From Kareena Kapoor’s Geet to Deepika Padukone’s Meera: How Imtiaz Ali creates extraordinary female characters from ordinary girls-next-door

“My inspiration comes from life and women around you. Sometimes it comes from fascination about women, sometimes knowledge about women. Usually it’s a mix of both. But it’s always the women around you who inspire you to write a character like that,” Imtiaz said in an interview to Zoom dated 2012.

Imtiaz Ali has directed Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor in Tamasha. (Photo: Express Archives)

Imtiaz introduced us to his kind of cinema and characters in 2005 film Socha Na Tha. The cute little love story revolves around a boy-girl who ditch an arranged marriage set-up only to eventually fall in love and run away because their once friendly families are now arch rivals. It had Ayesha Takia play Aditi, a demure girl who wants to explore the world before settling down as per her family’s choice. A predictable plot, yet you wait for what Aditi does next, triggering the rebel inside you as a viewer. She was raw, sans any baggage of how female characters were projected back then.

One easily gets drawn to the impulsiveness of human connections which Imtiaz’s characters bring to the table. Geet, who made every girl realise that “main apni favourite hoon” became the talking point of Kareena Kapoor’s career. Geet acted in the heat of the moment, made mistakes and owned up to them. Keeping in with the manic pixie dream girl trope, she became instrumental in altering the course of Aditya’s (Shahid Kapoor) life.

While Abhay Deol made his Bollywood debut with Socha Na Tha, it was Ayesha Takia’s third film.

Geet is imperfect, believes she has all the problems in this world, yet lives life to the fullest. She’s too outspoken to fit into any social group. She’s a total mess, yet a role model for every girl. She is no one you’d be able to stand beyond a few minutes, but Geet changed the way Indian cinema presented its women.

Kareena did Jab We Met as a side project post Tashan and hence did not pay much attention to Geet. But on Shahid’s coercion, she looked at the brighter side. Now if you thought Geet inspired someone you know, she also had an impact on Anushka Sharma. The actor previously said, “Looking at the character of Geet, I felt I should be doing films.”

There’s a trademark aesthetics about Imtiaz’s world, where both male and female leads are at par. Here, the man is a “damsel in destress” waiting for his “Princess Charming” to pull him out of the clutter. In the most simplistic way, Imtiaz manages to break the stereotypes. Ironically, they are who we meet on a daily basis, just that we are so blinded by the gloss of movies, that we miss the honesty of these women. Imtiaz puts them on the pedestal, bringing them back to the fore in his cinema.

Imtiaz wrote Cocktail which was directed by Homi Adajania. It was a pure example of how he can show the extremes of female emotions with Veronica and Meera. Though the film invited mixed reviews about turning Veronica into a giving character, it did depict a heady mix of love, lust and longing like none of his films did before.

Deepika Padukone and Diana Penty as Veronica and Meera displayed a rare female camaraderie in Cocktail.

Imtiaz cemented Deepika Padukone’s career with Love Aaj Kal and Cocktail, and later Tamasha. He signed her for Love Aaj Kal when she hadn’t even made her acting debut. Today, he says he feels proud and silently takes the credit for Deepika’s success. But while many argue that his women are a rehashed versions of one another, the filmmaker refutes the charge.

“Meera is more quint and silent. There’s a quality about her which is heartwarming. Geet is obviously all there, but you might miss Meera if you’re not paying attention. Geet you can’t miss,” he told Zoom.

On Love Aaj Kal completing 12 years in 2021, Deepika recalled playing Meera in a statement. She said, “Meera, I believe, was simply beautiful; inside out. A character many related to at the time.”

Imtiaz wanted to cast a new face as Heer in Rockstar. Though he had seen Nargis Fakri’s photo, he rejected her because she did not understand Indian value system, neither could speak Hindi. But Nargis remained his reference point during the casting process. During one visit to Prague, he telephoned Nargis who agreed to fly down and meet Imtiaz. The filmmaker gave in to her innocence and rawness, and signed her as Heer.

From Veera being a victim of child abuse and eventually finding freedom in captivity in Highway, to Meera becoming a catalyst in Ved’s self-discovery in Tamasha, Imtiaz has given us women who challenge social system, like unsung heroes who we miss out on taking note of, around us. We would’ve discovered Alia Bhatt, the actor quite late, if Highway didn’t happen to her right after Student of the Year. Imtiaz pulled her out of a Karan Johar canvas and placed her in a non-manicured set-up of the road-drama.

Ranbir Kapoor, who collaborated with Imtiaz in Rockstar and Tamasha shared in 2011, “He’s well read. He understands the complexities and dynamism of relationships. He understands a woman very well, in a very correct and realistic way.”

It’s been a while Imtiaz gave us his stamped female characters. We’ll wait. Until then, we have Meera’s stillness and Geet’s chaos to fall back on.

Happy birthday, Imtiaz Ali!