Happy New Year is a light-and-sound show in the guise of a heist-meets-dance movie. This is where I stop – I am totally not going to take the bait and write a paean to the badness of the movie.
Here’s a plot summary instead: Charlie (Shah Rukh Khan), a foreign university grad, makes money as a street fighter because his father (a safe-maker) was convicted of stealing diamonds from a safe. Charlie and his father’s colleagues Jag (Sonu Sood) and Tammy (Boman Irani) know that his father was set up by his boss, Charan Grover (Jackie Shroff). They see an opportunity to exact vengeance – by stealing diamonds from the same safe, which has since been moved to Dubai. Except the opportunity is in the form of an international dance championship. The crew – with the help of Jag’s hacker nephew Rohan (Vivaan Shah), Nandu (Abhishek Bachchan) who is Charan Grover’s son’s doppelganger, and Nandu’s friend Mohini (Deepika Padukone), an item girl and aspiring dance instructor – attempt the heist.
Now, let’s jump to the women characters. There is one named female character. And a half, if you count Sarah Jane Dias’ Laila, who is supposed to be the volunteer in charge of Team India.
Mohini makes an entrance as an item girl only to become a dance teacher. And is a regular punching bag for Charlie (Shah Rukh Khan). At every plot point, Charlie insults her class, her profession, her style, her looks, everything. But Charlie can get away with anything because he speaks fluent English. He is her… Half-Boyfriend? She can’t stop being in love with him. Also, her character’s job becomes the moral compass in this band of thieves during the climax, because her innocence is pure and her ideals are mum-made.
Mohini’s character is as pointless to the plot as Farah Khan’s directorial chops are to the movie. The movie was all about Charlie and his dad, their male friends, their male enemies, their lies and their truths. It is strange how only Tammy had a woman in his life — his mummy. Wait – Nandu also did, but his mummy had a tumour and was going to die soon; we never see her anyway. We’re not exactly sure if Jag’s mummy is alive or not, but anyone cussing his mother is a trigger for him to lose it. Rohan is supposed to be Jag’s sister’s son, but we’re not really sure where she is either.
Obviously, Mohini has other dancing girls as her friends, but we never really see a moment of them hanging out, except when they’re all literally hanging from the ceiling to entertain their patrons.
Here is a list of things women did in Happy New Year:
- Lola Kutty in a cameo announced that the Indian team was not welcome by the Indians in Dubai
- A woman judge announced how despite their lack of dance skills the Indian team qualified for the finals because of their sporting spirit
- Another woman judge (Geeta Kapoor in a cameo) was so taken by Jag that she flirted with him
- Tammy’s mum (Daisy Irani) cheered for him from in front of the TV set, even collected all the aunties from the neighbourhood and celebrated his victory.
- Mohini’s dancer colleagues gathered in front of a giant TV screen at the club and watched the dance performance live and cheered.
- Laila (Sarah Jane Dias) stopped the team from leaving right before the big announcement that didn’t disqualify them. She was also subjected to Charlie’s flirtations.
- A host of other women were props to male characters and other male props during the introduction scenes.
Happy New Year is probably the year’s worst film when it comes to representation of women.
October 30, 2014 at 8:46 am
Agratha there are many worst films in that aspect.
October 30, 2014 at 8:48 am
twarzo The Bechdel testing is a good filter. Most Bollywood films fail it.
October 30, 2014 at 8:50 am
Agratha Nope. It’s most definitely Bang Bang. He drugs her and takes her around the world, gets her kidnapped and uses her. He has abs.
October 30, 2014 at 9:01 am
dk_prabhu I think the author means about how all the women were portrayed as bimbos or props wrt to male actors. Bang Bang is fuckall.
October 30, 2014 at 9:08 am
Agratha I agree to that. In India, most of the movies focus on everything except women’s role. You can see each movie of Deepika with same.
October 30, 2014 at 9:25 am
RegaJha Literally the worst movie since Kick …
October 30, 2014 at 9:30 am
Agratha you watched it ?
October 30, 2014 at 9:35 am
Agratha That’s why i never bother to watch any Bollywood movies at all…
October 30, 2014 at 9:36 am
RegaJha Ugh. This movie was the pits.
