Today I had the extreme pleasure of stumbling upon the trailer of a new Hindi movie called “Veere di Wedding”. What a happenstance! While the almost 3 minutes long video successfully shows the gist and the premise of this new rather fascinating movie, what shook me the most was the A-list actresses such as Sonam, Kareena and Swara swearing up a storm. I mean, these women who are always so stoic and proper, are swearing on the screen? I am ecstatic! Because finally, FINALLY, there is a movie where women are swearing for fun and are completely unapologetic about it.
Now, there are people who would be positively put out by all of this. I am even expecting some obscure “_____ (fill in the blanks) sena” to protest against the “lewd” behavior being exhibited by these women. How dare they say the f-word and worse b**** c*** on the screen? That is a man’s job alone. After all, “Ache ghar ki ladkiyan aisi baatein nahi karti!” or “This kind of behavior is not expected from girls belonging to good wholesome families!” and “Boys will be boys!”/”Boys have all the fun!” is clearly the motto of our society. So, when grown women mouth profanities and enjoy it on the screen, there will be flinching and wincing all around. I can guarantee that when the trailer comes up on the t.v. people will change the channel, but they will still take their children to watch the movie, which is clearly meant for an adult audience, because us Indians do not have good sense of not taking their offsprings to an A certificate movie? So in anticipation of that, what will the dutiful members of CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) do? They will beep out all the bad language and pixelate any objectionable scenes in the movie (including any scene where anyone’s bra inadvertently shows up on the screen, like in the movie Queen?), because we Indians cannot be trusted to behave responsibly (which is clear from the recent unfortunate incidents of misogyny) and give the movie a U/A certificate which means that children may watch the movie under adult supervision.
When I look at my country these days, in addition to all the growth that is clearly happening, I see a nation struggling to balance traditions based on archaic notions with the certain modernization that is barreling towards them. Don’t pick up your pitchforks and torches just yet! I do not mean to say that Indian society rejects every single idea of contemporary values. For example, even though I was brought up in a fairly conservative society in New Delhi in the 90s, my parents were able to instill modern values in me and gave me, a girl child, the often dreaded freedom that made me a free thinker. 😛 I’d like to think that they did a good job. 😉 In many ways we certainly are a nation of acceptance and tolerance, but lately things are not looking up for us, are they? Yeah I am talking about people coming out in protest against the movie Padmaavati, some even threatening self immolation, only to get the filmmakers to drop a single letter ‘i’ from the title. It is a movie people, it is supposed to entertain you. Don’t take entertainment so seriously. They had to just go to the theater, buy overpriced popcorn and tickets, get regaled by the opulent sets and moderately historically correct story and pompous dance and songs, for 3 hours and leave! It was that simple. I guess the funniest thing about the whole ordeal was that when the members of this group eventually watched the movie they ended up enjoying it! In a nutshell, what happened with Padmaavat(i) was utterly moronic. So, I will not be surprised if the “upstanding” citizens of our country will be all up in arms against this movie which shows that some Indian women swear like a sailor, have premarital sex and are capable of having strong sexual desires, know the difference between beer and scotch, have commitment issues and are career oriented, just like men, which is shown in the 2 and half minutes long trailer of this movie.
I am sorry but we are slowly turning into a regressive and intolerant nation. And the argument, that we are trying to uphold our traditions and culture, is unfortunately not a viable one anymore. We belong to a country where the first kissing scene, which was four minutes long by the way, was shot in 1933 for the movie Karma. We produced classically sexy movies like Satyam Shivam Sundaram and Bobby and Julie. Why are we suddenly censoring so much? And more importantly, is it even helping? Apparently, the sense of fair censoring is lost nowadays along with the ever elusive common sense. People no longer understand what should be cut from a movie and what shouldn’t be, or what real misogyny is.
As for Me? I am a big advocate of swearing. 😛 The worse the swear word, the better. So, it was especially momentous for me to watch Kareena Kapoor swearing and dropping the f-bombs. 😉 I, personally, have sometimes felt so much lighter after going on a swearing rant. An f-word here, a middle finger there. It is good for your soul and helps you alleviate the burden of a crappy day. So, I would request people to just let the ladies swear to their heart’s content. Please let us have this little thing, don’t judge us for it. We are already picked apart for so much right from the day we are born till the day we die (the pain of which can sometimes be eased away by swearing). 😛 Plus, most of these swear words are of female variety. 😉
