Who is the 21st century woman?

I remember watching Bobby (guess what I just wrote? So much for Freudian slips) when I was 13. I went crazy. I don't think another film has made the kind of impact on me that this Raj Kapoor classic did. (SEE SPECIAL)

Or maybe it would be more correct to say it was a Dimple Kapadia classic. I would lie on my bed reliving the film scene by scene-watching it again with my vacant, dazed eyes and once in a while cry out loud like the hero of the film "Bobby!" My mother would rush out of the kitchen, sure I had gone mad. Why am I thinking of Bobby now?

Well, it's because of one particular scene. Rishi Kapoor and Dimple are in a restaurant and he says something like, "Oh so this is what a 20th century girl is like" and to that she retorts, "Your 20th century has become old. I am the girl of the 21st century…" It sounded much better when she said it in Hindi, of course. It sounded exciting.

First Raj Kapoor created this fantasy woman as a representative of the '70s young woman, and then pushed our imagination by saying that she belonged to the next century.

So this is how the 21st century woman will be, we would have wondered. Hmmmmm. Worth waiting for. And hey, here we are in the 21st century. I don't think women have changed that much in the last 40 years-yes they have changed a lot in the last 60. But from the '70s to now-no, there isn't such a big change.

There was a big commotion four years ago when Mallika Sherawat came on the scene, flaunting her breasts and making controversial statements. Everyone reacted to her in some way, but I was saying, hello, this is nothing new.

There was Parveen Babi in the '70s who occupied the same space as did Zeenat Aman. Mallika just filled a slot lying vacant. But why am I talking films? The point is that the types that exist now are not really new. The working woman was there, the young hippie was there, the rebel then had tattoos (now she has piercing) and the super mom was there.

Of course equations change every day. The wings women have earned are making them fly closer to their dreams. The big change is that women have tasted the possibilities, they know what's in the realm of their grasp and are not letting go of their freedom. Not so much the freedom to work or be single, but the freedom to define themselves, to find what they really want.

And if all this brings confusion to the woman, think of the poor man. He has no clue. What worked well some time back doesn't work now. The alpha male has been relegated to the Mills and Boons. If Rhett Butler came into the real world today, he would be shocked by the reception he would receive.

The men in urban India are slowly getting the idea. At least they are trying. And all this change has been initiated by women. Men were all right with the way things were in their parents' time. But the new woman has rocked the boat. They write new equations everyday, and the poor man is trying desperately to balance that equation.

But to be fair, men are trying to keep pace, to understand the new rules. And I think that is the biggest achievement of the 21st century woman, that she has started rewriting the rule book, and what is more, she has managed to twist the man's arm enough for him to give in. She has managed to transform him.

The biggest achievement of the new woman then, is the new man.

- Rajat Kapoor director, Mixed Doubles and Mithya