are we really a needy breed? Do we really have to fake it to ensure we get enough of the ever dwindling male attention? And my reverie was quickly broken by a series of tut-tuts that came from the other end of the couch, says VANESSA VIEGAS.
When the protagonist of a leading romantic sitcom mouthed the words, “While women are certainly no strangers to faking it… we faked our hair colour, cup-size. Hell, we’ve even faked fur. I couldn’t help but wonder has fear of being alone suddenly raised the bar on faking? Is it better to fake it than be alone?” Those words kind of jostled the woman in me.
Mulling over that thought though, are we really a needy breed? Do we really have to fake it to ensure we get enough of the ever dwindling male attention? And my reverie was quickly broken by a series of tut-tuts that came from the other end of the couch.
My girl friend decided to address the elephant in the room with a more female friendly version of this monologue, “The thing is we fake it to our men only so that we don’t get their egos hurt. But if you really think faking your cup-size or wearing that break-up with little lip colour and a lot of vodka, won’t rat you out in front of your girls, you’re lying to yourself. We are each other’s soul mates and as for men, they’ll come and go!” This also left me with the conclusion that we’ll never really rot alone when we have our girls.
There is absolutely nothing in this world your girlfriends won’t get. They may tell you to keep dresses you’ll never wear again, but throw away ex-boyfriends by the dozen. Women are painfully smart!
So while the whole Sussanne-Hrithik Roshan divorce hullabaloo was doing the rounds and when the world invariably expected his estranged wife to be brewing in her own misery, she gave the drama a miss. Infact a week into the ‘predicament’, she was seen letting her hair down at a suburban five-star with her gal pals Sonali Bendre and Gayatri Joshi in tow. It is true that sometimes a little conversation with your girls is all the therapy you’ll need. While divorces are painful, star divorces can be ugly! But to be able to get yourself together in a heartbeat only means that you have a strong girl entourage behind you. And just when the world walks out on you, your girls walk in, swishing their magic wands, with all that imaginary jazzy music playing at the back.
But isn’t that what friends are supposed to do? Bring out the best in you? When in reel life Vijayalaxmi (Lisa Hayden) literally stepped in to be Rani’s (Kangana Ranaut) Gal-Friday and gathered her deteriorating confidence, didn’t you smile a little brighter the moment you saw Kangana recovering from that ill-fated heart-break? You’d have to admit that even though you’ve had the best times with your man, the craziest times are the ones you have with your girls. From fashion gyaan to partying right, to giving you the wackiest advice, they have you covered.
Or in COCKTAIL when Veronica (Deepika Padukone) literally picked up a sobbing Meera from a washroom and gave her room to stay in her apartment because she understood her pain, it was the beginning of sweet friendship. We all have that friend who is poles apart from us and is unimaginably selfless. But in this ‘cocktail’ it was Gautam (Saif Ali Khan) who had the last laugh. I’d seriously rather watch Meera and Veronica kicking Gautam’s butt and continuing to live as amazing roommates than waste their time in this annoying love triangle. He really didn’t deserve two exceptionally hot women – for one, his flirting was downright creepy and he even tried to start a romance with Meera while he was still involved with Veronica. Not just that, his criteria for marrying a woman was based on how well she cooks! It was a no brainer that these two were better sorry than ‘Saif’. But love and estrogen work in mysterious ways and it was heartwarming to see Veronica eventually letting go of her love for her friend, because friendship really does surpass everything!
Among the various things girls love doing, we all have had our fair share of dreaming of our knight in shining armour that would come along and rescue us from the face of the earth and straight into the clouds. But sometimes the man of your dreams can be a woman!
So a couple of months back, when Rhea Pillai allegedly found herself locked out of the home she shared with her estranged partner Leander Paes, she felt completely helpless. It was at this juncture that her close friend Gauri Khan stepped in to help. Rhea admitted that had Gauri not come, she may never have found her voice in public or for that matter, with the cops. But Mrs. Khan was there for
Rhea, strong and supportive. After lodging a complaint at the Bandra police station Gauri accompanied her friend home and made sure she was ensconced safely.
That Gauri took the bull by its horns and got her friend out of this botched scene got the image-conscious Leander a little unsettled. Wasn’t this a classic case of ‘You mess with my best friend, I’ll mess with you’? It was simply the right kind of empowerment. Talk about sticking through each other in sickness and in health. Your girl best friend is really like the sister you never had, but when you have a friend for a sister, home is a dance floor!
You practically live on her hand-me-downs, but her love for you is brand new. She’ll fight tooth and nail to save you from the atrocities of the world, let alone fighting the legal system just like Jessica Lal’s sister Sabrina (Vidya Balan) did. When all she was ever told was ‘No one killed Jessica’, she valiantly fought the corrupt system for justice for her sister’s ruthless murder at the hands of a rich politician’s son, Manu Sharma. It was Sabrina’s persistence that forced the re-opening of the investigation, which was placed on a judicial fast track and in December 2006, Manu was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. It truly celebrated the friendship in sisterhood or the sisterhood in friendship, whichever you’d like to call.
We as a society and an industry have come a long way. We are coming of age and have gradually dared to imagine two women sing ‘Yeh dosti hum nahin todenge…’ a la the famous Jai-Veeru pair in SHOLAY or three girls taking a road trip like the boys did in DIL CHAHTA HAI.
Today women-centric films are not just about serious subjects. The audiences are becoming more accepting of seeing a female protagonist letting her hair down on the dance floor or just taking a trip with her girl brigade to a foreign land all on her own. More power to you Bollywood, keep em’ chick flicks coming!
