Alia Bhatt in Raazi, Vidya Balan in Kahaani: May their tribe increase!

By Nichola

on May 09, 2018

“The role of women has always been undervalued in the spy world, always undermined in terms of recognition. Unfairly so. It's a world that needs women.” - Helen mirren

This couldn’t be truer of Hindi films. The trailer of the upcoming Meghna Gulzar directorial Raazi provides tantalising glimpses into this spy saga, which appears thrilling and heart-wrenching in equal measure. As a young Kashmiri woman who is persuaded by her father and the Research and Analysis Wing to spy on Pakistan before the 1971 Indo-Pak war, Alia’s character marries a Pakistani Army officer and carries out a series of dangerous missions, putting herself at considerable risk in the process.

Prepping for her role, Alia not only read the source novel that the film is based on - Harinder S Sikka’s novel Calling Sehmat, but also picked up the basics of Urdu, Morse code, and even Jonga jeep-driving. She joked, “I can join the RAW team, if they need me to right now.”

While we don’t exactly know about Alia’s chances at RAW, she most likely won’t be getting many more opportunities to showcase her secret agent skills on the big screen. Hindi filmmakers invariably prefer to let their men do the ‘smart work’ in spy thrillers. We have no issue with that per se; just that given the same chance, women manage to pack a lot more wallop! There’s something about seeing the so-called weaker sex put its shrewdest brain cells and toughest foot forward that makes for some compelling cinema.

Taapsee Pannu stopped breaths as the undercover agent who wants to save her country in Baby. Behind the apparent nervousness was revealed a lean, mean killing machine, whose external femininity made her all the more deadly. Taapsee’s brief role in the film even left Akshay Kumar in the shadows, leading to her landing Naam Shabana, a prequel to Baby. Ironically, Taapsee literally had to “force” herself into Baby for a 20-minute role. The response to her character, however, got director Neeraj thinking and led to a new film.

Priyanka Chopra, who had held her own opposite Shah Rukh Khan in Don, pulled the carpet from under our feet again in Gunday. As the glamorous cabaret dancer Nandita in the Calcutta of the 1970s, she is romanced by Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor. She also happens to be the honey-trap undercover agent who eventually hunts down these gangsters to their sorry end.

While Katrina Kaif was more decorative in Ek Tha Tiger, she got the chance to showcase her cool combative side in the sequel. From ambushing an enemy van, to flipping and tossing the bad guys around, she does it all with panache. However, even after proving she is just as good as saving herself and others, she had to be bound and taken captive to allow the her heroic husband to save the day. Can we dare hope for a Tigress Zinda Hai some time in the distant future?

Like Saif, we too were intrigued to see the love story-loving Kareena Kapoor go all tough girl for a change in Agent Vinod. “What's interesting for me is to take an artist like her out of her comfort zone... to take her to action-adventure and a slightly edgy space the way Sriram Raghavan has presented her,” he had gushed. The film didn’t inflame the box office, but Bebo sure kicked tail as Ruby Mendes a.k.a. Iram Parveen Bilil, a British-Pakistani who is working undercover.

Esha Deol, a police inspector who doubled up as an intelligence agent in Dus… Preity Zinta going from a simple shepherd’s daughter to a patriotic agent in Hero: Love Story of a Spy… Sonakshi Sinha as the tough agent in Force 2…

And best of all, Vidya Balan in Kahaani, as the seemingly pregnant woman searching for her husband, who turns out to be an undercover agent out to avenge his murder… Women spies in our films have been responsible for some wonderful jaw-dropping moments. May their tribe increase!