Ranting of a mind

I have been for a while now, confused, most people go through some format of identity crisis, if you can call it that, and people should once in a while look inside their own selves. It is considered a healthy way of living.  And when you do try and figure out who you are, you also end up trying to understand what you support, like or dislike.

Being a woman, a human, a city dweller I have a lot on my mind, which rattles inside that skull of mine, being an entrepreneur doesn’t help it either. Having very strong opinions about all things in life most definitely eggs on the rattling.

And I have never had normal err balanced emotions, ever since I was young, ever since I can remember I always feel everything in extreme, highest of highs, lowest of lows and those anger tantrums. Well that’s just me, I mean the real me. So whenever I do try and keep an even keel on things I have failed and miserably so, but sometimes I do succeed, but that’s talk for another day.

Today was not a day for the keeping it cool – so to say.

I had watched the trailer of “The world before her” I was to be honest genuinely intrigued, I watch enough documentaries to know how most of these things shape up. But this trailer showed a contrast of things which I wanted to know more about. And when a friend called and said lets watch it they are playing it at PVR , I rose to the occasion of watching a docu on a mall screen as against a small screen I usually get to watch docus on and also I would get a big tub of caramel popcorn [ well that’s a must ].

This movie I later found out was directed by Nisha Pahuja , it is a Canadian documentary film released in 2012. So when I get to see it, which is a week after the Badaun rape, a few weeks after the BJP landslide victory, when the whole nation is talking and I mean cynicism at its peak on all fronts, when people can’t see the difference between doctored video clippings, assaults, Hindutva talks etc this seems like the juiciest time for such a release. Controversies in the air and such a movie comes out.

A docu can and usually is made on a topic, we cant expect them to cover everything under the subject, but one has a responsibility to convey the message with as much less bias as possible, especially when it is called a docu. Unfortunately for Indians the number of movies that reach other countries is very less, even though a lot of good cinema happens here, so people sitting outside of here and viewing have to rely on the information given to them through media. When movies like this come out at such a time [ I am not sure of the release dates elsewhere in the world ] it is sure to cause a lot of hungama.

What it shows is this “Supposed” contrast between – a hindu fundamentalist group of women training to save Hindu culture ways of life as against the Bikini clad women walking the ramp with confused ideals, pathetic accent, miss led parents and such. Being from a middle class South Indian background I barely see this as either an apt analogy or even the right things to be pitched against each other. It looks more like the best juiciest thing to make a docu about and rest the achieving of the accolades not on the research or hard work , intellect or talent but on the sheer juiciness of the subject.

What was it trying to say? Because both these topics are so different from each other they don’t even make opposites as such. It is like me making a docu on the tribes of Amazon and pitching it against a multi millionaires life style in Calcutta.

Another problem “I” have, as in a Tarantino loving, independence loving girl who does not on any lines believe in women being vulnerable for an instant, the problem I have is when you do show women learning some form of self defence it is either shown in this way – where they train under some extreme fundamentalists, or they are shown like in the movie “Gulaab Gang” where they jump trucks and act weird and talk funny finally achieving nothing. Where is the representation of the Real thing, the Indian women – if that is what you want to talk about. Then there is the question of the feministic values where somehow here in India [ as I don’t know the actual scene elsewhere ] has become a SERIOUS topic as in no jokes allowed, these people take their FEMINISM SERIOUSLY , so you aren’t allowed to crack a joke, laugh or be jovial. Because these topics are SERIOUS. So for me tomorrow if I ever made a movie simple trick , put a few slums in place, get a few transgender people to talk about their lives then suddenly talk some DEEP Feministic stuff and I can walk home with a lot of awards , money and fame. Cool shit.

And also as we are on this topic of feminism I really do hope women and men and everyone gets it right. Because feminism aint about hating men, feminism aint about sitting in a soft leather clad sofa wearing a cotton sari never having witnessed any such suppression or oppression in life talking high and mighty of the goddess within and talking nasty about men, it is really just about equality and rights to such, in a place where it is needed. Having a SERIOUS mind set about it won’t make you a hero – whoops sorry a heroine, and a little bit of humour is SERIOUSLY needed in this society as of now.

With the fear that I might rant on till the end of next year, I stop myself and hope to see much more balanced times, films and such with a lighter note. Now I can wash the scent of the movie away with a re-watch of Death Proof [ that’s the cool kinda feminism anyways] – well that’s a joke – and if you cant get jokes, this isn’t the blog you should be reading.

Parinitha Konanur