From Deepika Padukone in 'Piku' to Sonam Kapoor in 'Khoobsurat': It's time for new age daughters

Gone are the days when an actress had to play the sundar, susheel ladki or the abla naari in films. With coming-of- age films, we have also seen a huge evolution in the way the female characters — including daughters — have been showcased over the years. They aren’t the typical perfectly poised, obedient girls-next-door, who will say yes to everything their parents ask them to do. Instead, the writers and filmmakers along with several B-Town actresses are bringing out the flaws in such characters. And celebrating them! Not just that, the audiences, too, are happily lapping them up and relating to them. 

On World Daughter’s Day, we take a look at how Bollywood’s daughters have undergone a huge metamorphosis in recent times...

Deepika Padukone in Piku

She isn’t the daughter who’s patiently taking care of her dad. She is unabashed but honest, loving but won’t think twice before reprimanding her Baba. She screams at him, asking him to mend his ways, but also wants her lover to adopt her ‘90 saal ka beta’. Deepika’s Piku shows that you sometimes need to scold your parent out of love.

Parineeti Chopra in Daawat-e-Ishq

Parineeti as the con-woman, with her accomplice — dad Anupam Kher in tow — were a hilarious father-daughter duo on screen. She is the free-thinking girl with her father always by her side. They are partners-in-crime, quite literally. And even when she decides to stop playing by the rules, her father remains rock-solid with her. The route they take in the film might be wrong, but you can’t help but have a soft corner for the baap-beti.

Kriti Sanon in Bareilly Ki Barfi

She smokes, she doesn’t think twice before admitting she isn’t a virgin, literally pushes her dad for money and discusses the guys, who she hangs out with. Kriti is the antithesis of the traditional doe-eyed image that has been associated with Bollywood betis, since time immemorial. Her character flaws are for real and that’s what makes it work.

Sonam Kapoor in Khoobsurat

We usually call our mothers Mom, amma, ma, aai, etc. Well, in Khoobsurat, Sonam calls her on-screen mother Kirron Kher by her first name. For Sonam’s Milli, her mother was simply Manju. And their camaraderie was hilarious. At a time when youngsters try to hide their relationships, here’s a modern mom and daughter who shamelessly gossip, discuss her love life and what not! Moreover, in a scene where Sonam claims, ‘Kuch zyada hi bol diya’, repenting after reacting to Fawad Khan, mom Kirron doesn’t slam but support her.

Fatima Sana Shaikh in Dangal

A real life story — that of Mahavir Phogat and his daughters Geeta and Babita Phogat, Dangal had Aamir Khan playing father to Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra. Born in a controlled environment, bound by several sets of rules and regulations that has not allowed her any freedom, Fatima’s life takes a topsy-turvy turn when she decides to train alone at the academy, sans her bapu. Her thoughts and opinions change, she develops a personality — one that can now resist the institutions she once feared. There isn’t dilly-dallying anymore; she questions her father’s lessons  and the whole guru-shishya equation goes for a toss. A much layered character, this is yet another Bollywood daughter who is perfectly imperfect!

Vidya Balan in Paa

While the whole movie was an emotional tale of a progeric child and the relationship he shares with the main women in his life — his mother and his grandmother, there was an angle that most of us might have missed. Vidya as the daughter. She defies the age-old societal norms and delivers a baby out of wedlock and keeps it. Vidya, as the single mother, ready to take on the world to make it work for her and her special child, wins hearts. Unfortunately, there’s still a huge social stigma attached to pre-marital sex and especially single mothers. The makers created a character who dealt with that beautifully and rather emotionally.