When Smita Patil spoke about the portrayal of women in cinema

Mumbai: Late actress Smita Patil is known to have portrayed some memorable female characters with a voice of their own during her short yet impactful tenure in Indian cinema.

During a throwback interaction with a media portal, Smita Patil argued that women have been constantly shown as weak in movies, and over time their depiction has lost even any remaining strength.

Giving the example of her own movie, 'Subah', where the lead is forced to fight a two-front battle, both inside and outside her home, to live her life on her own terms.

Smita Patil shared, "The same depiction of women has been going on for so many years now that by showing her as weak, she is made even weaker."

"But if you show a very powerful woman so quickly, like the film 'Subah', which I would like to talk about, in which this woman, being educated in a middle-class family, is trying to break the family structure, to become a superintendent of a remand home, but even doing a job is made so difficult for her. She fights with her family for the job and leaves her husband, who is a lawyer, and her daughter at home. Even at the workplace, there is an even more horrific experience," she went on to add.

Meanwhile, Smita Patil's son, actor Prateik Smita Patil, paid a heartfelt tribute to his late mother on her birth anniversary with an emotional post on Saturday.

Calling her his “guardian angel”, he wrote on his official handle, “Happy forever heavenly birthday my guardian angel… this physical world was too weak to witness our love but we always had other plans… I feel your blessings and protection through every moment of my existence and more deeply with the moments in this journey that are meant to define me and understand who I really am and why we chose this journey together and for each other (sic)."

Smita Patil passed away from childbirth complications on 13 December 1986. Following her death, Prateik was raised by her parents in Mumbai.

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