Makdee to Rangoon: Here's how Vishal Bharadwaj has always portrayed women as strong and independent characters in his films

From Makdee to Omkara to Haider, Vishal Bharadwaj has always projected women as strong and independent characters. All his female characters have an important part in the film's story line.

If you dig deeper into the psyche of these women, you'll notice that none of them exercise servitude or silence in despair. They find a way to assert themselves in a system of men, made by men, for men. So, in Bharadwaj's cineverse there is no room for a Meena Kumari.

His characters seduce us, slowly disrobing us of our habitual thinking, and making a show of the bad and the beautiful. They not only raise their voices against the male ego, but also act and pierce through it.

Bharadwaj's latest film Rangoon shows Kangana Ranaut as Miss Julia--a bold, fashionable film star of the 1940s. She is sent to Burma to entertain Indian soldiers with her talent. Julia is engaged to a big producer but finds herself falling for a soldier, who has been entrusted to protect her. 

Here is a throwback to the five strong women characters from Bhardwaj's brought to the silver screen.

Kareena Kapoor As Dolly Mishra in Omkara

The film, which was a modern take on William Shakespeare's Othello, portrayed Kareena Kapoor as the love interest of the main protagonist Ajay Devgn.

She played an upper-caste woman, who defies her family and sets off to marry a goon. She doesn't care what the society thinks of her relationship and goes forward with it without given the disapproval second thought. She is a woman, who knows what she wants and fights for it.

Shweta Prasad As Chunni/Munni and Shabana Azmi As The Witch in Makdee

The film, which was a debut for the director, transformed Shabana Azmi to an extent that she was unrecognizable.

Azmi played a witch who lived in a mansion alone and hunts for kids. A dark, lonely character, almost like Cruella DeVil--she epitomized all things bad. She was cunning, she knew how to manipulate, and get what she wants. Even though she was pure evil, her character was nonetheless unforgettable.

Contrasting to the witch's nature were Chunni and Munni--twins, played by Shweta Prasad, who fought against the evil, without letting go of their innocence.

Tabu As Nimmi In Maqbool

The film was based on Shakespeare's Macbeth, with Mumbai's underworld as its backdrop. Tabu played the role of a mistress named Nimmi, who had a relationship with an underworld don, Jahangir Khan, played by Pankaj Kapoor. She was also secretly in love with don's right hand man, Maqbool, played by Irrfan Khan.

With her beauty and charm, Nimmi lured the men she loved, to listen to her instructions--ultimately making Maqbool defy and kill his own master.

Priyanka Chopra as Susanna in 7 Khoon Maaf

This film by Bharadwaj, which was inspired by Ruskin Bond's short story, was really dark. It narrated the story of Susanna, played by Priyanka Chopra, and her seven husbands.

The character meets seven different men in her life in the course of the film. She falls in love with them, marries them, and eventually murders them all as her marriages turn sour.

She doesn't tolerate the husband who's abusive, or the one who's an addict and a playboy, or the one who's a sado-masochist. All she wanted was love, and when she saw that none of her husband actually loved her, she did what she could to get herself out of the situation.

Tabu as Ghazala Meer In Haider

While the film, which is a remake of Hamlet, was about a troubled young man in Kashmir called Haider, one cannot ignore the strong character Tabu played.

Ghazala had her way in everything. She formed the fulcrum of the plot, had the ability to convince men with her child-like stubbornness, lure, and entrap them with her beauty.

She loses her husband, and is unaware if he's even alive. But that doesn't stop her from living her life. She moves on, with the trauma and the guilt, and marries her brother-in-law. She loves her son, and is often conflicted if she should support him.

Time and time again, Bharadwaj has proven through his films that he is not a director who resorts to using women as props. Even in an interview to the Times Of India, he said that wishes he could make more female-oriented films. We just the director keep portraying the femme fatales the way he always has.