Ms.
Vijayata Dhand
Regd
No 11/081
Department
of English, School of Humanities and Commerce, NIMS University, Jaipur
Supervised
By
Dr.
R. Sucharan Reddy
Associate
Professor, NIMS JAIPUR
Co -Supervisor
Dr. J.P. Aggarwal
Associate Professor, LPU, Jalandhar
ABSTRACT
The
journey of woman becomes very interesting when we
enter in the world of Shobha De who introduces the themes of eroticism, sexual
perversion and sexuality in her novels. She uses all tools and strategies to
depict the true self of modern woman in her quest for power, money, fame and
glamour in the film and television industry. The interesting thing about this
modern woman is her corrosion of self in her pursuit name, fame and money.
Woman of Shobha De is at her best moving in the society freely puncturing
conventional morality. She is no longer a mere shadow of man but aspirant to do
well in society. Woman of Shobha De is the product of modern technological
advancement, growth of education and the changing social set up. Her perception about the contemporary
reality makes her different from other Indian women novelists. Shobha De
accumulated the knowledge about women and excelled herself as a journalist and
magazine editor. She was closely associated with the world of Mumbai Cinema.
Her woman revolts against
.
The Pakistani society is patriarchal, repressive, oppressive giving privileges
to men and its harsh treatment of women, justified in the name of cultural
traditions and religion. In this society men are born with respect, dignity and
worth whereas women are considered as salable commodities. Men are considered
as individuals and women are thought of as bodies.
Keywords:
Eroticism, Perversion,
Sexuality, , Marginalization, Patriarchal, Repressive, Strategies, Perception,
Corrosion, Domination
Shobha
De is a voracious reader and an active journalist. She accumulated knowledge
about Indian women before she conceived her modern women protagonists. Shobha
De writes about the complexities of life of the people of Mumbai. Her main
focus is on the elite of metropolis. She has faithfully depicted the harrowing
lives of the middle class women who are over ambitious and passionate about sex
and glamour and in their journey suffer corrosion of self. She used the
terminology of latest fashions and always used slang speech. She borrowed images
and phrases from pop music, western style dances, trendy hairstyles, high heels
mascara and Hollywood magazines. Each woman
protagonist of Shobha De reacts against the male culture detesting the
marginalization of women. All her women protagonists are erotic, sexual and
rebels in society, as they pursue their ambitions independently. Shobha De
raises a strong protest against the traditional mind set of male domination and
patriarchal oppression. She presents the image of woman who is ultra-modern,
revolutionary in outlook, progressive in ideas and a spirited fighter for
rights and justice and the victim of corrosion of self. The quest of the heroine of Shobha is for
love, sex, money and power. De’s women are fired with their inordinate
ambitions with all their strength and confront and resist male domination. They
are selfish and epicurean and only live for themselves. They desperately fight,
revolt and desperately struggle in vain to shape their destiny. They do not
believe in suffering submissively, they use all the means to achieve joy and
success in life. They are given full freedom by the novelist to ride on the
tide of success and glamour. They feel proud by selling their bodies to
different customers at different terms. They play with the emotions and
passions of man intentionally. In Socialite
Evenings, for instance, the naked body of Nisha is viewed as it was an
object of otherness. De’s women struggle hard to turn the tide in their favour.
They face hardships, exploitation and defeat at different stages in their life
but they are not discouraged. Instead, they continue to challenge the
patriarchal society. They fight against slavery, oppression and exploitation.
The women have broken all the barriers to assert themselves. Sheila Rani Khare
observes,
.
As a feminist novelist, she has marvelous understanding of the psyche of woman
and therefore female dominates her novels. Women struggle hard in their lives
and break patriarchal order, pretend against male dominance and at last come
out in fixing colors in their quest (Rani Khare 43).
Shobha Dee is a modern feminist who ruthlessly destroy
the old image of woman launching a crusade against woman subjugation. The novels of Shobha De deal with the new
ideology of love, sex, marriage and family. Woman is no longer stuck in the
kitchen or trapped in the marriage responsibilities as we in the fiction of
R.K. Narayan and Raja Rao. Shobha De’s woman shatters conventional marital
relationship to satisfy her natural urge in human relationship. De’s women hate
colonization of their body. Shobha De has portrayed her female characters, bold
and assertive. Even then they do not
escape from the syndrome of dilemma, confusion and inaction. Anjali in Socialite
Evenings depicts the mind set of male chauvinism thus: "Men feel
terribly threatened by self-sufficient women. They prefer girls like me
dependent dolls. You should try it see how much more you can get out of him that way"
(218).
