Dewi Nur Suci

07320031

Idealized Women and Men in Kal Ho Na Hoo Movie

I. Introduction
India movies still exist in Indonesia because of their uniqueness cultural sides.
More people like to watch them either adults or teenagers, while most of the topics are
about love, family, friendship and others such as Kal Ho Na Hoo, Kuch-Kuch Ho Ta
Hai, Ta Ra Rum Pum and etc. Based on my friend loving India movies much, Kal Ho
Na Hoo is one of the interesting movies stared by Shah Rukh Kahn with Pretty Shinta.
At glance, it is very fantastic! In fact we unconsciously agree and take for granted with
acts acted by the actors and actress or with the narration of the story without seeing
deeply and rethinking of what are represented by the movie makers or productions.
Therefore, it is important to analyze India movie since there are gender stereotypes
between women and men on which a stereotype involves the reduction of persons to
set of exaggerated, usually negative character traits. Stereotyping reduces,
essentializes, naturalizes and fixes ‘difference’ (Hall, 1997c:258).
For most writers within cultural studies, masculinity and femininity are not
essential qualities of embodied studies. Early feminist studies made the realist
epistemological assumption that representation was a direct expression of social
reality and/or a potential distortion of that reality. That is, representations of women
reflected male attitudes and constituted misinterpretations of ‘real’ women (see
Tuchman et all, 1978). This is known as the images of women ‘perspective’. However,
later studies informed by post structuralism regard all representations as cultural
constructions and not as reflections signify in the context of social power with what
consequences for gender relations. This exploration of women as a sign ( Cowie,
1978) we may call ‘the politics of representation’.
II. Research Question
1. How are women and men represented in the Kal Ho Na Hoo movie?
2. What roles are assigned to women and men in the Kal Ho Na Ho movie?

III. Analysis
According to Khrisnan and Dighe (1990), the representation of the idealized
woman on Indian television is drawn from traditional Hindu sources which also
provide the ideal moral universe fro popular Hindi movies (Mishra, 1985). Kal Ho Na
Hoo is a movie connoting a symbol of family in which gendered identities appears.
Naina lives with unharmonic family consisting of mother, brother, step sister and
grandmother. From its title, we can predict who is told in that movie. Kal Ho Na Hoo
means tomorrow may never come. Actually, it is for all characters, but specifically it
is pointed to Aman as the major character because he never knows when he dies due
to his serious disease. Kal Ho Na Hoo takes place in Europe, not in Asia. Thus, it
seems to have culture assimilations in the form of costume worn and the habit or
behavior of women and men. The actresses are not similar to the women of India who
mostly wear saree. They wear costumes like western people because they live in
western. The women’s behaviors are also different from the indigenous Indian women.
They tend to be independent by working and studying. They also do not like the match
system in marriage.
Like others movies, It can be called as a happy or an unhappy movie. There
are a friendship between female and man and two sexes who do not know each other,
then love suddenly appears in the relations until love triangle. Finally, one of them
must sincerely forget the one whom he loves. There is a dispute in a family ended by
unity and happiness.
There are some representations of women and men in Kal Ho Na Hoo movie.
Firstly, let us talk Naina acted by Pretty Zhinta. She lives with an unharmonic family
consisting of mother, grandmother, brother and step sister. Becoming the first
daughter who really misses her family’s affection, particularly from her dead father
who does a suicide, truly causes her sad because her grandmother tends to get bad
tempered with them except her little brother. She is imaged as a woman that is
uncheerful, silent, sad, firm, and “unfashionable at the first time”.
The first sight in the movie is Naina sits alone in the bench looking sad and
thinking many things, particularly the suicide of her father because of making affair
and having and an illegitimate daughter. The problem she thinks more is between her
grandmother and mother often getting disputes.
Then, she is imaged as a woman that does not want to get married. She just
thinks all men are like his father making affair with another woman. She dislikes a
marriage by matching, although her grandmother always forces Naina to do so with
the boy matched by her grandmother via match bureau.
From the character, in the first part, Naina is a kind of unfashionable one.
Many of her clothes are black or uncolorful one, although she is represented as an
urban female. It is the fact she never wears saree - a kind of traditional costume of
India or any accessories worn by Indian females like necklaces, rings, bracelets and
etc. She is so simple and natural when there has no a man appealing her. Her urban
side can be seen by her preference to study until post graduate than to marry. She
changes her simple mode to the pretty one when she falls in love with Aman. She likes
wearing feminine dress having bright colors, motives and so on. Her life changes
when a handsome man comes to her life. He is Shah Rukh Khan as Aman loving
Naina at the first sight. Firstly, he is shot as a man cool, happy, unique, handsome, and
other good traits since it can be seen from his action standing on the ship smiling
nicely and breathing the fresh air in the morning enjoy fully. Here, Aman is someone
who can make everyone’s life impressed such as he is able to make Naina and her
family looking so emotional and sad become happy, he has a brilliant thinking to solve
the business of Naina’s mother getting bankrupt, he can match Naina with Naina’s
friendship to be couple, he can make Naina’s friend, Sweetu happy and others.
Besides, the Aman is imaged as the very patient person through his pure intention to
match Naina with Naina’s friendship, though he loves Naina so much. Tragically, he
cannot marry and live with Naina because of the dangerous disease he has.
Secondly, let us analyze the representation of woman from Jennifer, Naina’s
mother. In Kal Ho Na Hoo, Naina’s mother becomes a patient and strong widower.
She is imaged as a wife obeying her husband a lot. She still keeps her belief that
husband is God, although he has cheated her by having a forbidden child with another
woman. She can hide her husband’s mistake from her mother in-law, having a
forbidden child who lives and has been grown by Jennifer. After that, she is the hard
worker because she must live her family. The stereotype constructed through Naina’s
mother is that good wife or daughter in law should love family and obey her husband.
She is loyal to her husband and obeys him without demur like Sita God. She is also
pure and chaste. She does not give her love easily and will win her man over from the
ladies of lesser virtue
Thirdly, we can see Sweetu’s sister. She is imaged as the siren that sexually
lures men to a bad end. She works in the restaurant of Naina’s mother. She always
flirts male customers who come to the restaurant by showing her sexy body. Unluckily
she was refused and insulted by the customers since she has got adult.
Fourthly, let us analyze Sweetu as a Naina’s friendship who wants to have
slender body, but she likes eating. She is similar to her sister who wants to love and
loving by men. She is differently imaged from Naina who dislikes thinking of men,
has beautiful face, more slender body, pale skin and straight hair.
Fifthly is Lajjoji. She is Naina’s grandmother who is really emotional. She is
imaged as the traditional old woman because she is different from Naina, her daughter
in-law, Sweetu’s sister and Sweetu who does not wear saree - the traditional costume
of India. She likes rituality to sing for the God with the other two women, but it is
actually not a song for the God, but for her neighbor Chaddaji who is as old as her.
They fall in love in their menopause age. In the end of the film, she becomes really
friendly and warm to her family and realizes her and her son mistakes.
The last is Camilia as the woman that will be matched to Rohit. She is
imaged as a beautiful material woman. She will marry with Rohit because Rohit is
from a rich family. She refuses to marry with Rohit after Rohit said he wants to live
independently without his mother and father’s inference.
After telling women’s characters, let us move to the man’s character. Because
Aman has been mentioned above, let us talk Rohit’s acted by Syaf Ali Khan. He is
imaged as a rich man that is not so smart as Aman in making a relationship with a
woman. He likes to flirt any beautiful women, but finally he loves Naina and marries
with her. He is not so confident as Aman to show his love to Naina because he is
Naina’s friendship, even he cannot distinguish the good and bad woman to be his wife.
He just sees and appeals to those who look so sexy and beautiful.

