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Ira of Old Is Gold joined us for a long—and we mean looong—conversation about iconic female characters in Hindi cinema. In this introductory segment, we discuss a few fictional filmi women who are icons to us, as well as cinematic iterations of the Bharatiya Nari ("Indian woman," for our non-Hindi-speaking friends). Future segments will move roughly chronologically through the twentieth century and into today's films, investigating memorable and representative female characters like Fearless Nadia, Radha of Mother India, Bobby, and Simran.The opening music in this episode is courtesy of Paresh of the Curry Smugglers. As you will hear, it's a clip of a mix of MIA's "Galang" and "Mehbooba Mehbooba" from Sholay. According to Paresh, it's "from a bootleg by a DJ named Sunit out of parts unknown. It's the only remix that MIA has blessed on the bootleg circuit, probably because of its inherent coolness factor."You can listen to Masala Zindabad: Female Icons by clicking the player above, subscribing to our feed, on iTunes or downloading here. The upcoming parts of this series are here:• 2: Fearless Nadia, Chhoti Bahu, Sujata• 3:  Mother India, Seeta, Geeta, and Bobby• 4: Chandni, Simran, Geet – and Sid wakes up