{"id":5959,"date":"2020-12-15T16:22:31","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T10:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=5959"},"modified":"2020-12-18T15:08:13","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T09:38:13","slug":"tawaifs-and-baijis-wenches-and-whores-mistress-of-melodies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/tawaifs-and-baijis-wenches-and-whores-mistress-of-melodies\/","title":{"rendered":"Tawaifs and Baijis, Wenches and Whores\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tawaifs<\/p>\n

Chhaya. Tagar. Basana. Maanada-Panna-Radha.\u00a0Hasina. Angelina. Gauhar Jaan… What do these ladies, protagonists of this anthology, have in common? They are all engaged in sexual activity for money.<\/p>\n

So what are the sobriquets for them? Prostitute. Street walker. Wench. Call girl. Escort. Harlot. Hooker. Hustler. Vamp. Whore. Temptress. Tart. Puta. Fille de joie<\/em>. Bawd. Moll. Courtesan. Lady of pleasure. Woman on the game. Lady of the night. Scarlet woman. Concubine. Paramour. Cocotte. Strumpet. Trollop. Wanton woman. Devadasi. Tawaif, Baiji. Ganika. Randi. Veshya…<\/em><\/p>\n

This is less than half the seventy-five synonyms in Thesaurus for the \u2018woman of ill repute\u2019. And this is without going into the term Sex Worker, coined by Carol Leigh, in the last century which has seen people become \u2018porn star,\u2019 \u2018sex educator,\u2019 \u2018sexual trainer,\u2019 and even \u2018actress turned prostitute\u2019.<\/p>\n

Where did the word Prostitute come from? It is from the Latin word Prostitus<\/em>, found since the 16th<\/sup> century. But the past participle of Prostiture \u2013 whether interpreted as \u2018to expose publicly\u2019 or read as \u2018thing that is standing\u2019 – does not have the abusive association the most ancient profession has. For that matter, the very phrase \u2018Oldest Profession\u2019 \u2013 a euphemism for prostitution when delicacy forbade the use of the word – is said to have acquired its opprobrious nuance only in the last lap of 19th century, after Rudyard Kipling used it in\u00a0On the City Wall\u00a0<\/em>(January 1889), a short story about an Indian prostitute. Kipling begins by citing a biblical reference:<\/p>\n

Lalun is a member of the most ancient profession in the world. Lilith was her very-great-grandmamma, and that was before the days of Eve as everyone knows. In the West, people say rude things about Lalun’s profession, and write lectures about it, and distribute the lectures to young persons in order that Morality may be preserved. In the East where the profession is hereditary, descending from mother to daughter, nobody writes lectures or takes any notice; and that is a distinct proof of the inability of the East to\u00a0manage its own affairs…<\/em><\/p>\n

#<\/p>\n

\"Nana

Emile Zola\u2019s novel Nana<\/em> was transcreated by Jean Renoir in 1926 (Pic: Wikipedia)<\/p><\/div>\n

Several majors of world literature have gained from the narrative of such ladies. James Joyce of Ulysses<\/em>, Les Miserables<\/em> by Victor Hugo, Daniel Defoe\u2019s Moll Flanders<\/em>, Fanny Hill<\/em> by John Cleland, Shudraka\u2019s Sanskrit classic Mricchakatika<\/em>, stories by Eugene O\u2019Neil and Henri Maupassant, by Premendra Mitra or Bonophul in Bengali, and even Shakespeare\u2019s Measure for Measure<\/em> come to mind immediately. And certain titles like Threepenny Opera, Moulin Rouge, Belle de Jour, The World of Suzie Wong<\/em> are familiar because they lived on stage and screen.<\/p>\n

So many more live with us through their forays on celluloid. Emile Zola\u2019s novel Nana<\/em> was transcreated by Jean Renoir in 1926. George Cukor\u2019s Camille<\/em>\/ 1936 was born out of Alexander Dumas\u2019s La Dame aux Camelias <\/em>(1848). Frederico Fellini\u2019s Nights of Cabiria<\/em>\/ 1957; Gigi<\/em>\/ 1958, adapted from the 1944 novella of the same name by Colette; Billy Wilder\u2019s Irma la Duce<\/em>\/ 1963; Alan Pakula\u2019s Klute<\/em>\/ 1971; the Hong Kong movie, Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan<\/em>\/ 1972; Martin Scorcese\u2019s Taxi Driver<\/em>\/ 1976; Louise Malle\u2019s Pretty Baby<\/em>\/ 1978; Rob Marshall\u2019s Memoirs of a Geisha<\/em>\/2005; Gary Marshall\u2019s super-duper hit Pretty Woman<\/em>\/ 1990\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Meena

Meena Kumari in Pakeezah<\/em>\/1972<\/p><\/div>\n

Then there are the Indian classic movies on courtesans and nagar vadhus<\/em>: K Asif\u2019s\u00a0 Mughal-e-Azam<\/em>\/1960; Kidar Sharma\u2019s Chitralekha<\/em>\/1964; Lekh Tandon\u2019s Amrapali<\/em>\/1966; Kamal Amrohi\u2019s Pakeezah<\/em>\/1972; Girish Karnad\u2019s Utsav<\/em>\/1984; Muzaffar Ali\u2019s Umrao Jaan<\/em>, made in 1981 and then remade in 2006 by J P Dutta; and again his recent Jaanisaar<\/em>\/ 2015.<\/p>\n

