As a Kriti Sanon fan, I would like to start a petition: please, let her play a woman who isn’t defined by how desirable, damaged or difficult she is.
This is not an argument against flawed female characters. In fact, Hindi cinema needs more women who are messy, selfish, ambitious, morally complicated, and capable of making terrible decisions. But there is a difference between writing a flawed woman and repeatedly writing a woman whose flaws become her entire personality.And that difference is becoming increasingly important when it comes to Kriti Sanon.
Sanon has always stood out to me because she experiments. Her filmography has never followed a predictable trajectory. She moved from the commercial glamour of Heropanti (2014) to the small-town ambition of Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017). She played a surrogate in Mimi (2021), a character that won her the National Film Award. Then there was Hum Do Hamare Do (2021) and Bhediya (2022), where she plays a werewolf. But her recent trajectory feels boring. Directors have managed to put even her in a template: the hot, complicated, emotionally bruised woman who makes questionable choices.Again, there is absolutely nothing wrong with playing such women. The problem is when the character begins and ends there.Flawed need not be boring
