Hindi cinema has showcased several iconic women characters in movies and they have been brilliantly portrayed by amazing actresses. On the special occasion of International Women’s Day 2025, check top 10 memorable women on screen in Bollywood.
1. Shabana Azmi in Bhavna: At the height of the Shabana Azmi wave in the mid-80s came this titanic tearjerker about a woman who burns both ends of the candle to bring up her son in style. Shabana Azmi in the title role blew the screen apart. This was super-cinematographer Pravin Bhatt’s first feature as a director. Poetry oozed out of every frame like honey. The sentiments were sweet and tender but never overdone. We’ve seen so many great actresses after Nargis do a Mother India. But none as heartbreakingly powerful as Shabana in Bhavna. She’s more volcanic in her passions in this film than the much-hyped Arth. Papa Kaifi Azmi wrote a beautiful theme song for this celebration of Nari Shakti. Tu kahan aa gayee zindagi/Ghamon ke sehra mein/Dukhon ki duniya mein /Mili hai nayi zindagi. Iss film mein abhi bhi ‘sob’ chalta hai.
2. Meena Kumari in Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam: What a woman. What a role! What a performance! This is a film that endowed Meena Kumari with immortality. As the Bahu of a feudal family who won’t fall in line with the rules and regulations of her feudal karma, Meena Kumari looked as radiant as an uncut diamond. Her performance is so nuanced, that even a hundred viewings won’t give the whole game away.
3. Sridevi in Judaai: Okay, a god-awful concoction about a woman who sells her husband to a female heart-broker. But what a performance! In her last blast before marriage, Sridevi exploded into a thousand tiny particles, each signifying the triumph of spontaneous talent. From a middle-class woman to a vulgar nouveau riche to the woman who loses everything to her greed, Sridevi’s performance particularly in the second half when she wants her old rookhi-sookhi life back, is mindblowing. Viva la Devi!
4. Mumtaz in Aaina: What’s it about pre-marriage swan songs that make actresses pull up their stockings? Nargis in Raat Aur Din, Jaya Bhaduri in Abhimaan, and Sridevi in Judaai gave their best before retiring to domesticity. Aaina was the South Indian doyen K. Balachander’s first foray into Hindi cinema. In a remake of his Tamil superhit Arangetram Mumtaz in her final hurrah, played a girl from an impoverished Brahmin family who takes to prostitution to support her battery of ungrateful siblings. Mumtaz portrayed the transformation of a young innocent village girl to a high-class prostitute with unnerving elan. They don’t make them like her any longer. Or do they?
5. Pooja Bhatt in Zakhm: To play her own grandmother Pooja Bhatt put on a Saree for the first time. And she felt she had lived in one of those all her life! Supernaturally transformed, Pooja in Zakhm was like a wound that won’t heal. The agony, sacrifices, and humiliation of a mistress who wants nothing from her man except his love, shone through Pooja’s eyes. She didn’t just live the role of her grandmother. She immortalized the character.
6. Waheeda Rehman in Guide: Ah, Rosy. Kya baat hai! In one of the best-written conceived and executed female roles in Hindi cinema Waheeda overcame her characteristic inhibitions to play a capricious free-spirited woman who won’t be shackled by convention. The dancing, singing, and layered performance made Waheeda Rehman’s Rosy real, and yet ethereal.
7. Tabu in Astitva: The level of sensitivity that Tabu achieved in her performance wasn’t just exemplary, it was unexpected. Who would think that this oft-repeated tale of barren womanhood would yield such a fruitful performance? Tabu clutched at the cliched role of an oppressed wife close to her heart. She gave to the key scenes interpretations that were excitingly textured. This is a performance that needs to be seen over and over again to be fully appreciated.
8. Nutan in Bandini: Gloriously outstanding, Nutan in Bandini portrayed welters of emotions as her character Kalyani bid farewell to innocence. Speaking through her silences Nutan epitomized the strengths of fragile womanhood. Much has been written about her performance. But never enough. Words fail.
9. Dimple Kapadia in Rudaali: Sanicheri, the professional mourner who weeps for others but has no tears for herself sapped so much out of Dimple, that she was reduced to a nervous wreck. The level of integrity and the waves of passion that Dimple wove into the fine fabric of her performance remains unparalleled, almost untouchable.
10. Nargis In Mother India: The unavoidable inevitable choice. Nargis’ towering performance to this day sets the screen ablaze. Need anything more to be said?