And our sluts? They too have honourable existence in Bimal Roy\u2019s Devdas<\/em>\/1955, Asit Sen\u2019s Mamta<\/em>\/1966 as also Sharafat<\/em>\/1970; Chander Vohra\u2019s Khilona<\/em> \/1970, Shakti Samanta\u2019s Amar Prem<\/em>\/1972; Gulzar\u2019s Mausam<\/em>\/1975; Shyam Benegal\u2019s Mandi<\/em>\/1983; Sudhir Mishra and Anant Balani\u2019s Chameli<\/em>\/ 2003, Pradeep Sarkar\u2019s Laaga Chunri Mein Daag<\/em>\/2007, Srijit Mukherjee\u2019s Rajkahini<\/em>\/2015, remade in Hindi as Begum Jaan<\/em>\/2017 \u2026<\/p>\n

Before I exhaust this list, I must make a special mention of Buddhadev Dasgupta\u2019s Mando Meyer Upakhyan<\/em>\/ 2002\u2026 This Tales of a Naughty Girl was about a teenager whose mother, a brothel inmate, wants her to marry an old lech for money \u2013 but the rebel runs away to Calcutta, to find a new life in school education!<\/p>\n

Collectively, and continuously, these names underscore that whether Fallen, Shameful, Sinful or not, the loves and lives of veshyas<\/em> resound through the heart of the world.<\/p>\n

\"BEGUM

Vidya Balan in Begum Jaan\/<\/em>2017 (Pic: Google Image Search)<\/p><\/div>\n

#<\/p>\n

Here are some bare facts about the trade: If a person sells parts or organs of the body to mitigate hunger, we feel pity for him. But if a woman sells her \u2018virtue\u2019 \u2013 another euphemism \u2013 we feel disgust. She is deplored, derided, disparaged. It is a grave sin to trade your virtue, even if it is to meet a societal need. So for years the degraded woman could be booked under the law. In England of 1888, Jack the Ripper mutilated the sex organs only of women in prostitution. What is her crime, one may wonder. It is that men pay the \u2018shameful creature\u2019 for their sexual gratification!<\/p>\n

Has any male ever hated the rag picker or the jamadarni<\/em>, sweeper who lives off the urban muck? Granted, they are not accorded the front seat in social do\u2019s the way actresses are, but no one subjects them to visceral attack merely for being \u2018lowly\u2019 citizens.<\/p>\n

Worldwide, whenever a \u2018fallen woman\u2019 \u2013 yet another euphemism – is mentioned, people picture a siren who lures men into her den and then robs him of his wealth. Reality check: More often than not, she falls in love with a man who \u2018marries\u2019 her – sometimes he simply promises to! – or impregnates her, takes her away from her home, and then dumps her if not sell her to a brothel owner. True, some girls are in the profession by the fact of their birth: because her mother is a tawaif<\/em>, or her father is a low-born natua<\/em>. Is the \u2018husband\u2019 or the father ever made to pay for this form of economic exploitation? Not that I know of.<\/p>\n

\"Mistress<\/a>

Mistress of Melodies<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

As a writer and a creative individual Nabendu Ghosh, to quote iconic filmmaker Mrinal Sen, “never believed evil is man’s natural state. Along with his characters he has confronted, fought and survived on hope.” This precisely is what we see in\u00a0Mistress of Melodies<\/em>. Be it Chhaya, the widow who is ‘married’ by Balram and deserted soon as she sells her jewellery to secure him a job; be it Tagar, the virgin who is abandoned when she is with child; be it Basana, the orphan who wants to make a home, even if it is with a profiteer; be it Fatima, who takes money from Rustam and then attacks him with a scythe; be it Hasina, the baiji<\/em> who sells her adolescent daughter to the highest bidder and then finds out that he is the very man who sired the child: no matter how delicate or crude her status is, this writer never looked down upon them. A Gulab Jaan sings like an angel; a dying Radha stands under the lamppost to earn the rent for her Madame. Not for a moment are they mere bodies bereft of soul.<\/p>\n

Indeed, a part of their soul continues to pulsate even when they bare their body to loathsome, foul smelling, fetid souls. That is why they have icons of their gods in their dens. That is why Fatima cleans his wound when Rustam returns with a nasty cut. That is why\u00a0they offer money to the mate who is inhaling only to stop exhaling. They cook for their pimp. Gauhar Jaan listens to the patriotic bard, Chaaran Kavi Mukunda Das and stands up to the imperialists…<\/p>\n

#<\/p>\n

This aspect, combined with the fact that she was the first Indian voice to take Hindustani ragas to the world, had fascinated the writer in Nabendu Ghosh. So he penned Mistress of Melodies<\/em> \u2013 in English (the other stories are in translation) – as the first draft for a fuller screenplay. A major voice of 1940s in Bengali literature who moved to Bombay with Bimal Roy in 1951, the multifaceted author is more celebrated as the legend who scripted several classics of the Hindi screen through 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. And as screenwriter too he trained the spotlight on the fact that a body can be stained, not the soul.<\/p>\n

A sequence from Woh Chokri<\/em>, 1994 – directed by Shubhankar Ghosh<\/strong><\/p>\n