South Asia's Shame : RAPE

When I was a kid for me “Rape” was something bad that a villain would do to a “heroine” in a typical Bollywood drama. I knew that it was bad and in one occasion when I had asked my mother, she simply said “it is a bad bad thing”. It was only when I was in grade 7; I was told by one of my favourite teacher in the school that Rape is basically a forceful sexual assault and can happen to anyone. Back then source of information were very limited and internet access was rare too. It was more difficult to understand these kinds of subjects which nobody was comfortable talking about. We have come a long way but still our society seems to be threat to our kids and women. This is my introspection and the way I have seen and experienced recent uprising against "Rape"

In recent times, the term “RAPE” is widely been discussed at many forums and many outrage have taken place with some horrific cases been reported but sadly nothing seems to move and to add fuel to the fire with recent gang rape in India’s maximum city, it has become a furore.

Rape is not confined to any country, nation or geography. Delhi is unsafe or Mumbai is safe these are nothing but just a myth of ignorance, problem is deep within our mindset and values which has been a part of our social establishment for many years. Sex is a topic that we do not talk about. When a kid desires to know about “Where did I come from” or “How did I come”, towards puberty when questions arise with regards to sexual urge, attraction, excitement, masturbation and many such things our society opts not to talk about it. The ignorance of keeping it a restricted topic leads to many acts that take place in various situations where kids get sexually abused by their relatives or even strangers which never gets reported and is never spoken; it remains within the person as a trauma for rest of her/his life.

Kids do not realize how they are getting assaulted. Penetration is one of way to abuse but what about forcible act of rubbing or touching and many of our kids are victimized on these grounds? These issues are never reported and spoken just because parents have made it sound it is a forbidden word or topic to talk about and hence children do not come out to report it. Children’s are our future; do we educate them in a right manner?  Keeping our ignorance and denial aside about “nothing will happen to my child” and until this is fixed our society will never be safe for our children’s.

Now we come to the hot topic about our government, laws and institution. One thing for sure is, entire sub continent functions in a very “Chalte hai” attitude. Rape is just seen as a forbidden crime. 95% such cases do not get reported due to social stature or fear of getting bullied from the force that are politically and financially sound. There have been hundreds of cases which were highlighted by the media, enough were reported yet, many convicts bailed through. Shame!

Today Law itself has become a privileged service, people are scared of approaching to police and reporting because after its reported victim and the family gets emotionally raped, then why to even report and invite a situation, this is where a million dollar question lands? And unfortunately our judiciary takes ages to go through a case and provide justice to humanity and by the time a verdict is taken the damage is unimaginable.

As I write I don’t know, where should the correction start from? , I doubt if this will ever be corrected. Problem starts from home, family, relatives, society, law, government and the entire establishment and we have no idea where this problem will end. It has eaten us up so badly that we are swallowed inside a dirty nasty stomach. 

Review: B.A Pass

As a person I am against the term “Judgemental” but when it comes to movie, we all do make assumptions by looking at it’s trailers, posters or analysing the star cast, name of the production house, director and the list goes on depending on one’s personal depth of knowledge about entertainment and cinema.

Most importantly we pay for it and as a middle class consumer we strongly believe in “Value for money”. When I first came across to the poster of B.A Pass where I spotted Shilpa Shukla and numerous accolades gathered in various international film festivals, it seemed that it is not an ordinary movie. For past few months there has been series of good movies and I had never felt so good going to the theatres and coming back getting surprised on every visit that I paid. When I first looked at the trailer my reaction was Oh! Boy.. And I told myself, no matter what reviews does it get, I am up for Ajay Bahl’s B.A Pass.

It wasn't planned but I landed up in one of the cheesiest sleazy theatres in south Mumbai. It was after many years I had been to a vintage one screen primitive theatre, its exterior’s looked awful and crowd could be differentiated from regular  high street multiplexes. It appeared to me that the poster and trailer made quite an impact as it was crowded, people from various age groups starting doubtfully 18 to couples in their early 50’s were present. As I enter the auditorium, I had a chill looking at the ravaged chairs and damp smell which hypothetically looked more like RGV horror film sets. A man guided us to our seat with the help of a torch light. I timidly make myself comfortable or atleast I pretended but surely I wasn’t sure I am going to make through the entire show. Thank god! My chair was clean and I prayed as I did not wanted rats or crawlers running over me. Slowly theatre is houseful. Boy’s right out of their puberty make galore of noise and other grown up gangs hush hush them which more sounded like angry snakes making noise, not less than adventure, silver screen lightens up and the show begins.

B.A Pass is an official adaptation from book “The Railway Aunty” written by Mohan Sikka. Screen play by Ritesh Shah, and directed by Ajay Bahl. On the Main leads were Chak De girl, Shilpa Shukla, Shadab Kamal, Rajesh Sharma and Dibyendu Bhattacharya. Now did I had a judgement about this movie, answer is yes! I was not sure how the translation would take place on screen for such a bold subject, but I was hopeful.

Shilpa Shukla’s role may have been very demanding performing bold and sensuous scenes, she fitted rightly to the character, where she is able to justify the crude, sexy, horny character as portrayed by Mohan Sikka. As story progresses movie is not sleazy, It is not cheesy even though scenes where shadab and Shilpa are seen in an hot, intimate action but nowhere they looked uncanny. Story revolves around the dark aspect of life. It’s not a story of Railway Aunty but is a story of a boy whose destiny had changed in an incident where he loses his both the parents. Whether you call it a bad luck or a bad destiny, his journey will take one through some of the darkest non spoken facts about the Indian society. Formation of our values and belief systems in our society which are so hollow that when it comes to real life terms they appear tragic and how it changes the course of path for one poor individual in its most tragic form.

Shadab has lived up to every bit of Mukesh, he tells you what pain he has deep within him, which he fights back at every occasion. Not a rebellious of nature but he appears to be a soldier, but a soldier who is been in captivate of an unknown enemy. It worsens when he realises that everybody were his enemy but it was too late then for him to realise. If you actually look at it, this movie will make you sad, but at the same time it will awaken you stating how life is full of unprecedented events, how blood relations get powerless over money, how worse money could be to a mankind and how helpless one can be and all we can do is to fight back at every minute until the breath stops! Leading to an orderly silence as it all ends.

As movie ended, lot of audience looked surprised, apart from few claps and whistles while a man and women were steaming in action, they surrendered to heart touching story and were glued to the pain that was shown. Once again a great watch, the only spoiler for me if it had more refinement when it comes to storytelling ability. Shilpa is great at her work but this new bloke Shadab was the show stealer. With 3.5***, I suggest you to watch this incredible story, a unspoken and unexplored truth of our society which I am sure doesn't only exists in Paharganj or Delhi’s Railway colony.