This article was first published in the print edition of Manushi Journal. (Issue-50-52, Jan-Jun 1989)
Gulzar’s film on Mira, made in the late 1970s, and the Amar Chitra Katha comic book Mirabai are typical instances of the image of Mira available today in urban India.
The chief paradox of both versions is that while they seek to portray Mira as a “miracle working saint who resides in her own visionary world, and is more or less oblivious to the actual world, they, at the same time, assault the eye with a plethora of tinselly detail, thus simultaneously vulgarising and mystifying.
This is most evident in the depiction of the person of Mira. Gulzar’s Mira, vapidly played by Hema Malini, is a pink and white baby-faced doll, overdressed, heavily made up, and loaded with jewellery. The Katha Mira is the same— the artist makes her stand in seductive poses, exposing breasts and belly, although after her widowhood, she is shown dressed all in white and divested of jewellery…