We go to movies with the expectation of receiving entertainment, fun, and satisfaction to our need for drama but the 2 hours of moving scenes deliver much more than that. They say that cinema is the mirror of society and it shows what it sees and the Bollywood industry is proving it right in every aspect. The dose of cinema delivered by the Bollywood film fraternity is influential in that it is widely known as the supreme of socially relevant cinema. When talking about socially relevant cinema — stories with a social message, directly or indirectly — in the modern context, one name immediately springs to mind. Today the Hindi film industry has so gone on the level where instead of frightening society, it is ready to challenge it. Here is a list of such top 10 Bollywood movies that dared to challenge the social norms:
1. Pink: The discrimination between men and women in Indian society is quite visible. The patriarchy has suppressed the female gender since the starting and the result of that came out as rape. Rising the motto of ‘no is no’, Amitabh Bachchan and Tappsee Pannu starter Pink came as a challenge mindset of society against rape.
2. Oh My God: Religion has been a sensitive topic in the Indian society since the starting and filmmakers still hesitate to touch this norm but with movies like Oh My God, Paresh Rawal, and Akshay Kumar dug a shot at the people of uses people’s beliefs and faith in God for their own benefits.
3. Prem Rog: Because of the traditional mindset of the Indian literates Widow Marriage has become taboo. Released in 1982, the movie has Rishi Kapoor (Devdhar) and Padmini Kolhapure (Manorama) as lead actors. Devdhar tries to revive the life of his childhood friend Manorama after she loses her newlywed husband.
4. Shubh Mangal Savdhan: Sex and Indian society always stands with one hand distance and that caused a lot of chaos in the Indian household. Giving a hard-hitting lesson on sex education, Ayushmann Khuranna came up with a story that tackled the plagued by erectile dysfunction. He not just tried to normalize it but expressed the mental health of the person going through it.
5. Damini: The story is of how a woman fights against society for justice. The film is considered to be the best woman-centric film ever made in Bollywood along with Mother India. An extraordinary performance by Sunny Deol as a lawyer won him a National award that year. Meenakshi Sheshadri portrays the role of a strong woman who fights against her own family for raping the housemaid.
6. Udaan: Every 6th teenager out of 10 is suffering from depression and the reason behind that is the limitation and lack of power to pouring their heart out. Udaan tells the story of thousands of youths from India’s middle-class families, who want to break free and follow their dreams.
7. Black Friday: The film is based on the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai which many believe were organized as retaliation for the Bombay riots which left over 300 people dead and more than 1500 people injured. The film has been appreciated by critics all over the world.
8. Padman: In Padman (2018), Kumar played Lakshmikant Chauhan, a role inspired by India’s ‘Menstrual Man’, Arunachalam Muruganantham’s true-life story. Kumar’s character uses ingenuity to invent the machine that can produce low-cost sanitary pads. The movie was not just about the idea of inventing the machine but also normalizing the taboo like mensuration in India.
9. Swades: This film focuses on the brain drain. ‘Swades’ movie is for all the youth who are migrating out of India for education or work, and as a result, forgetting their home country. This movie reminds all the youth that there is a need for them to progress in the nation and for the nation.
10. Ek ladki Ko Dekha: How many movies and series you have seen that talk about the LGBTQ community, you can count them on your fingers. Ek Ladki ko Dekha is surely one of those. The movie talks about a gay girl, who not just refuses to get married because of her interests but always made her family understand her.
