Sanjay Leela Bhansali is one of those very few directors who is known to never cast a light of judgment on the ‘other woman’. Devdas, Bajirao Mastani and Gangubai Kathiawadi are a few instances. In fact, he has always treated them with as many layers and emotionality as a man’s legitimate woman. Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar boasts of a plethora of these ‘other women’, who never had to hide under the veil of morality to earn reverence despite bowing down to their destiny.
Here, the women call their own shots and are unafraid of what the civil society might think of them. They’re pitted against each other, sometimes one even wishing for and conspiring against another’s downfall and shattering their self-worth, pride and ego. They can tear apart and even love like tigresses. And when the right time comes, they don’t bat an eyelid before fiercely protecting one another.
And these women are all so much more than just tawaifs. Ambition is their eternal companion and they use their beauty as a weapon to lure men into their beds and when the right time comes, render them powerless. Here’s a look at the women of Heeramandi:
Mallikajaan
Manisha Koirala returns to being a Sanjay Leela Bhansali heroine 18 years after Khamoshi: The Musical, and plays Mallikajaan. She is the matriarch of a brothel named Shahi Mahal in the red light area. She is fearless, authoritative, ruthless and has the whole of Lahore under control with her beauty and brains.
Her maternal instincts seemingly take a backseat as she’s hell bent on having her younger daughter Alamzeb take over her reins and become the ‘huzur’. She’s also overly protective about the empire she has built for herself. Notwithstanding the fact that she’s a nautch girl, she has always walked with her head held high even in times of crisis.
Bibbojaan
Aditi Rao Hydari plays Bibbojaan, Mallikajaan’s eldest daughter. She’s not only a tawaif but also a revolutionist. She lets her eyes and silence do most of the talking and her most powerful weapons are her compassion and a sharp mind. She becomes the voice of the freedom of India from the British rule and puts her life in danger many a times to protect her homeland and if this requires her to lure a British officer to her bed, so be it.
“Bibbojaan is soft-hearted. Where she’s born and who she possibly wants to be are at conflict. There’s a lot of love and steadiness in her and she uses them to serve a larger purpose,” Aditi had told News18 Showsha about her character.
Alamzeb
Sharmin Segal Mehta essays the part of Bibbojaan’s younger sister, Alamzeb. While her mother Mallikajaan harbours the dream of her ‘nath utraayi’, a coming-out ceremony for a ‘mujre waali’, Alam, as she’s fondly referred to, spends most of her time reading poetry and aspires to be become a poet someday. Needless to say, she’s constantly affected by the conflict between what she wants to and what’s expected of her.
Lajjojaan
Describing her character Lajjojaan, Richa Chadha had said that she’s a ‘female version of Devdas’. She’s passionately in love with a nawab named Zoravar and this unrequited love affair eventually breaks her heart, leaves her deluded and she soon takes to the bottle. She’s an emotionally wreck, who has hit the absolute abyss and has lost her self-worth and sense of self.
Talking to us about her character, Richa had said, “I doubt that a ton of people after they’re trafficked at the age of six and then made to grow up inside a gilded cage would have a lot of self-worth to begin with because their life is deemed unimportant by society.” Mallikajaan is the foster mother to Lajjojaan.
Waheedan
Yet another tormented character, Waheedan is the younger sister of Mallikajaan. Mallikajaan shares a strained relationship with her, who she blames for having lost her beauty and spark. She’s envious of her daughter’s youth and is on a path to regain her respect at all costs. The scar on her face becomes her biggest curse. Let down and betrayed by everyone she had once loved, Wajeedan is now fighting a battle where she fears not being desirable anymore. And through her, Bhansali brings forth an unfortunate facet of how womanhood is tied to vanity.
Circumstances have made Waheedan extremely bitter and broken but that hasn’t stopped her from fulfilling her ambition. To snub Mallikajaan, she’s even ready to befriend her worst enemies. And yet every now and then, we get to see a vulnerable and gullible side to Waheedan, played by Sanjeeda Shaikh.
Fareedan
Formidable, shrewd and sardonic, Sonakshi Sinha’s Fareedan is the daughter of Mallikajaan’s elder sister, who had a catastrophic end. She’s a doppleganger of her mother and poses the biggest threat to Mallikajaan, who worries that this new Heeramandi entrant will raze her to the ground. Her only ambition is to avenge the injustice meted out to her mother and is single-handedly fighting the battle. She fears no one and has no qualms about walking on the path of vices.
But she has a closet full of skeletons. Eventually, she lets go of palace politics and joins Bibbojaan’s fight for a larger purpose. And despite deep and dark ambitions plaguing her heart, she has her conscience clear.
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