“Abhi Toh Main Jawan Hoon” (For I am forever young): Reflections on the agentic cinematic presence of Zohra Sehgal in British Indian films

Abstract

ABSTRACT Representations of older women in film and media have reiterated the negative stereotypes of age-induced incapacitation and loss of voice and agency. However, actor Zohra Sehgal, hailed as the “grand old lady of Bollywood”, re-engages with the normative construct of the passive/submissive screen characterization of an older female. Sehgal’s remarkable performances in The Jewel in the Crown (1984), Bhaji on the Beach (1993), and Bend It Like Beckham (2002) highlight the silenced realities of older women within the diasporic space in terms of desire, autonomy, and choice. In British cinema, where the subjectivities of South Asian older individuals (particularly women) were seldom acknowledged, Sehgal’s on-screen presence challenged and overturned marginalization based on age and ethnicity. Through the paradigm of active/successful ageing, this article argues that the politics of gendered representation and ageing have been recontextualized in British Indian diasporic films to reflect on a positive embodiment of Indian older women.