Ten days back, I saw the Tamil movie 'Shivaji' played on video. Two girls - both very dear to me - giggled through scenes of Rajni and his 'mama' Vivek 'girl-hunting.'To see two bright and sensible young teenaged girls watching two ragamuffins catcalling girls, commenting on their looks, classifying them as 'bulldozers' or 'figures' drove me crazy. How can one possibly sit through this nonsense and watch women being insulted and humiliated so grossly?
To watch women being identified and classified merely by their physical attributes, to listen to them being referred to again and again as 'figures', almost stripping them off their personhood was pretty revolting.
While they toy with women, and incessantly spout sexually-loaded innuendoes, our 'heroes' have no qualms about seeking female companions soaked in 'Tamil culture and tradition'. In our Tamil movies, women are expected to be imbued with culture, modesty and traditional virtues and values, even as men retain the privilege and right to be uncultured boorish stone age types. The more uncultured and unshaven, the more macho a man is supposed to be - the more his capacity to charm the cultured 'figure'.
How much longer must we take this tripe?
How much longer will half the population be insulted just to entertain the other half?
How many more decades will pass before our movies portray our women differently, giving them the respect due to a fellow being?
And how can our bright young women actually go to the movies, watch femalehood insulted in every scene and come away unaffected?
How much more time before our young women refuse to watch movies that commodify women? How much longer before our actresses refuse to play commodities?
When can we hope to instate the intellect and cognition as attributes of females, never mind whether their uncultured stone age companions possess these attributes?
Must the words 'mindless' and 'entertainment' always go together in our country? Can't entertainment be mindful of intelligent, sensitive and cultured audiences?
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