She’d be on nobody’s Best-Dressed lists nor anybody’s Most Fashionable Celebrity roster either. She said she didn’t care and we believed her. She stuck her finger up and tight-slapped anyone who concerned themselves with her weight, her height or the size of her forehead. Here is the girl whose giggles matched her gumption. But suddenly, Sonakshi Sinha is the new black. The clever young lady’s super-stylish turn with her new bob is a surefire headturner.
Thanks to her debut role of an Indian housewife opposite Salman Khan in the blockbuster film Dabangg, Sinha’s next few years were chalked out for her. Every film of hers had her essay the same part — long hair, Indian clothes, coy and submissive — so much so that her father, the actor and BJP member Shatrughan Sinha, commended her for her ‘Indianness’ and ‘homeliness’.
But Sinha’s too young and too cool for all that. Before you could say “Prabhudheva”, the madam showed up with a short crop showing off her tevar, her real style. And that’s a makeover to end all makeovers.
Sinha is suddenly fashion’s newest darling. Her jackets with jeans look chic-er, her bare shoulders are now sexier.
She was brave enough to pull off a dhoti-style jumpsuit for an appearance on Comedy Nights with Kapil Sharma, the newest red carpet I’m told.
Short hair is a political statement. Historically, women have worn their hair long. Shorter hair was a sign of modernity, of a woman who was ‘advanced’ in her lifestyles. Of course patriarchy hates it. Do you know any man who says I like short hair on a woman? Men, Indian men more so, love their ladies with long hair and traditional roles.
Short hair suggests the woman wants to play the ‘man’; of course it is threatening.
International celebrities have for long sported the bob — Victoria Beckham’s is the most popular. But Rihanna, Charlize Theron, Katie Holmes and even Beyonce have worn the bob recently. Anne Hathaway’s pixie-cut won her a personality. But Tuthmosis, a popular columnist who has been covered by The Huffington Post, The Daily Mail and Cosmopolitan, recently wrote ‘Girls With Short Hair Are Damaged’, a piece that received over two lakh interactions on Facebook. “Short hair is a near-guarantee that a girl will be more abrasive, more masculine, and more deranged.” Of course he was trolled.
A hat-tip to Anuskha Sharma in PK too. A woman saddled with a name like Jagatjanini would surely have a haircut that screams “I’m normal”. So her choice of short hair is a wink at modernity. But what a poor wig. Sharma’s button-cuteness would have pulled off a bob or a pixie with such spunk. And finally there would be a leading lady with a crop who isn’t maladjusted (Parineeti Chopra in Hasee Toh Phasee), or a tomboy (Kajol in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai). She would be just anybody.
