In Begum Jaan, Vidya Balan finds outlet to vent her anger

Vidya Balan is known for her power-packed and soul-stirring performances but in Srjit Mukherji’s Begum Jaan she says she is venting her anger. The National Award winner acknowledges she has finally begun to express it and become more vocal, contrary to the belief that only men can exhibit their displeasure.

Begum Jaan, a Hindi adaptation of Mukherji’s stellar Bengali offering Rajkahini, stars Vidya in the lead, a brothel’s madam in Punjab during India’s partition in 1947. 

“I am glad that Srijit decided to come back to me. It is feminine power in full glory. You see the charm, the sensuality, the compassion, but you also see the wrath of an angry woman. I think it is also giving vent to a lot of my angst,” said Vidya during an outdoor shoot of Begum Jaan in Patjor village of Jharkhand’s Dumka district. “As girls, particularly, all of us carry some amount of angst in us. I think we have been brought up to believe that only men can express anger. She becomes undesirable when a woman expresses anger. There is a conditioning which we can’t get rid off,” Vidya said. 

When asked as to what makes the Dirty Picture actor angry?,the actor replied, “Lots of things. When I went through rejection down south, I thought I had dealt with a lot of things and with criticism and I guess, I was dealing with those emotions to make sure they don’t overpower me so that I can go on. I am an eternal optimist and I manage it all with a smile but deep down I don’t think I have really actually dealt with the anger and rejection,” the actor said.

“I would not express it before which is why I didn’t deal with it, but now I have begun to express it and I have become more vocal,” she asserted. Recently Vidya’s comments supporting actor Kangana Ranaut in her bitter conflict with Hrithik Roshan related to their alleged relationship, sharing of personal pictures, messages and police complaints, ruffled quite a lot of feathers. 

“I supported a girl who had the courage to stand up for herself. I don’t know them personally well enough to know what the issues are and even if I did I am not anyone to sit and judge. I just felt it was incredible for a girl to have said that.