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Amazon Prime is streaming Thappad since last weekend and I finally watched it and learnt some lessons from these four women. This is why I loved them.
So I watched Thappad as soon as I found out it was streaming on Amazon Prime. I wanted to know if she really wanted a divorce simply because he slapped her once? Hell yeah! Is that how marriages work? Well, marriages don’t always work, do they?
I’m not a movie reviewer or any reviewer, but here’s my take on four women from Thappad and why I found them amazing.
Amrita was one of the very few women who admit that they chose to be homemakers. How often do we see women blaming the man of their life for everything? Amrita didn’t. She refused alimony and share of property, because she never ran ‘his house.‘ She thought of it as hers.
I could write a whole article appreciating her, but my favourite thing about her was her sincerity. She was sincere to her parents, to her lawyer, to her in-laws and, most importantly, to herself.
How often do we pride on the Indian family system and compare it to the western culture, where families don’t stand long? Well, now you know why Indian families are always together.
Because, when the woman gets beaten, hurt, molested and belittled, she chooses family over her own self. Thank you Amrita, for not following this injustice which we keep dispensing ourselves with.
“Karti kya hai yeh?”
This dialogue shows how strong she is. A man is envious of her and chooses the most common thing – demean her success. That’s enough to show how successful she is.
When asked to speak in the court, she could easily admit she didn’t see him slap her. That would probably make her a good neighbour, but not a good mother.
Don’t be stunned, “Oh her husband beats her so much!” We all know Sunita didis. Don’t we all know women who are beaten by their husbands for no fault? When Sunita didi said that they were probably not having kids because of the husband, we should’ve whistled. Because she was the hero in that scene.
She endured violence daily. And what did she do? She was dodging it, with her smart ideas. Did she once ask why was it normalised? No. Because, Indian women aren’t raised to ask. They are raised only to keep the family together.
One fine morning, Sunita didi got up and decided enough was enough. That was it for her husband. She was an working woman who didn’t need a man to live. Still, she faced horrific impudence every night, only because of the damn phrase “keeping the family together.”
While fighting Amrita’s case, she understood her fate wasn’t very different from that of Amrita. Both had self-centred husbands who thought that their families, their careers and their money was the world.
Throughout the movie Netra’s husband keeps dismissing her success saying that she got it because of her background. So Netra had to remove that background. She couldn’t “keep the family together” with a man who thought she was his servant and living in his philanthropy.
Thappad is not about “for one slap she filed for a divorce.”
It is also about what happened after the slap. He justified it by citing problems in his career. If a woman slapped her husband in a fit of rage. Imagine?
He even dared to tell her “ab bas hogaya khatam karo yeh.” So it is done when the man thinks it is done? Even if she is emotionally disturbed? A man doesn’t get to control for how long his wife, or any woman, feels bad.
To “keep the family together,” women are not even allowed to be hurt. They should stay at their in-laws place, smile, and pretend nothing happened.
It is about a woman’s respect. Beating a wife regularly is disrespect. Slapping her once is also disrespect. Insulting her verbally is also disrespect.
Thappad is actually a tight thappad to all those men who think they can behave with their wife as per their moods and the poor lady will comply. To the men who think they have power to do whatever they please, and correct it whenever they please.
Picture credits: Stills from the movie Thappad
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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