Sometimes, you need a very good fight to succeed

Ahh, what a week it was. Of the many prides of Mumbai is Laadli, an initiative by the NGO Population First. It is an organisation that has emerged from speaking about the rights of the girl child to addressing factors that stunt their birth and growth — the larger issue of patriarchy.

Laadli celebrated its 12th birthday with an event called ‘Lights Camera Patriarchy’ at the Screen Writers Association’s office in Andheri in Mumbai last week. There was a tsunami of feminists and screen writers at the event — big enough to engulf Mr Patriarchy. The idea was to debate and discuss the role of screenwriters and dialogue writers in spreading misogyny. A series of film clips were shown and the audience held placards that read “homophobia”, “rape culture” and a dozen other words to state what the clips propagated.

These roles may have emerged from the screenwriter or dialogue writer’s imagination, but actors have what it takes to pull the strings and say a loud no to scenes that depict women or LGBTQI persons in a bad light. For instance, Akshay Kumar, who is now riding the new moral high horse of equality, given that he is married to one of the most intelligent persons, is the king-kong of patriarchal dialogues. His shoulders are rich enough to bear the weight of a hundred crore film project, agreed to kiss Kareena Kapoor to teach her a lesson. My friend, Aamir Khan, didn’t think twice when he said “todenge iska gurur hum” in Dil. Of course he apologised profusely later (after a whole generation had danced to the tune of patriarchy).

However, where is the intelligence of female actors for standing up for causes that they say they champion? Of course, Priyanka Chopra is India’s pride and she says the right things at the right events. But where did she suddenly lose her grace, when she was shown as falling from grace after sleeping with a ‘black’ man in Fashion? She is the most intelligent heroine, people say. Which garden did her empathy go to when she agreed to do that part? She has lived in America, but couldn’t muster the courage to say no to that part then? The script writer of Fashion, Anuraadha Tewari, was a co-panelist at the event and she clarified that the ‘black’ part was not a part of her script.

So yes, screenwriters need to write good stories. Ad makers need to make good ad films. And most importantly, we, the nation, need to up our game and stop consuming such films. Only tar hi, homophobia aani misogyny wipe out honaar. At least to a large extent, honaarach.

(Activist Harish Iyer shares his entertaining adventures through Mumbai’s landscape)

SPEAK UP

Write to sexualitydna@gmail.com to tell us how you feel about this column.