Vidya’s ‘Begum Jaan’ Is All About Feminine Power In Full Glory

TIL Desk Bollywood/ Vidya Balan is known for her power-packed and soul-stirring performances but in Srjit Mukherji’s Begum Jaan she says she is venting her anger. The National Award winner acknowledges she has finally begun to express it and become more vocal, contrary to the belief that only men can exhibit their displeasure. Begum Jaan, a Hindi adaptation of Mukherji’s stellar Bengali offering Rajkahini, stars Vidya as a brothel’s madam in Punjab during India’s partition in 1947. Though actress Rituparna Sengupta essayed the lead role in the Bengali version, Mukherji’s first choice for the adaptation was Vidya.

“I am glad that Srijit decided to come back to me. It is feminine power in full glory. You see the charm, the sensuality, the compassion, but you also see the wrath of an angry woman. I think it is also giving vent to a lot of my angst,” Vidya told during an outdoor shoot of Begum Jaan in Patjor village of Jharkhand’s Dumka district.

“As girls, particularly, all of us carry some amount of angst in us. I think we have been brought up to believe that only men can express anger. She becomes undesirable when a woman expresses anger: the notion is that this is not how a good girl behaves. There is a conditioning which we can’t get rid off,” Vidya said.