Word on the street is that Alia Bhatt is in the mood for a love story.
Since 2022, she has established herself as the Wonder Woman of Hindi cinema. She will soon be seen in Jigra, an action thriller directed by Vasan Bala. “Ab toh Bachchan hi banna hai (Now I just want to be Bachchan),” she says in the trailer. It looks like she is set to fulfil that ambition.
Jigra will see Bhatt in a role that reimagines a beloved Bollywood trope: The loving sister who sacrifices all for her brother. Instead of being a weepy victim who scavenges some respect for herself by inspiring the audience’s pity, Bala turns the sister into an action hero, in a riff on the saviour complex that has long characterised male leads in popular Indian cinema.
The actor may seem too petite to convincingly land kicks and punches, but she has been working intently to challenge that perception. In Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022), she brought a muscular swagger to her body language, matching it to the tenor of a sex worker-turned-brothel owner who brings powerful men to heel.
As the battered wife Badru who gives her husband a taste of his own medicine in Darlings (2022), she delivered one of her best performances. She will soon be seen in Alpha, the first woman-led film in Yash Raj Films’ testosterone-rich Spy Universe (the term used to describe the action films such as Ek Tha Tiger, Pathaan and War, which have starred Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan).
Bhatt has excelled in roles that showcase her talent for slipping into the skins of people who have little in common with her off-screen reality. In fact, one of her weaker performances in recent times was as Rani in Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023). She plays a bubbly and headstrong young woman born into an unconventional family that prides itself on being progressive. The resonances are obvious, but Bhatt’s Rani has none of the electric charge that she brought to the screen in films such as Udta Punjab (2016; set in drug-riven Punjab) and Gully Boy (2019; about a suddenly-famous rapper in a Mumbai slum).
What I’m excited about is how a good Alia Bhatt love story could change the game.
Even though audiences love a well-told love story, this genre no longer gets the respect it deserves from critics or the attention it should from filmmakers. Invariably, the storytelling in contemporary romances is either careless or weighted down by a need to deliver a moral.
No longer does Hindi cinema simply celebrate how radical it is to simply fall in love, feel the joy that is distinctive to romance, and muster the courage it takes to surrender to that desire.
Instead, action as a genre gets centrality and respect, despite being as fanciful, illogical and trope-ridden — perhaps because it has wider masculine appeal. A romantic angle is sometimes thrown in, but only so that the filmmaker can add a few ballads and have the lead actress dance seductively for a while.
Bhatt could change all that. Let’s hope she gets to work on a script as cleverly written as the new K-drama No Gain No Love (now streaming on Amazon Prime), which has actor Shin Min-a flit elegantly from comedy to exposing how sexism warps everyday experiences.
She plays an executive who hires a younger man (played by the delightful Kim Young-dae) to pretend to be her husband, because her workplace has a glass ceiling in place for single women.
The series is as much a playful reinterpretation of the fake marriage trope as it is a feminist takedown of social attitudes that hold women back. If you’re looking for a feelgood pick-me-up that is as comforting as it is smart, No Gain No Love is the show to binge on.
If we’re lucky, Bhatt will find a co-star who can shine alongside her as Kim does next to Shin. And if we’re really lucky, a Bhatt love story will bring out, from under all that action wreckage, a romantic heroine for the ages.
(To reach Deepanjana Pal with feedback, write to @dpanjana on Instagram)
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