IV. Conclusion
There are some constructions between women and men in Kal Ho Na Hoo
movie. Women are represented in two sides, idealized and deviated. Gallagher’s
(1983) survey of women in the media suggests a consistent global depiction of women
as commodified and stereotyped into the binary images of ‘good’ and ‘bad’. For
example, Khrisnan and Dighe (1990) argue that affirmation and denial were the two
main themes evident in their study of the representation of women on Indian
television. The affirmation they describe is of a limited definition of womanhood as
passive and subordinate, that is, being tied to housework, husbands and children. The
denial is of the creativity, activity and individuality of women, particularly in relation
to work and the public sphere.
The idealized women are shown from Naina and her mother characters,
while the deviated characters are like Sweetu, Sweetu’s sister and the woman matched
to Rohit. Naina is ideal because she is beautiful, friendly and other good traits. She has
white skin, slender body, long straight hair, tall body and sharp nose. Jennifer, Naina’s
mother is beautiful, patient, faithful, and so on. Sweetu tends to make a date with men,
Sweetu’s sister is like the siren that lures men to the bad end, and Camilia is like the
bitch so sneaky, cheating and manipulative.
Men are represented as the good one, for example the character of Aman who
is perfectly shown and acted as a man that can fix and solve everything.
Based on Khrisnan and Dighe 1990, there are some attributes of masculinity
and femininity on Indian television. Woman is represented as sacrificing, dependent,
anxious to please, defining the world through family relations, emotional, subordinate,
and maternal. In contrary, man is represented as a self-centered, decisive, self-
confident, seeing a place in the larger world, rationale and conniving, dominant, and
paternal.
 Therefore, from Kal Ho Na Hoo movie, we will know actually male
characters are more perfect than female’s a. Good woman is constructed like Naina
and her mother, in fact, woman still becomes object subordinated by male because
everything done by Naina includes the changing of her appearances and traits is
caused by her falling in love with Aman. It reflects that if woman wants to be loved by
men, please become like Naina. Then, a good man is like Aman who is like light in the
darkness that can make other people cheerful and happy.