Imagine the following scenario: you’re a 16 years old girl with an aspiration of becoming an actress in Bollywood and working with your favourite actor Dev Anand.
Your boyfriend - who’s almost double your age - convinces you of the possibility of your dream coming true. You leave your parents’ house and elope with him to Mumbai, the city of stars.
Instead of introducing you to producers as promised, he sells you to a brothel for 1,000 Rupees. Nightmarish enough? What if you embrace your destiny and become the voice of other prostitutes?
What if you get to meet Jawaharlal Nehru to hear your plight? This is the true story of Ganga Jagjivandas Kathiawadi that was famously known as Gangubai Kothewali and Gangubai Kathiawadi (Kathiawadi being her birthplace).
Gangubai worked in Kamathipura area of Mumbai in the 1960s. She started as a prostitute before owning her own brothel. Later in her life she became a social activist who aided orphans and other prostitutes who were in her former position: young women who came to work in movies and ended being prostitutes; she helped them return home.
Gangubai met with Jawahirlal Nehru to discuss legalisation of prostitution and improving the living conditions of sex workers. However, Nehru couldn’t do much as the opposition was too strong but at least her brothel wasn’t removed after being deemed by the girl’s Catholic school nearby as ‘bad influence.’
Gangubai was called Ganga Maa (mother) and when she died in 1977, her photographs and statues were mounted in brothels of her area. Her life story was mentioned in the S Hussain Zaidi’s book Mafia Queens of Mumbai (2011) among other twelve women. Her involvement with the mafia was by being linked to Rahim Lala, a mafia leader who helped her get justice from one of her violent clients.
As a result, he became her sworn brother who she’d seek when in need. Gangubai’s fascinating story was also turned into a movie by the name Gangubai Khatiawadi (2022). It’s produced and directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and starring Alia Bhatt as Gangubai.
The movie tells the story of Gangubai as it is, no sugar coating. Alia Bhatt succeeds in impersonating Gangubai flawlessly. The viewers bear witness to the changes that she goes through from being a naïve girl to becoming a strong-willed one, while fighting her own demons in between.
Bhansali sheds light into a world that’s unfamiliar to us yet is not that different. The hardships that prostitutes go through not only because of the nature of their job but also with decisions they must make such as keeping their babies who later are shunned by society.
Moreover, day-to-day dealings and the few happy moments that they share is what makes the movie humane and captivating. Bhansali adds his signature touch to the movie: a magical young love story that’s within hand reach yet impossible to materialize, just like a dream.
The love story between Gangubai and Afsaan is what tones down the harshness of the subject discussed and give the viewers something that many of its characters aspires: hope for a better future.
The choice of the actresses depicting different roles in the brothel is impeccable. Also, Ajay Devgan is very convincing in the role of the tough yet fair mafia leader Rahim Lala. The movie was an instant hit, becoming the third highest grossing film of 2022. Gangubai Khatiawadi comes at a time when the world seems at a loss to define what a woman is and provides a simple answer: a creature with instincts for infinite kindness and justice. A must-watch. Available on Netflix.
rashabooks@yahoo.com
The writer is a certified skills trainer and the author of The World According to Bahja
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