INDIAN FILMS ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE!

Karan Johar and the entire Indian film industry were up in arms recently when being accused of the fact that the item numbers in movies were responsible for rapes and the general abuse of women in our country.  Agreed, it is up to each individual to not get carried away by the content shown in films and also the RIGHT to not buy a ticket to watch the movies we are offended by. Uh, huh but filmmakers playing safe and shying away from any kind of moral responsibility for the way films have encouraged or upheld women being objectified in our country is no good too.

Here's my account of how and where Indian films objectify women and are also equally to blame for male machismo and violence. To be fair to all, wherever possible, I am using recent movies as an example for each of the points below. I am not even going south - where heroes are considered the very avatars of the God Almighty himself, let's just talk about the recent Hindi movies, so our film makers will get off their high horses regarding "women empowered" movies they are making:

1. Let's start with item numbers - Item numbers themselves are not wrong, but how they are perceived and projected in the movie is. Don't all films glorify the men that are leering or being macho with the females in these songs? Most often, isn't it the male lead who is being flirtatious and all 'touchy-feely'  with the female character in question? Isn't it that when there is an item number with men, women around are rarely shown as lusting after the man, while inevitably IT IS ALWAYS THE OTHER WAY AROUND. MOVIES: Agneepath, Dabangg 1 & 2 etc
2. Again, with items numbers, is a rationale offered behind the item songs? Compare item songs in 'Dabangg' and that in 'Chandni Bar' or any of our yesteryear star Helen's movies. In most, if not all movies, Helen was a character in the films she did item numbers in and the most beautiful, evergreen and melodious songs were filmed on her. Does the picturization suggest that a girl is doing dirty dancing for her livelihood or that she just drops from heaven to give the 'hard-working, social do-gooder' hero a GOOD TIME? MOVIES: Agneepath, Dabangg 1 & 2 etc
3. In MOST of our films, isn't it an important scene, where the males give a morality lecture to the female of what is socially acceptable and why - like "..Children are 'God's gift' and you cannot abort", "You cannot be haughty or selfish - put your family first, listen to your elders even if they are unreasonable, narrow minded old cows", "..you cannot wear dresses you like  else...." MOVIES: Aitraaz, Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham etc
4. Some filmi stereotypes of women - If they are career minded, they are always portrayed as selfish, haughty, frigid and sometimes even unscrupulous. If they are sisters or mothers to the hero, they are always dressed traditional with their heads bowed down - all sister characters are not looked upon kindly if they fall in love, wear short dresses or abandon their hypocrite, male chauvinistic husbands. After a female character gets married almost always the dress code undergoes a drastic change. The MOTHER IN LAW is always projected to be interfering, loud, heartless and downright BITCHY.
5. Most often a woman is showed as being stupid or opinion-less, her only purpose in life being falling in love with the hero, making his home and getting the social activist hero to bed. MOVIES: Singham, RACE 1, 2 and every other sequel I am sure, Ajab Prem ki Gazab Kahani
6. Aren't only the males offered the right to infidelity, two-timing, flirtatiousness and promiscuousness, while it is portrayed in an entirely different light when it comes to females? MOVIES: Cocktail, Gangster
7. Isn't stalking, wooing, eve teasing all portrayed as perfectly rational and in fact a man's birth right in most Indian movies? MOVIES: Dabangg, Kal Ho Na Ho
8. Almost always, why aren't WOMEN in Indian films ever allowed to slap a guy or reprimand a man no matter what he does, whilst all men in films are 'slap-happy', their bravado is in fact measured by it. Well you know what they say, 'Indian NAARIS should know their sabyata'.
9. Why aren't women on screen allowed to take decisions on abortion, child birth, even marriage? Why are they always shown to be right and happy to leave such decisions to the family/the man? MOVIES: Aitraaz, Hum Aapke Hain Koun,
10. And, Mr Karan Johar, what is the whole brouhaha over weddings in all your films? Ever been to a real wedding - ever seen the omnipresent tension and unnecessary hardships borne by the couple's families. Its time you understand that 'marriage' and 'wedding' are two different things - get off your high horse as a pious torchbearer of Indian culture, by glorifying BIG FAT INDIAN weddings IN ALL YOUR FILMS. Please!
11. Aren't most 'hit' pictures about the 'boy's family accepting girl and vice-versa and everybody struggling by hook or crook to get 'liked' by each other's families. Why is being 'liked' such a BIG DEAL in our movies? MOVIES: You name it - SRK became King Khan acting in a host of those.
12. Do most of our films even warrant women characters or are they simply eye and arm candy? Why do we have three heroines in the movie RACE 2, when you are scratching your head as to why at least two of them are not even needed in the plot? Is it about keeping employment stats in the film industry high?
13. Does a scene picturized on a woman intend to capture her cleavage, her curves and her shapely bottoms or her personality and her role in the overall plot?
14. Don't all films mistake vulgarity, force, lust and male chauvinism for sex, passion and sensuality?
15. Aren't all films based on physical appearances and what you can do if you are beautiful and what a total failure you are if you are not? Don't films just make us cringe at our imperfect bodies, natural looks and tanned faces?
16. And how do we portray rape survivors in movies - as outcasts or as bravehearts, as tainted or as normal? Don't we show in our films that it is the end of the world for rape survivors, that men are doing a 'favor' by marrying them or 'accepting' them?

And, yes, we have the right to not buy a ticket to watch a 'Chikni Chameli', but God save us, if even seemingly thinking actors peg their otherwise not so bad movies' success to a seedy item number, in the name of commerce and entertainment. What's the difference between the policeman who bribed a victim's family to push the crime under the carpet and these so called film makers - isn't everybody just saving their ass?

Dear Filmmakers - Don't wash your hands off of these depictions of women in the garb that films ape society - the society is what you and I are made of. Don't think you can dish up any cock and bull stuff and imagine you are being creative and realistic and so cannot be held accountable or responsible. Well, if you think you are entitled to make films objectifying women, please also remind us, while promoting your films that the content in your film may be offensive and that we have the RIGHT to not watch your movie. If nothing else, atleast have the decency to keep your mouth shut and not talk about women and women's rights and how films have nothing to do with what is happening in the country.