Socialite
Evenings (1988) created a sensation in the literary world. The
novel ushered in a new era and turned out to be the best seller and soon Shobha
De became an international celebrity. She was called D.H. Lawrence of India and
a trend setter who excavated the inner turmoil of modern women resisting conventional
morality and patriarchy. Shobha De bulldozes all age old taboos presenting
shocking sensual scenes in her novels. Paul W. Roberts says: “A good writer,
enigmatic, straightforward, crude, erudite, girlish, wise (Roberts 2). Her Woman rejects heterosexuality and finds solace in woman to
woman relationship. The major focus of Shobha De is on the exposure of
exploitation of women. The strength of
the novel is the themes of libidinal fantasies of working women of Mumbai,
domestic violence, sexual oppression, rape and depression. Mumbai thrives on
money culture like New York, the working middle class woman are trapped in the
claustrophobic environment of the glamorous city. She points out that male
hegemony is very destructive in using and abusing female body. Shobha De has
depicted smug selfish husbands who use their wives not for love but for social
respectability. She discusses the social
and legal issues concerning increasing rate of divorces and the futility of
marriage in metropolis like Bombay. She voices that women are not inferior to
men: For instance, she writes in her novel Sisters:”Women
play for very high stakes and are driven by ambition, lust, greed and hate” (Shobha De 82)
Karuna is the main woman protagonist in Socialite
Evenings who belongs to the middleclass family but soon enters into upper
class to enjoy wealth and fame. The quest of Karuna is very bold and
courageous. She has suffered a loveless marriage, an unhappy
divorce, and a series of extramarital affairs. Karuna has experienced
ill-treatment from her husband who considered her a mere object and subjected
to his own will. Karuna hates old orthodox ideas about woman; she defies all
traditional values and comments: “We were reduced to being marginal people.
Everything that mattered to us was trivialized (69). Karuna is used as an eye
of the camera to visualize the world of pretension and deceit of Mumbai. Karuna
depicts the destructing amnesia of the working-class women of Mumbai thus:”And
I hate the poverty, this meager income forced on me. Perhaps I just wasn’t cut
out to be middle class “ (241).
The
suffering of Karuna symbolizes the polarity between activity and passivity.
Karuna suffers deflation of self; she is disintegrated as the world is too
cruel to her and her ambitions are too high in life. She uses a pack of lies to
survive in harsh society of Mumbai.
Karuna belongs to an orthodox family. Karuna experiences
disorientation of mind. The quest of Karuna is for sexual and materialistic
pleasures of life. She feels suffocated as she fails to make her inroads in the
film industry. She aspires to enter into
the Bollywood employing the strategies of lies and treachery. When she is a school girl, she tells lies to
meet her classmate Charlie. She is the first girl in the school to wear stretch
pants to look modern. Socialite
Evenings is an exploration of the journey of Karuna who rises from a
middle-class girl to a famous celebrity. At school, she was a “defiance took
another turn. I wanted to be different because I wasn’t rich” (9). When she was
a school girl she was a problem child. She wouldn’t go to school by train or by
a double- decker bus. Her dressing habits were erotic: “I would try and attract
attention by wearing my sash hispster style, hitching the hem of my dress
higher than was allowed”(9). Her sisters were hard working and studious but she
yelled: “ Fuck studies” (13). She had
passion for the stars and actresses; Karuna adopted a strange attitude in her
school life.
Shobha De in the very first chapter depicts the
patriarchal oppression which alienated Karuna and forced her to adopt an
attitude of “intransigence” (12). She was sick of hearing the moralistic talk
of her orthodox and strict father who urged her to “improve the mind” (12). She
had to follow strict army rules: “Lights off at 10 P.M. Up at 5.30.No eating
between meals. No “idle talk” over the telephone” (12). Her friend Charlie
inspired her to become a model for advertisement agency breaking the norms of
her family traditions. She has seen the first adult movie: Splendour in the Grass. Her photographs are published in a
newspaper. They are published without her permission and without payment. The
discovery of her photographs in a newspaper by her father earns her a tight
slap. But it only intensifies her rebelliousness against her father. Karuna
hates the middle class mentality of her parents. She didn’t want to be a frog
of the well and she hated boredom and shabbiness of her middleclass background.
