If you are looking for vicarious empowerment and sobering reality of sexual violence against women and children in India, then Kajol all-female new YouTube short film about reluctant sisterhood ‘Devi’ hits home.
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#shortfilm #YouTube #India
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NewsTranscript
00:00It's been a good week for women in Bollywood in general.
00:03If Tapsee Pannu gave a searing portrait of misogyny and patriarchy and male entitlement
00:09in her hit film Tappad, then we have Kajol who tries her hand at something different.
00:19Within 13 minutes, Kajol seems to have come up with a sussing tale about nine women,
00:24nine different tales, but their reality is very harsh.
00:28These nine women, who belong to different ages and classes, are rape survivors.
00:33The short film opens with the bickering among nine women about whether they should let an
00:37intruder in. Somebody is ringing their bell, but they already feel that this space is crammed.
00:44You don't know where they are really heading. I mean, at first the story is quite convoluted.
00:48If you stay with it, you realise that these are nine women who have to live with the reality
00:53of being violated and being physically assaulted.
00:56There's this young party girl, played by Shruti Hassan, who says that she was thrown into the
01:01street with a beer bottle rammed into her, or that medical student who was raped and
01:07left for the dead. So these are harsh realities that every Indian woman fears and faces.
01:12In fact, the staggering statistic is very sobering towards the end.
01:16It says that although India is a country that worships its goddesses, we don't treat
01:21women too well because of the violence against them.
01:24Even it talks about statistics such as 100,000 rape cases
01:28are still waiting to be tried in courts. So they are awaiting trial.
01:32It's a sobering reality and Kajol has done a spectacular job
01:36of bringing all these women together. She plays the sane voice.
01:39I mean, she's very responsible and she's trying to calm the women down
01:44because they are already so frustrated being in each other's company.
01:48But the inside may be hell, but the outside is even worse.
01:51So it's a very interesting analogy that the stuffy living room that this movie is set in
01:56is better than what lies outside, the dangers that lurk outside.
02:00You have to remember that this movie is very heavy handed in its tone and it's a bit on the nose.
02:05Sometimes the messaging can be not so subtle,
02:07but that's a tiny blip in an otherwise enjoyable short film.
02:11And here's a big shout out to actors who try to make decent films,
02:17even if it is not the mainstream Bollywood film.
02:19Even within 13 minutes, they drive home the sobering reality
02:23of what it is to live like a woman in India and how unsafe it is for women there.
02:28Watch it. It's got a very interesting clutch of actors as well.
02:32There are seasoned actors like Mukta Barve also thrown into the mix.
02:36Very interesting film. And you know, what we need to do is also,
02:41it may have its flaws. The plotting may be slightly convoluted,
02:45but at the end of the day, the messaging is from the heart.
02:49Do go watch it. It's there on YouTube right now.
02:51So make sure that you go watch Devi.
02:54It's written and directed by Priyanka Banerjee.
02:56So one of the best parts about this movie is that it's set from a female gaze
03:00and not the usual male gaze.
03:02So go watch it and let me know what you think of it.