O' Womaniya

I watched 'Prem Rog' today. Yes that movie which is tagged as a super hit romantic movie on youtube, for reasons unknown. Raj Kapoor is said to have returned to making movies on social causes with this in 1982. It has been 34 years since then that the truth of widow remarriage as documented in the movie is a harsh reality even today for millions of young girls and women across India. Why can't we really let go off these horrendous cultural norms passed off as traditions? Why can't we let them go?

My heart cries knowing that in remote areas where the families don't have an inkling of their constitutional rights but only the village council decrees and rely on their unfair verdicts as justice. There is so much angst building up inside me right now. Anger marrs sense of judgement and ability to distinguish between right and wrong. There is this helplessness against the shoddy condition of women in villages, hamlets, tribal districts and places where they are still shunned for menstruating. India has become such a land of taboos. We are living in two opposites- one half is illuminated with blinding brightness and the other in widespread pitch darkness.

There are many scenes from the movie that made me choke, but one particularly pierced my heart. Just a small depiction of how mercilessly we treat widows, worse off than animals. It is when Rama invites Dev into her house for lunch. Dev has no idea of how widows live. When he sees Rama offer him the rich food but herself take a plate of dry roti and dal, his hand stops from picking a morsel from his plate. Her mother who is there asks her if she will have a bit of Kheer made and her aunt loathes her. He sees the blackened simple, charpoy room where Rama now resides instead of the luxurious comfort of her bedroom. He is saddened and angry when Rama asks him if he feels pity for her? Even if he does, she has compromised on this being the way of life for her. Dev responds angrily that this living is worse than animals and it's a sin to inflict injustice on someone and also to bear injustice and he storms off. Rama stands in the doorway looking at him going away and moans how even he has left her crying. I cannot get myself to forget what conspires in this scene. Perhaps, this is the reality with so many young girls even today. I am also reminded of Dor by Nagesh Kukunoor. A young widow in Rajasthan living in utter darkness. She who loves dancing but now can't because she is widowed and must not listen to music or dance or eat good food, her favourite being rasgulla. There is a scene where Meera, the widow hears her favourite song on radio in a deserted alley and starts dancing to it. A powerful narrative of the repressed desires we are subjecting these young girls and women to as part of their punishment for no apparent fault other than being wives of their deceased husbands. Cinema can affect reality and when they say it is inspired by life, I agree having seen these examples.

Don't they need somebody to love? How can human being, a social animal ever live in seclusion especially how can we let affect our common judgement and met out the same justice to every woman that's widowed? This is not 1856 when the Hindu remarriage act caused such a furore in the then society. Nothing has changed from then till now. There are still young brides torched for dowry, child marriages in so many states, disowning widowed women and barring them from social contact with the outside world. We live in an India that has multiple faces which it chooses to paint and showcase to the world and others that it lays buried deep under its culture veil. I am sorry but we are just not an incredible nation with women living a fate worse than stray animals. Our cinema, culture and traditions might attract the world but it's only a thin layer under which lies a dormant nation with wronged women of all ages. That woman needs to be freed. Let her free. Let her fly.