Dilwale and Subverting Patriarchy

In Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, we are introduced to Simran, a Non Resident Indian woman growing up in London. Baldev Singh, Simran’s father, has arranged for his daughter to be married to the son of a family friend in India, Kuljit. Simran is initially unperturbed by the notion of her arranged marriage, but during a vacation in Europe she unwittingly falls in love with Raj, a spoiled but affable fellow NRI from London. The rest of the film concerns Raj and Simran’s machinations to legitimize and cement their relationship despite Baldev’s reservations. According to Purnima Mankekar, Dilwale affirms the Indian male’s agency by casting him in the figure of the NRI investor and the custodian of the Indian woman’s sexual purity – the quintessential trope of Indian identity – thus replaying the classic woman/nation conflation. (Virdi) I prefer to read Dilwale as a film that addresses how modern Indian identities and values both operate in and subvert traditionally patriarchal family structures, while also serving as a commentary on the Indian diaspora and its connection with Indian culture.

When we are first introduced to Simran she is portrayed as a young, independent Indian woman. The first shot Simran is a close up of her face instantly connects the audience with her eyes, and establishes the theme of perception through the female gaze. Unlike female characters in earlier Hindi films, women in Diwale can be simultaneously promiscuous and virtuous, and Simran, who is pictured as a wild heroine with wind blowing through her hair embodies that duality. Simran wears Western clothes rather than traditional Indian female attire like her mother, and enjoys Western music. In the opening song of the movie, Simran dances around her bedroom covered only in a towel; the dance weaves both modern and traditional elements that serve as a foil for Simran’s identity. Although she is amenable to her arranged marriage she still writes love poetry in which she describes encounters with strange men whose faces she’s never met. Her sexual fantasies propel her into her eventual love affair with Raj, ……

Simran is as much a product of Western values and she is Indian virtue, and she negotiates this duality through the exploration of her sexuality and subversion of patriarchal norms. Simran and younger sister dance to popular music, but as soon as Baldev comes home the music is switched to traditional music and they sit demurely on couches. While this act of male appeasement reinforces patriarchy, it also exposes Baldev’s frail grasp on his Hindi heritage and bay extension his traditional authority. Later, in order to convince her father to let her go on a holiday to the European continent with her friends, Simran ensures that her father sees her praying early in the morning at the family shrine. She sits bathed in a glowing aura of light, and appears similar to a Hindu deity. This ruse convinces her father to allow her to go on vacation with her friends, and is another example of how perceived virtuousness clashes with modern identity.

In her relationship with Raj, Simran repeatedly subverts traditional romantic tropes of Hindi cinema. The theme of perception reappears in the train scene where Raj and Simran recount their initial meeting to their respective friends. While Raj disingenuously casts himself as a suave Don Juan who effectively wooed Simran, Simran’s account subverts his narrative through satirizes patronizing flirtations. Later when Simran and Raj are forced to share a room in Switzerland, her honor (izzat) won’t allow her to sleep in the same room with another man, and she is seemingly offended when Raj drinks alcohol in front of her, asking, “are you not ashamed to drink in front of a lady?” Her seeming primness vanishes when she accidently gets drunk, and her inhibitions melt away as she and Raj engage in a series of drunken escapades across the Swiss countryside. In a subversion of the Hindi film archetype, Simran’s are not interpreted as virtuous, but rather as a product of the intersection of modern Indian identity and traditional values. Alcohol allows Simran to search out and pursue her hidden feelings for Raj, and later when she learns that her honor is intact she is justified in having feelings for Raj knowing that he is an honorable man who wouldn’t take advantage of her.

In a twist upon traditional family roles, Simran and her mother, Lajjo, act more like friends than mother and daughter. They sit on opposite beds while Simran reads her love poetry to her mother, and Simran repeatedly confides in her mother concerning the details of her and Raj’s love affair. This subversion of the traditional mother and daughter family dynamic sets up Lajjo and Simran as conspirator’s against patriarchal norms, as Lajjo becomes and accomplice to Simran and Raj’s schemes. In one scene right after Simran has been brought to India to marry Kuljit, Lajjo tells Simran that women sacrifice their happiness; they give up education, love, and independence, while men are forced to give up nothing. Her insistence that women and men are not equal subverts the long running theme in Hindi film of elevating women as symbols of Indian sovereignty. Although she proceeds to beg Simran to forget Raj to preserve family harmony these comments have been interpreted as a critique of womens’ lack of agency in patriarchal system that denies them a voice, which serves as a form of sub textual subversion. Later when Lajjo encourages Simran and Raj to elope she effectively gives her blessing for the couple to subvert traditional patriarchal norms and pursue a modern romance. Her blessing uses the trope of family permission and marriage to subvert Baldev’s designs for Simran’s romantic future, and further establishes the notion that the film is a critique on women’s roles in a time of increasing fluid boundaries of what it means to be a modern Indian woman.

Simran and Raj’s insistence on seeking parental approval for their relationship has been read as a form of adherence to the patriarchal order of Indian culture. “More importantly, as ‘formula’ romances set in an Indian culture of kinship, the romantic happy ending in … DDLJ… requires the reconciliation of parental and individual desire.” (Uberoi) Rather than elope as Lajjo suggests the couple stubbornly try to win Baldev over to their side without avail. Simran’s acceptance by Raj’s father and eventual release by her own father has been seen as an example of female sexual desire commuting to patrilocal authority, yet I read the text as much more complex. Simran’s subversions throughout the film speak to a broken system that has little to no meaning for NRI and intergenerational Indian youth, while also grappling with the injustice of traditional roles for women.