Veteran actress Zeenat Aman’s Instagram directly portrays the trajectory of reclamations that women have to often undertake during their lifetime: first, the reclamation of their sexuality, and then the reclamation of their age. The matter is far more complex for actresses, for whom glamour and sensuality are key components of ‘the persona’. In a culture that tells women aging is a fate worse than death, Aman has chosen to reclaim her space in the public eye, now stating in her own voice that glamour, sensuality, and age can all coincide- that one’s life cannot be compartmentalised into sections when one is allowed to have one or the other of these qualities.
Sensuality
Sharing a photo from her look test as the iconic Rupa from Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Aman writes on Instagram, “Anyone acquainted with the history of Bollywood will know that there was much controversy and brouhaha about my character Rupa in Satyam Shivam Sundaram. I was always quite amused by the accusations of obscenity as I did not and do not find anything obscene about the human body. I am a director’s actor and these looks were part of my job. Rupa’s sensuality was not the crux of the plot, but a part of it.”
For stars in the public eye, there are many ways to go out. Some, like Suchitra Sen, choose to become figures of mystique- as elusive as the Northern Lights. Many choose to not go gentle into the good night, seasoned enough to understand the flimsiness of public perception. It’s no act of cowardice to shun the limelight’s adoring gaze; it must take bravery to choose to become a memory. The general public may never know with certainty why Sen chose to become a recluse for the latter part of her life. Was it a rejection of the public gaze and all that comes with it, or did she succumb to patriarchy’s shifting goalpost known as the ‘Perfect Woman’?
It’s a different kind of boldness that Aman displays. She chooses to remain in the public eye not just as a star, but as a human being, whose skin wrinkles and hair grows grey, who is still Rupa, but who is also just a woman on Instagram- one who likes to tell a few self-effacing jokes and share a bunch of memes of herself. Apart from her, Neena Gupta is another veteran actress who has been joyfully partaking in modern Internet humour. If Aman’s voice is wisdom, Gupta’s is pure, over-the-top fun. This might not have been a choice that people such as Sen ever got.
Wisdom
In a recent Instagram post, Aman writes, “We see very few older women in the public eye. It’s not something I thought about when I was young, but now that I myself am silver-haired, I feel their absence. It’s a puzzling phenomenon, simply because older women mould, protect and nurture us in so many ways worthy of celebration. There is just no substitute for the wisdom of experience and years…. When you sweep your eyes across the landscape of your life, do you not also find the influence of older women?”
Aman’s eloquent voice is the exact testament to the wisdom of the years about which she speaks. Instagram is not a platform where stars are known to speak in their own voices. Celebrities are propped up as brand mouthpieces spewing outright lies, selling dreams, ideals, beauty standards and lifestyles as easily as they sell you a piece of clothing. Beauty becomes empire, instrument and weapon in the hands of capitalism. Women know beauty is a double-edged sword to wield.
Person vs Persona
As fashion shifts shapes through BBLs, extreme diets, buccal fat removals and diabetes treatment drugs running short owing to people using them for weight loss instead, Instagram becomes the runway on steroids. Every hour is fashion week. Hopper HQ, which has been calculating annual ‘Instagram Rich Lists’ since 2017, found in 2022 that Kylie Jenner, for instance, earns $1,835,000 per sponsored post. When there is no knowing what’s real, voices such as Aman’s are crucial.
Aman has also been using her platform to highlight friendships between actresses as opposed to the sexist “cat-fight” narrative that goes around. Most yesteryear actresses did not get the choice to be people as opposed to personas. Aman spoke up for Parveen Babi, writing, “After her death, I often ruminated on how she was remembered. The tabloids focused on her romantic relationships and “episodes”, but Parveen was much more than who she dated or what she said when she was unwell. I feel she never truly got the chance to say her piece.”
Instagram is the problem of plenty incarnate. It gives you the illusion of choice as it ties you to your couch, scrolling through slices of idyllic lives, bodies, faces. Older women have seen the world both slip like quicksand and remain mulishly obstinate. Even if there’s no escaping this technicolour Midsommar-esque nightmare, people such as Aman might just be our voices of sanity around here.
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