ANGRY INDIAN GODDESSES 91
(another factor that exacerbated the censorship controversy). Given the sensitivity of
the situation and the caution it warrants, Frieda has decided to have a private party at
her mansion away from the rest of her family, especially because her father
disapproves of her sexuality and refuses to associate himself with the wedding.
Frieda is the centrepin of a friend circle constituted by an eclectic ensemble of
characters. Suranjana (Sandhya Mridul) is a CEO who incidentally spearheads a
project to build a new factory on the same land Nargis is fighting to preserve from the
hands of corporations; she is at the party with her young daughter Maya. Little
information is divulged about her husband who is away for long periods of time.
Madhureeta, alias ‘Mad’, (Anushka Manchanda) is an aspiring singer-songwriter who
suffers from increasing bouts of depression as her career appears to be on a
downward spiral. Joanna (Amrit Maghera), Frieda’s cousin, is an aspiring actress
searching for stardom in Bollywood but only succeeding in landing roles that typecast
her as a booty-toting ‘item girl’.6 Pamela (Pavleen Gujral), is a rich, conservative
housewife who innocently asks, “happy-wala gay? [the happy kind of gay?]” (Angry
Indian Goddesses 2015) when Frieda reveals that she is homosexual and about to
marry Nargis. The final character is a welcome break from the wealthy, educated,
decidedly privileged demographic that all the lead characters of the film are picked
from – Frieda’s domestic help Lakshmi (Rajshri Deshpande), who has always been a
household presence in Frieda’s life, having grown up alongside her.
Opening with a montage of character-sketches which establishes firmly that these are
strong women, the film’s strategy to slowly induct the audience into the very diverse
lifestyles of each of its characters is praiseworthy. A cynical viewer might question
how each and every one of these women is singularly stoic, battling through the w orst
that a gender-biased society inflicts on them without flinching; as though in response,
had changed for the positive in 2009. The law can be traced back to 1860 when India was under British
rule. The section was decriminalised by the High Court of Delhi in 2009, but there was a rollback
authorised by the Supreme Court of India in 2013, on the basis that the amendment of the Section was
a matter subject to discussion and approval by the Parliament, not the judiciary.
6
An ‘item girl’ is a performer in an ‘item number’ or ‘item song’, song-and-dance interludes popular in
contemporary Indian cinema. Usually featuring heavily sexualised performers, their primary purpose is
to entertain, and they rarely have any intrinsic connection to the plot.