She confesses thus: “ But the rebelliousness I had cultivated in school now
surface with vengeance. The ads kept appearing again and again and again –but
the slaps stopped” (21). It is a chance that Karuna meets Anjali who is the
wife of a wealthy playboy. Her journey begins when she meets Anjali and is
stunned to see the life style of Anjali who is a New Woman of Shobha De.
Karuna’s friendship with Anjali is disliked by her family “her mother had a
psychic awareness of the unsuitability of their friendship” (12). She revolts
against her parents’ wishes. Karuna is spellbound by the magical personality of
Anjali. Anjali is ultra- fashionable,
bold and a socialite. She owns “French perfumes, Impala in silver grey and a
fancy place in Malabar Hill. Anjali becomes a role model of Karuna as she also
makes progress in fashion designing and advertising. Karuna is sure that she
can earn a lot of money by entering into the fashion world. But Anjali accuses Karuna
of bitchiness and lechery, her insatiable appetite for sex. Karuna meets Anjali’s husband Abe who is
womanish and an expert in seducing women Anjali warns Karuna of her husband
discussing openly the sexual weakness of her husband who is a “bastard”.
I have lost all my
girlfriends to Abe. The minute he meets them, he starts his seduction plans. It
doesn’t take very long. One lunch, two drinks-and boom- they’re in bed. I don’t
want to lose you (41).
Like
Dr Faustus, she is greedy and passionate to enjoy money and freedom. She didn’t
like the strict attitude of her father who ruled the family like a military
officer: “We never sat in Father’s lap. Not did we dare to even tap him to
attract attention. In fact, we rarely addressed him directly -it was always
through mother” (41). Karuna’s approach to life is epicurean and materialistic.
So she freely indulges in the fashionable world of modern life introduced to
her by Anjali, the middle-aged prominent socialite. Karuna’s entry in the
glamorous world of modeling and friendship with her boy friend Bunty depicts
her determination to puncture the conventional morality. Shobha Dee has
described two important episodes in Karuna’s life taking her in a new phase of
life. First she dates with the New Delhi ad film maker in London. Karuna is
highly thrilled to see the western society in London. Karuna had a boyfriend
during college days. She met Bunty” a few weeks before she met Anjali” (64). Karuna later on married him” in a mad
rush” (64). Shobha De has vividly described all the circumstances that led to
her hasty marriage with Bunty. He was the son of a rich parents as she says: “He
was pleasant. But bland (65).
Shobha De has described the gradual disintegration of
the married life of Karuna beginning with Chapter Seven when she starts living
in a fantasy world. Ironically she was reading Camus, Jung and Freud in those
days. She was feeling bored and buried herself most of the time in her room
reading books and newspapers. There was
no understanding between her and Bunty. She started feeling guilty she married
“the wrong man for the wrong reasons at the wrong time.” Karuna found her husband an average Indian
husband,” unexciting, uninspiring, untutored”. She felt that “the social life
that went with the marriage was worse” (95). Karuna feels that she is a
marginalized creature: “We were reduced to being marginal people. Everything
that mattered to us was trivialized… roof over our head and four square meals a
day (69). Karuna is not “the toy of man, his rattle,” which “must jingle in his
ears whenever, dismissing reason, he chooses to be amused” (12). She is treated
as a commodity. Karuna’s husband treats
her as matter, a mere object subjected to his own will. Karuna undermines male
superiority. She loathes her husband’s dwelling in “post-mortems” (186) She
falls in love with Anjali’s husband and makes an open declaration: “I love this
friend of yours, and I want to be with him in Venice. There is a good chance “”
(186). Karuna is not comfortable with her husband as there is no intimacy
between them. Karuna is very critical and uses derogatory remarks calling him
“Black Label” Karuna soon is fed up with the boring life with Bunty and
divorces him for she feels guilty. “I
put my face in my hands and wept: for innocents like me, like Bunty, or the
dreams we all weave” (52). Karuna
is fed up with her husband’s compulsive socializing. She hates him, his
horrible safari suits, and his habit of chewing the gum in a mechanical manner.
