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Enough has been already said and written about the movie Zero. But what irked me most was the portrayal of Aafia Yusufzai Bhinder, the leading lady played by Anushka Sharma.
Enough has been already said and written about the movie Zero. Still recovering from the shock of the weird plot (or the lack of it) I, an otherwise die hard SRK fan restrained myself from writing a review on it. But if there is something that irked me more than anything else in this movie, it was the portrayal of Aafia Yusufzai Bhinder, the leading lady played by Anushka Sharma.
Now Anushka is one female lead in Bollywood whom I had always adored for otherwise portraying realistic, strong female characters. If you watch any of her own productions like NH10 or Pari you would applaud her courage as well as the acting. But, somehow whenever a Khan comes into the picture she seem to let down her guard. So here she is, a super intelligent being, a world renowned NASR scientist (a fictionalised depiction of NASA), and a woman with cerebral palsy, who, despite her physical condition is leading the Mars expedition project. Commendable indeed!
Yet, only marriage can complete a woman it seems. So she gets herself listed in some random matrimonial agency. Huh!
Well, then enters our ‘hero’, Babua Singh, a class 8 pass, 4 feet something man, crazy for a wedding, who thinks he deserves nothing less than a quintessential diva. So her pretty face interests the good for nothing fellow who rushes in with a marriage proposal only to back out on seeing her in a wheelchair, stuttering while giving a speech. So what does he do?
Like any sane, good natured guy, he leaves quietly. No! He makes a scene, insults her, calls her names and occasionally sings a song for her. And boom! She falls in love with this rude, classless guy. So much so that when he dumps her after a one night stand she stalks him and arrange a wedding, getting his parents on her side. Not so intelligent after all.
Now comes the best part. Babua Singh again decides to dump her, now at the altar, because he is taking part in a dance competition! And what does she say to stop him? “Mein tera barabar tu meri barabar”(“We are equals.”)
Noooo! An irresponsible, illiterate, jobless man is not equal to an intelligent female scientist even if she has a disability. In a country where people worship Bollywood, such misogyny should stop immediately. It isn’t her fault that she is a woman with cerebral palsy. She does not need to degrade herself to such a demeaning level only to get married. That is not love. It’s insecurity.
Well, the discussion could stop here, but no, the writer had more in store for us. Going forward, it is revealed that Aafia has a suitor in Madhavan, a scientist working with with her on the Mars project. So she gets engaged to him, only to dump him at the altar because she deserves nothing more than Babua Singh, who is now on a space shuttle replacing ‘chimp’ for the Mars expedition!
The film was wrong on so many counts, but, nothing irked me more than the injustice shown to a person suffering from cerebral palsy. In a country where disability is still frowned upon and women still trying hard to get the equal opportunities they deserve, such movies draw us in an even more backward direction.
Grow up Bollywood, it’s high time you start celebrating a woman’s brain, without focussing on the perfect figure.
Sreeparna Sen, Banker by profession, finds her solace in writing. A Computer Engineer by education, she is a voracious reader. When she is not dealing with the loan documents, you can mostly find her nose read more...
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As parents, we put a piece of our hearts out into this world and into the custody of the teachers at school and tuition and can only hope and pray that they treat them well.
Trigger Warning: This speaks of physical and emotional violence by teachers, caste based abuse, and contains some graphic details, and may be triggering for survivors.
When I was in Grade 10, I flunked my first preliminary examination in Mathematics. My mother was in a panic. An aunt recommended the Maths classes conducted by the Maths sir she knew personally. It was a much sought-after class, one of those classes that you signed up for when you were in the ninth grade itself back then, all those decades ago. My aunt kindly requested him to take me on in the middle of the term, despite my marks in the subject, and he did so as a favour.
Math had always been a nightmare. In retrospect, I wonder why I was always so terrified of math. I’ve concluded it is because I am a head in the cloud person and the rigor of the step by step process in math made me lose track of what needed to be done before I was halfway through. In today’s world, I would have most probably been diagnosed as attention deficit. Back then we had no such definitions, no such categorisations. Back then we were just bright sparks or dim.
When Jaya Bachchan speaks her mind in public she is often accused of being brusque and even abrasive. Can we think of her prodigious talent and all the bitter pills she has had to swallow over the years?
A couple of days ago, a short clip of a 1998 interview of Jaya and Amitabh Bachchan resurfaced on social media. In this episode of the Simi Grewal chat show, at about the 23-minute mark, Jaya lists her husband’s priorities: one, parents, two kids, then wife. Then she corrects herself: his profession – and perhaps someone else – ranks above her as a wife.
Amitabh looks visibly uncomfortable at this unstated but unambiguous reference to his rather well-publicised affair with co-star Rekha back in the day.
Watching the classic film Abhimaan some years ago, one scene really stayed with me. It was something Brajeshwarlal (David’s character) says in troubled tones during the song tere mere milan ki yeh raina. He says something to the effect that Uma (Jaya Bhaduri’s character) is more talented than Subir (Amitabh Bachchan’s character) and that this was a problem since society teaches us that men are superior to women.
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