How The Portrayal Of Miscarriages Has Changed In Hindi Films

Pregnancy, periods, miscarriage and abortion - while Bollywood eventually warmed up to embracing sex and sexuality on screen, these topics related to women's reproductive health still get treated with kid gloves. Films on pregnancy never address complications like pre-eclampsia, swollen feet, vaginal discharge or fistulas during childbirth. Similarly, miscarriage and abortions often happen off-screen, leaving the characters in a story to deal with the aftermath. Two films in the recent past have however challenged this narrative.

Hindi films on miscarriage- the stereotypical narrative

I remember watching Dabangg 2 in a theatre, back in 2012. In one of the scenes, the goons assault Rajjo (Sonakshi Sinha), wife of Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan) to settle the score with him. As a result of the attack, Rajjo ends up losing her unborn child. Pandey rushes to the hospital upon receiving the news of the attack on his wife and brother, where a doctor duly tells him, "Hum apke bacche ko bacha nahi pae, sorry." Inside we see a glum Rajjo resting on a hospital bed order Chulbul to avenge the death of their unborn child.

The scene was one of the countless ones we have seen in Hindi films. A pregnant woman falls, meets with accidents, or simply collapses, following which a doctor apologises to her husband for not being able to save their child. But what exactly happens, when a woman loses her unborn child? Why does no one ever talk about that bit? Perhaps filmmakers feel such details are too graphic for the common public and thus could turn them away from cinemas. Such treatment has been meted out to other subjects like periods and abortion.

Women's bodies are only used for objectification, to satiate the lecherous male gaze. who wants to see a woman bleed, miscarry a child unless of course, it furthers the plot.

Suggested Reading: Gehraiyaan Review: A Film That Fails To Set A Benchmark, But Stirs You Nonetheless

This is why it was a surprise when Shakun Batra chose to show his lead character Alisha (Deepika Padukone) bleeding in the shower when she miscarries in the film Gehraiyaan. It was one of the rare films that showed how many women find out that they may have lost their baby. However, it wasn't the first one.

Picture credit: Screengrab from Gehraiyaan trailer

Perhaps the rawest portrayals of miscarriage was from the 2021 film ">Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, directed by Dibakar Banerjee. During one sequence, the film's lead Sandeep, played by Parineeti Chopra, suffers a miscarriage after a man attempts to rape her. Her companion Pinky (Arjun Kapoor) not only cleans her up but also burns her bloodied clothes. The long sequence also shows Sandeep dealing with the shock and trauma of losing her unborn baby.

Both these films featured emotionally distraught women whose circumstances overwhelm them. They did not shy away from showing women bleed or stain themselves while miscarrying, thus reinforcing the reality that miscarriage isn't all white bedsheets, hospital beds, sorry doctors and crying wives and husbands. It is painful, traumatic and involves loss of many things - one of them being blood and tissue.

Views expressed are the author's own.