Mona Lisa Smile

“Look beyond the Image”, is the central idea or theme of the movie Mona Lisa Smile. Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts) is the new Arts History teacher at Wellesley College, in Massachusetts USA in the America of 1950s. Wellesley was a very conservative all girls college for the liberal arts. Katherine Watson did not believe that role of a woman in their society was just to be a loyal wife and a caring mother. She was unmarried at 30 in those days. She wanted to live life by her rules and make a good career, before she got married. Once when a student asked her that why she was not married even when she had been in relationships with men in past, she said that “every relation is not meant to end up in marriage.” She was rebellious in nature and in her beliefs, which were more modern than the age in which she lived.

She tried to open up the minds of her young students and make them aware that there is much more to life than just being a just wife or a mother. She wanted to enlighten them about their roles beyond the accepted societal norms and show them the importance of achieving economic stability before marriage. She used Art History to communicate her ideology to her students.

The film Mona Lisa Smile urges it’s viewers to look beyond the conventional image of woman as home maker. The character of Betty asks a question by the end of the movie to her mother, who was a firm believer of the society rules. She shows her a painting of Mona Lisa and asks her, that ‘just because she is smiling in the painting, does it mean that she is really happy’? A question that should be asked is when we push ourselves, beyond our limits, to become that perfect Super-Woman shown in some xyz commercial, whether the lady who with a broad smile says “It Works!” becomes truly happy just because IT WORKS? And all men should ask a question to themselves whether their wife, mother, sister or daughter who struggle everyday to strike a balance between career and home is actually happy when she smiles and says “I managed it…”?

How much so ever we declare and believe ourselves to be a part of a modern society in India, we do not treat men and women equally, and the real picture is quite different. We need more Katherine Watsons in our society to shake the young girls out of the slumber and open their minds to new horizons in life. We need to make the men understand that a house becomes a home not only by the efforts of the female partner but by the joint efforts of husband and wife. Mona Lisa need not just smile but also be happy from within...

We don’t need Super-Women here, like our advertisements tell us, we just need a woman who has equal rights and to work outside her home as well as get support from her spouse in running the house to make it their home, ‘Sweet Home’!