Long before ‘Heeramandi', Batalvi gave the world ‘Loona'

Time of India

4 days ago

Chandigarh: At a time when web series like Heeramandi, Made in Heaven, and Saas Bahu aur Flamingo are making headlines for centering rebellious, complex women, one Punjabi poet had already done it, nearly 60 years ago.
On the birth anniversary of Shiv Kumar Batalvi, it's worth revisiting Loona, the epic verse play that earned him the Sahitya Akademi Award at just 31, youngest till now, and challenged the way generations viewed women in folklore.
Loona is based on the Punjabi legend of Puran Bhagat, a prince turned saint. In the traditional telling, Loona is a young stepmother who tries to seduce Puran, and when he refuses, she falsely accuses him of misconduct.
The king, her husband and Puran's father, has him exiled and mutilated. Loona has, for generations, remained the archetype of an immoral woman, a scheming seductress.
But Batalvi flipped the narrative. In his telling, Loona is not a villain but a victim — a young girl married off to an ageing king Salwan, living a life she never chose. Her attraction to Puran is not sin but yearning. Her rage is not evil but trauma. Rather than glorify her, Batalvi indicts the society that condemned her for feeling, for desiring, for speaking.
by Taboola
by Taboola
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Retired associate professor Manjit Kaur, who wrote a PhD thesis titled Puran, Loona and the Psychology of Punjab, calls Loona a rare example in Punjabi literature where a woman's desire itself becomes an act of protest.
"Puran protests by renouncing the world and turning to yog. But Loona protests by refusing to silence her longing," Kaur said. "In Punjabi society, we often see the spiritual man as a rebel, but a desiring woman is called immoral.
Shiv turned that upside down."
According to her, Loona challenged the psychological and cultural frameworks of Punjab long before such themes entered mainstream writing or cinema. The idea that a woman could want something, or someone, and not be punished for it was radical in 1965. Today, it's become the emotional and political core of many popular shows and films. In Heeramandi, Sanjay Leela Bhansali presents courtesans as women with agency, navigating patriarchy with their own power.
Made in Heaven peels back the layers of modern Indian weddings to expose how women are still expected to conform, sacrifice, or stay silent. Saas Bahu aur Flamingo breaks the mold of the "ideal woman" altogether.