He is a boring person, always reading newspapers. Karuna lives in her dreams
and fantasies. Karuna is not “the toy of
man, his rattle,” which “must jingle in his ears whenever, dismissing reason,
he chooses to be amused” (12). Karuna soon accepts the reality and continues
her journey of sexual promiscuity. She longs for a stable and happy married
life as he observes: “I was really looking forward to a proper married life
with a proper husband and a proper home. May be it’s not in my horoscope
“(153). She thinks sexuality is the only tool which can help her to thrive in a
harsh society of Mumbai. She becomes a stage actress and meets Girish, a film
producer. They share a comfortable relationship and when Girish sends a
marriage proposal through his son, Kunal. Karuna has very low opinion about
marriage and her past experiences about married life had been traumatic. So she
rejects the marriage proposal which could give her love and security. She feels
“confused and happy at the same time”
(270). Again she starts questioning herself “was
this what I was looking for? (270).
Shobha De believes that marriage gives security
against economic and sexual aggression” (7). Karuna sums up the lot of all her
friends, “We were an exhausted
generation of wives with no dreams left’(72). She creates “a liberated –woman fantasy persona for
myself – passively and secretly of course” (72). Karuna’s affair with
Krish is a torrid affair which continued for three years. Karuna feels guilty
and curses herself for her horrible past in a mood of desperation. She thinks
her to be slut. She wants to take revenge on her husband for his indifference
and neglect. She is feeling sexually repressed so she turns to Krish for
survival and sexual satisfaction. Simon
de Beauvoir observes thus: “Adultery is woman’s sole defense against the domestic slavery in which she is bound”
(9) and when a woman feels suffocated and confined in marriage and is “sexually unsatisfied, doomed to make crudeness, ‘condemned to male
ugliness’, she finds consolation in a young lover” (55).
It is Anjali who drags Karuna into the flashy world of
actors and directors, producers and the businessmen. One afternoon Anjali calls
on Karuna to see a nympho starlet Nisha at Anjali's house. Karuna finds Nisha
in her white sari and an enormous red bindi on her forehead. Anjali tells
Karuna that Nisha's husband likes her white sari and a big tikka on her
forehead. Nisha is presented as a “devi and a pros” in the novel by Shobha
De. Nisha plays odd roles in the movies.
For Karuna Nisha is a 'whore' and has a diseased body. She is utterly vulgar
and has a vile, obscene outfit. Anjali is also passing through a very bad
period. She marries Abe who is an experienced rake with wild reputation. He
exults in wild orgies of sex and has a passion for sex dolls. The journey of
sex adventures doesn’t give any peace of mind either to Karuna or to Anjali.
Shobha De published her Starry Nights in 1992 and it excited and provoked the critics and
reviewers of Shobha De. Prabhat Kumar Pandeya in his article, “Tender,
Beautiful and Erotic: Lesbianism in Starry Nights,” commented thus:
“Shobha De in Starry Nights has graphically depicted the Bombay film
world and how could Bollywood be complete without sex and fleshy pleasures” (200).
Shobha De has projected the fast disintegration of human values in the
glamorous world of Mumbai cinema. Aasha Rani, Geetha Devi, Malini and Rita
experience maltreatment and exploitation in film industry. Starry Nights took
the literary world by storm for its frank portrayal of sex and sexploitation.
Bombay cinema is known for glamour; it beckons many young girls, bubbling with
ambition and lust for power and self. Young girls like Aasha Rani have to pass
through the dark tunnels of sexploitation loneliness and disaster. Shobha De
draws attention to women’s exploitation, discrimination and commodification.
The
very birth of Aasha Rani was a bitter agony. In her childhood, she was deprived
of parental love, and emotional security, Aasha Rani had to face starvation and
poverty. Her mother pushes her into the act of making the blue films and this
way her mother is responsible in selling her body in the market. The critical analysis
of the text reveals that Shobha De has depicted the hopes and aspirations of a
modern young girl whose main motive is success, glamour and money. Aasha Rani,
is nicknamed as “Sweetheart of the millions” but she breaks all sexual mores
and social norms by her deviant behavior. Nothing controls her desire to live a
life of her own. Her sexual encounters with different men point out her sexual
aggression. She defeats men at their own game, and demolishes the mythical
image of woman imposed by patriarchy. Aasha is a female gangster who uses all
the sexual strategies to entrap men to expose them. Aasha Rani’s source of
enjoyment are men and the game she enjoyed playing is love making. For her age
is not a bar at all. Aasha is bold in her sexual scenes depicted in the Starry
Nights (1991):“Look, remember, that scene in our movie- where the director
cut to a bolt of lightning just when our lips were to meet? I’m like suffering
from continuity problem. Could I…….that is… (29). Shobha De has focused on the
theme of complete emancipation of woman. She projects the ideas of liberating
woman through self-realization. The novel Starry Nights is a tale of a rural girl from Madras who
seeks total liberation throwing all moral codes of patriarchy. The
journey of Aasha Rani and her quest for total liberation is at
once interesting and exciting, sensational and revolutionary. Sex and
sensuality are a part of life and in order to accept life one has to affirm
sensuality. It may mean erotic sex Aaasha and sensual love making as described
between Mikki and her husband Binny Malhotra on the moonlit night in his place
before their marriage. Aasha Rani doesn’t want to go to Mumbai but
her mother forces her to become a money-making machine in her youth.
