Aurat ko jab jakhmi karte hai to wo sherni ban jati hai... BY ALI PETER JOHN

Three days after God created woman, he was baffled to see the woman who he thought was a very weak creation was fighting a lion all by herself. It was the first time God realised that the woman could be a force to reckon with when challenged or injured - Ali Peter John

Field Marshal Manik Shah once told me that women in the armed forces could be more combative and daring when they were in the face of fire.

Mumbai had it's first woman police commissioner in the 28 year old MS Mira Borwankar, even though most scary smugglers and gundas and the entire underworld was terrified of her and one underworld leader once said " Teen commissionero se mar kha sakte hai ek baar, lekin is aurat ka maar khane se marna behtar hai"

It is by now a known fact that women are not the weaker sex as they were supposed to be and were called once. Everyday the newspapers and the social media are full of stories of the heroic acts of women in different things of life. True, women will be women, but women when they are treated badly and threatened by man becomes some power which cannot even be easily defined...

Stories about such women have filled the pages of history, but in the last 40 years even Hindi cinema has depicted women in a way women have never been before. Let me give you some cases of actresses playing heroic women who specialise in doing action sequences in a much braver and better way than perhaps some men...

It was perhaps Rekha who first played the roles of daring women and she excelled in films like "Kali ghata" in which she played her first double role and then she outbeat herself when she did action scenes in films like "Khoon bhari mang" and " Phool bane angaree" .

In one of my talks with her, she had said that she would like to play the roles Amitabh Bachchan did when he was the ruling angry young man and that she was still willing to do those roles at 68. Will some writers and directors create such roles for her and fullfill her wish ?

Actresses like Hema Malini and Sri Devi also had opportunities to play what are called daring roles and they too did justice to the roles they were given.

Madhuri Dixit had to go through the whole gammit of playing glamorous and romantic roles, till she got married and came back from America and played a gangster in "Gulab Gang" , but all her efforts proved futile when the film fell flat on its face.

Of the actresses of the new generation, it is Priyanka Chopra who has done the maximum number of action-packed roles of which the known are "Don 2", "Marry com" , "Jai gangajal" and even her first film in Hollywood "Quantico" .

She is making her second come back to Bollywood with Farhan Akhtar's "Jara Ji le" in which her costars are Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt ( when will they start calling her Alia Kapoor?)

Katrina Kaif not only has a sweet face but also has nerves of steel like she has proved in many of her films, especially in "Ek tha tiger" and is expected to do better action scenes in the third sequel.

That she is now married and according to rumours is pregnant still not coming in her way from signing some very interesting films in which she will put to use her skills in performing daring underwater sequences.

The girl who once wanted to follow in her father's footsteps and play badminton is now Deepika Padukone, one of the top three actresses and she too is now getting known for her daring and angry scenes and she has already proved it in films like Chandni Chowk to China and Bazirao Mastani and she has a long way to go.

The one time Miss universe who is Aishwarya Rai Bachchan now first shot to fame as an action heroine in a film called Dhoom 2 . And she proved how good she was with the sword and with her sword fighting scenes with Hrithik Roshan in Jodha akbar .

The queen of controversies, Kangna Ranaut made her first impact with action in Krish 2 and then continued to play a daring role in Revolver Rani and in another few days she will may be establish herself as the first actress to play a spy in Hindi films, kind of role which is now popular in Hollywood with actresses.

Sonakshi Sinha, the daughter of the Shatru who is loved made a powerful beginning with Akira and then with Force 2 with Vidyut Jamwal as her partner on a mission.

Rani Mukharjee has always shown a penchant to do the extraordinary and she found her first big role after marrying Aditya Chopra in Mardani which was produced by Aditya. She played a top cop who single handedly exposes a racket in human trafficking. She was also seen in the sequel to the film.

Alia found her first major opportunity to show how good she was both as an actress and as an action heroine in Gangubai Katiawadi and is expected to do a lot of supernatural action in the upcoming film Brahmastra.

In the south, it is girls like Tamanna Bhatia, Pooja Hegde and Rashmika mondana who are giving their heroes a run for their money, but how far they will succeed will only be known when the next lot of big films from the south storm the theatres.

Action is now the new language for actresses like they are for the actors. Writers are grumbling these days about their work being given very little importance compare to the recognition that stunt and action directors get.

Aisa hi chalta raha to wo din door nahi jab heroines ko jyada paise aur izzat diya jayega aur aisa bhi ho sakta hai ki Bollywood ko aurate hi chalayengi. Aur mujhe to Aisa lagta hai ki agar aurato ko industry ko chalane diya to Bollywood ke ache din aa sakte hai.