Kal Ho Naa Ho To Jalsa: The Portrayal Of Domestic Workers In Films Is Evolving Slowly

For a long time, Bollywood has portrayed domestic helpers in films as peripheral characters that are not integral to storytelling and won't be missed if they disappear from the scene. Another common purpose of domestic helpers in films is to provide comic relief, even if it comes at the cost of degradation of their own character. Characters of domestic helpers are often stripped of strength and agency to drive a story—their story—with their circumstances fetishised and their efforts neglected since they are seen as helpless and in the need to be rescued. This provides a chance to project a larger-than-life image of our heroes who always help those in distress.

Portrayal Of Domestic Workers In Bollywood Films

The working-class characters in Hindi films are aware of their status and only emerge from the shadows when the plot requires them to have progeny who has the audacity to punch above their weight. When their sons and daughters fall in love with their boss' daughters and sons, it's time to break out another Hindi film classic: "Tumhari haisiyat kya hai?" This showcased the massive class divide between the employers and employees.

While the portrayal of modern Indian women in Bollywood has evolved from hapless “housewives” to tequila-sipping wealthy women with personal liberty, women on the fringes were treated in a superficial and clichéd manner till recently. Though, films like Prashant Nair's Delhi in a Day (2011) attempt to raise awareness about the plight of domestic workers in India, this was a rare exception in the last decade.

Suggested Reading: ‘Sahab Ne Maara Kya?’ Intimate Partner Violence Haunts Many Of Our Domestic Helpers

The care provider

Hindi films often showcase women domestic helpers as housekeepers, nannies, governesses and family retainers – who are treated as a "family member" but are still not a part of the family. A “female” domestic worker in Hindi films doesn't merely exist; she has a purpose, regardless of the length of her onscreen appearance. The sequence in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham in which Dai Jaan identifies Rohan, the younger heir of the Raichand family, a decade after last seeing him, comes to minde here. Despite the fact that Dai Jaan is central to the plot, the film provides very little information about her personal life and her portrayal is restricted to her duty as a caregiver.

Little has changed in films like Noor (2017), which ended a decade after Hindi cinema's fascination with preaching family values (domestic servants have long been considered an integral part of joint families in Hindi films). Noor still has a snobbish attitude toward the character of a housekeeper, who runs the household by herself. In one scenario, Noor (Sonakshi Sinha), a millennial journalist, wakes up drunk and goes on a rant towards her staff Malti. She grumbles about her days off, barely waiting for Malti's answer before tagging her with yet another mundane household chore. 

The comic relief

In the family driven social dramas of the 80s, characters of domestic helpers were burdened with the task of providing comic relief. The portrayal only became even more problematic with the 2003 film Kal Ho Naa Ho, in which the character of Kantaben is shown to be deeply homophobic, all for a few quick laughs.

In some respects, Hindi cinema's portrayal of domestic workers has always been a one-way street, never quite underlining the need for upper-class households to employ domestic help in the first place. The filmmakers didn't think it was their job to question, "Who is a domestic worker outside of the kitchen?" resulting in an incomplete portrait.

Shifting Narrative

However, there has been a shift recently. Suresh Triveni's Jalsa, Zoya Akhtar's short film in the OTT anthology Lust Stories (2018) and of course &t=54s">Rohena Gera's Is Love Enough? Sir (2018) all take a unique approach to the domestic worker’s role. They are unapologetically human, taking centre stage and defying the 'norms' that have held them back in the past.

Lust Stories' beautiful segment by Zoya Akhtar was a powerful condemnation of the upper class and its treatment of the working class. The employees who know their bosses better than their bosses know themselves. Even a minor character (Rasika Dugal, who emerges in the final minutes) is richly detailed. In fact, Lust Stories accomplished something hitherto unthinkable in Hindi cinema: portraying a domestic worker as a sexual entity.

Filmmakers writing them as romantic protagonists, rather than subplots, may help to forward the change in Hindi cinema's attitude toward house staff. Rohena Gera's Is Love Enough? Sir seeks to fill that void by framing itself as a love story that cuts across class lines while also confronting the inextricable grip of class prejudice. If Akhtar is correct that domestic workers can have sexual intimacy, Gera's empathic lens is encouraging the audience to perceive Ratna as a human being who is not defined by her vocation, but rather by the same romantic and sexual aspirations as everyone else.

One hopes that Bollywood's portrayal of domestic helpers only gets better from here and doesn't slip into down right mundane or comically homophobic ever again.

The views expressed are the author's own.