Tears roll down the cheeks of Aasha Rani, when she leaves for Bombay. Like a
caged bird, she is forced to perform in porno session. Her mother cruelly
struck her when she resisted. Before porno session, she helplessly cries,
protests and repeatedly requests amma to save her life. Aasha is always haunted
by her harrowing past.: “Amma please
don’t. I am sacred. That horrible man. How can I take off my clothes in front
of all these strangers “ (53).
Aasha
Rani’s quest begins when she encounters Kishenbhai in the first scene of the
novel. She emerges as an impressive young girl with dark complexion hailing
from Madras: “She had beautiful eyes. Blacker than the moonless night sky.
Innocent as Virgin’s. It was amazing” (Barua
7). Aasha Rani has to face many vicissitudes of life to build her name in the
world of stardom. Aasha Rani tells Kishan Bhai that “All of you are just the
same, but wait I will show you all – beat you at your own game” (8). Aasha Rani uses sex and bed as tools to take
revenge from men. Her first victim is a married actor named Akshay Arora.. She enjoys sexual pleasures with him on the
bed though she knows that he is a married man.
STAGES FROM PROGRESSION TO
REGRESSION OF KARUNA AND AASHA RANI OF SHOBHA DEE
5.4.2 DISINTEGRATION OF MIND AND
SENSIBILTY OF AASHA RANI: CAUGHT IN THE TRAP OF LOVE, MONEY AND SEX
Aasha Rani’s lesbian affair with Linda is one of the
finest erotic strokes of Shobha De. In Starry Nights, the lesbian
relationship between Linda and Aasha Rani is a revolt against the patriarchal
traditional set up of our society. Aasha Rani revolts against the heterosexual
relationship between man and woman. The fantasy world of heroines is shattered when their dreams do
not conform to reality. Akshay is not convinced about the marriage idea at all
as Ajay will kill him. Aasha proposes Akshay for marriage and convinces him
that they will become Muslims since the laws in Islam allow bigamy laws. Akshay
rejects the proposal saying that he wants to die a Hindu. Aasha is completely
shattered as all her dreams and hopes are ruined. She collapses on the bed as
in desperation she takes an overdose of sleeping tablets. Aasha Rani’s suicide
attempt screams the head line of all the leading newspapers.
To conclude, the quest of Anjali and Aasha Rani is for
the real mentality of men who dominate the society. Her quest for love, money,
name and fame and sexuality lead to their corrosion of self. Certainly they
explore the nature of male aggression and sexual oppression. Aasha Rani comes
in contact with many rich people who belong to elite society of Mumbai, the
producers, directors, financers and super stars. She realizes that the world
she had stepped in was very cruel. In Socialite Evenings and Starry Nights, Shobha De
articulates bitter realities of the life of women like Anjal, Malini, Sudha and
Aasha Rani through varied facets of feminism in keeping with contemporary
feminist critical theories.
References
De, S. (2013). Starry
nights. Penguin Books India.
Khair, T. (2008). Indian pulp fiction in
English: A preliminary overview from Dutt to De. The
Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 43(3), 59-74.
Dwyer, R. (1998). The Novels of Shobha De. (Un)
writing Empire, 30, 117.
Chandra, N. D. R. (2005). Contemporary
Indian writing in English: Critical Perceptions. Sarup & Sons.
Mahajan, P. (2015). Evolution of New Woman: A
New Façade of Indian Culture in the Select Novels of Manju Kapur and Shobha De. International
Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 5(2), 200.
