But a few films in this course completely altered the narrative around these characters and revealed a range of other faces to this woman, who can occasionally utilise her frail characteristics to shift the trajectory of events.

Here is a round-up of such characters who eventually leveraged their frailty to their favor.

1. Badru in Darlings 

Darlings, starring Alia Bhatt, is a recent Netflix release that nobody can stop talking about. The movie, which centres on a couple and their abusive marriage, shows what happens when the victim turns into the perpetrator. The character of Badru, played by Bhatt, who endures frequent physical and mental abuse from her husband as well as gaslighting, ultimately sees his hideous visage. She pursues her own vengeance but employs her cluelessness as a shield to keep herself safe.

2. Jaya in Good Luck Jerry 

Another recently released movie was Good Luck Jerry, a Hindi remake of a Tamil thriller starring Janhvi Kapoor. The actor portrays an innocent girl from Bihar who is fighting to survive in the strange city of Punjab among men who are trying to subdue her. They believe her to be a harmless young girl who is woefully ignorant, but she completely changes the narrative by putting each of them in their right places one at a time.

3. Krishna in Ishqiya 

Krishna, played by Vidya Balan, defied conventional concepts of a “defenseless woman” and blurred the distinction between a protagonist and an antagonist. Krishna owns her sexuality and flips the game on the masculine gaze with almost zero docility and tremendous expressiveness. She recognises her strength in this situation and isn’t hesitant to utilise it to her advantage.

4. Isha in Gupt 

Bobby Deol and Kajol played the main characters in Gupt, one of Bollywood’s best known thrillers. Isha takes matters into her own hands and clears her path after realising that the class gap is endangering her relationship. While female characters have mostly simply wept in those kinds of scenarios for years, this movie depicts just how deadly a woman can become.

5. Susanna in 7 Khoon Maaf 

In the movie 7 Khoon Maaf, Priyanka Chopra plays an Anglo-Indian woman named Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes who murders all of her husbands. Susanna makes an effort to find love, but her husband’s faults end up being deadly six out of seven times. The on-screen stereotype of an abla naari and loving wife, which is frequently shown in Hindi movies, is broken by her character as she searches for the purest kind of love.

6. Nimmi in Maqbool 

Vishal Bhardwaj directed this Hindi adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, which is a noteworthy Bollywood noir film. Even while every character in the movie is fascinating in their own right, Tabu’s is a particularly alluring one. She barely steps forward to carry out the plan while she and her lover plot to murder her husband. Very cunningly, she serves as both the catalyst for the plan and its protector.

7. Diana in Ek Thi Daayan

The film centres on a young boy named Bobo who is terrorised by a woman named Diana, who is either or not a Daayan, which is Hindi for witch. Konkona Sen Sharma, who portrays Diana, completely steals the show as a fascinating and mysterious character. She appears to be delectably wicked on film as a new woman in the life of the child’s widowed father.

8. Vidya in Kahaani 

There is a great deal of danger and a fair bit of pity for a pregnant woman searching for her missing husband in an unknown city. Vidya, the movie’s lead female character, makes use of any compassion she receives for her predicament to plot her retribution. Even though she barely qualifies as the main suspect, she ends up being the mastermind behind the entire scheme.

9. Madhvi in Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster

Speaking of utilizing her own passions and sexuality as a weapon of choice, Madhvi in this criminal thriller masterfully employs them to her advantage. While female characters are frequently placed in precarious situations for the same reason, she has complete control over both her mind and body and makes effective use of both.