BEAUTY KICKS THE BEAST

Beauty Kicks the Beast Flexing muscles, swinging a sword or jumping from one building to another is no longer the strong suit for heroes. They are facing a tough challenge from the Bollywood actresses who are increasingly embracing action-oriented roles. And what an aesthetic sight it is to watch the beauties take on the beasts Heroines are no longer satisfied with just dancing around trees or singing in the rain. Be it Aishwarya Rai, Deepika Padukone, Bipasha Basu, or Katrina Kaif , all are in a bid to compete with action heroes on their turf. "The trend of more heroines taking up action roles itself shows that with the progression of the Hindi film industry, women are wanting to go beyond being a beautiful furniture in the frame" Seema Biswas wielded revolvers in "Bandit Queen", a film-based on dacoit Phoolan Devi, Sushmita Sen gave an action packed performance in "Samay" and Esha Deol's and Aishwarya's racy acts proved a crowd puller for "Dhoom" and "Dhoom 2" respectively. Similarly Priyanka had some action scenes in "Krrish" kicked some real butt in "Drona" and when on to display some macho martial arts in the Don remake; Soha Ali Khan had some action packed scenes in "Khoya Khoya Chand", and kareena added the swowd to the oomph in the Shah Rukh- Kareena starrer Asoka. The list goes on, the theme remains the same. Life always comes in full circle. And so do trends. If you think Bollywood babes' daring deeds are only a recent development, think again! Way back in the 30s when Hindi cinema was just still in its nascent stages, the Australian born actress Nadia graduated from a circus girl to being Bollywood's first actress who could fight the baddies all by herself and convincingly so. She was best known for portraying the masked, cloaked adventuress Hunterwali in 1935. Her movie titles itself gives a clear indication of what her films were like - Hurricane Hansa, Pahadi Kanya, Lady Robinhood, Toofani Tirandaz, Stunt Queen and Tigress to name a few. Looks like the Hunterwali days are back. Our current crop of actresses could give the Fearless Nadia some lessons in bringing feminine grace to cinematic action. These women need no hunky heroes to protect them, they can do it themselves, in style!