October 30, 2014 at 9:37 am
SupraMario 🙁 I keep hearing that. Masochism is kicking in and making me wanna watch it anyway.
October 30, 2014 at 9:38 am
RegaJha SupraMario Get drunk and go watch.
October 30, 2014 at 9:39 am
sapanv SupraMario or I’ll take alcohol and make it a drinking game. “Take a shot every time something misogynistic happens!”
*dies*
October 30, 2014 at 9:40 am
RegaJha Save some liver for Action Jackson and even for PK. sapanv
October 30, 2014 at 9:50 am
SupraMario I have a really bad feeling about PK. RegaJha
October 30, 2014 at 10:11 am
sapanv Trailer was so underwhelming and formulaic. RegaJha
October 30, 2014 at 10:12 am
RegaJha zzzHi
October 30, 2014 at 10:12 am
SupraMario 3 Idiots meets Aamir’s twin from Dhoom 3. RegaJha
October 30, 2014 at 10:13 am
sapanv Not to mention typical Hirani touches i.e. middle-class-values-friendly toilet and sex humour, wistful VO narrative etc RegaJha
October 30, 2014 at 12:47 pm
bitingfriends Because Farah Khan bro!
October 30, 2014 at 2:07 pm
Agratha haha my words
October 30, 2014 at 2:16 pm
Agratha If u have seen d movie ull realise that when d credits are rolled at d beginning it is deepikapadukone before imsrk__
October 30, 2014 at 2:53 pm
kgaurav20 And is *that* the only consideration while women are treated as bimbos and props in the film? deepikapadukone imsrk__
October 30, 2014 at 3:29 pm
Agratha Wht d film demanded is done n now its bygone we r no one to quarell over this but deepikapadukone is given a far btr role
October 30, 2014 at 3:29 pm
kgaurav20 Actually, hey, I can criticize it. It’s called freedom of speech. Read the article to know more about deepikapadukone’s role.
October 30, 2014 at 3:30 pm
Agratha If u see othr films ull realise that this role is meaty one
October 30, 2014 at 3:30 pm
kgaurav20 Actually, no. Deepika had better off roles in Finding Fanny and Cocktail. Hell, even Karthik Calling Karthik.
October 30, 2014 at 3:32 pm
Agratha We r talking abt big films, big star films…aren’t we ..hence the star deserves d limelight
October 30, 2014 at 3:35 pm
kgaurav20 Excellent. So you even fail to acknowledge that a woman could be a “big star” in Bollywood. Let’s just feed it all to the men!
October 30, 2014 at 3:39 pm
Agratha When u have an actor who has ruled for 20 years n d 1 who’s just a few films old, acc to u who’s d star Let it even b a female one
October 30, 2014 at 3:40 pm
Agratha examples r iamkajol MadhuriDixit #shridevi
October 30, 2014 at 3:45 pm
kgaurav20 Who gives a shot? Does that justify the woman being treated like an object just to give SRK more “popularity”?
October 30, 2014 at 3:49 pm
Agratha Do u feel even aftr being a superstar for more than 20 years imsrk__ needs popularity or an arm candy
October 30, 2014 at 3:53 pm
kgaurav20 Exactly! So why make women in his films *only* arm candy? Wy not give them meaty roles since he’s already so popular? imsrk__
October 30, 2014 at 3:56 pm
Agratha May b its always tht way, ever since I’m watching films women hve been sidelined in big star films obvio exception priyankachopra
October 30, 2014 at 4:01 pm
kgaurav20 And you need to challenge that, instead of just accepting it and making excuses for it. priyankachopra
October 30, 2014 at 4:03 pm
Agratha Just need to tell u tht wait until nxt year when #Fan will arrive without a big female lead or acc to u an arm candy
October 30, 2014 at 4:13 pm
kgaurav20 Just read about it. No “big star”. It’ll probably be a newcomer who’s 18 and will be arm candy, while he’ll be 50 & romancing her
October 30, 2014 at 4:15 pm
Agratha OMG now I realise hw thinking differs from person to person
October 30, 2014 at 5:59 pm
Thank God! I didn’t even see this film!
October 31, 2014 at 7:24 am
theladiesfinger Is there any point in lamenting that the producer/directors of HNY are women? 🙁