Chakde India!!

For once it was a welcome change to watch a movie sans the sickening romance, raunchy jokes, double- meaning dialogues and a “sizzling” item number. Chakde India comes as a refreshing change to many of those movie goers who always expect something different from Bollywood’s directors and invariably end up disappointed. With King Khan on screen vouching for the women of India and a bunch of clear underdogs fighting for their rights and to establish their identity, the movie truly rocks. Although programmed to have a fairy tale ending just like any other Bollywood flick and packed with its own bits of melodrama, it is a call to the people of our country in more ways than one. The most obvious being the gross neglect that any sport other than cricket has to suffer in this country. Strange to think that the colonizer’s game has become more popular in the nation rather than our own national game. It is a wake up call to the cricket crazy nation- a reminder that other sports do exist. It is also a reminder of the prejudices existing against women in our society( this is not yet another “feminist” voice speaking for the emancipation of women but an attempt to remind people of the status of women in our nation).

The film clearly portrays what Indian women can do and should do- stand up for themselves. In a country where female foeticide is practiced with impunity (the fact that this is common even among the “educated elite” is surprising), where most girls are denied education as educating the boy is considered more important, where they are even denied proper food, where they cannot marry unless they have a neat kitty (which is never enough) ready for their prospective greedy grooms, where they are denied inheritance rights, where they are still shrouded in the purdah of tradition, where malnourished women give birth to malnourished babies, where they are harassed (on the streets, in the workplace, in buses and trains, and even at home) tortured, raped and murdered and the perpetrators of these crimes walk away coolly, unscathed. All this happens in the largest democracy in the world and hardly a few voices are raised in protest. And even the few who protest are frowned upon and that too by women.

The media that have the power to influence the millions in the country portray women in even worse light. Take movies for instance. Any standard Bollywood movie has a skimpily clad heroine and an even skimpily clad item girl. Take any soap that is telecast on the myriad of channels these days. You have a typical “Bharatiya Nari” who is all suffering and a vamp who is out to get her. Why not show women who can stand up for themselves? Why not show women who fight against the injustice meted out to them? Why not show women who are true embodiments of the rich culture of our country?

We do have successful and strong women in our country- take any field for that matter. Business, politics, sports, art, journalism but the numbers are few. What we need is for women to realize their true potential and come out of the shackles of baseless customs. And we need men who can treat women as their equals rather than as inferiors or commodities. We need more parents who do not consider girl children as burdens rather as assets. We need a society that encourages women to reach greater heights.

Let’s see where the women of India will be in a few decades. As for now… Chakde India!!