Pink Movie - Asking The Right Questions Of The Man!

This week saw the epochal movie Pink hitting the movie halls and cineplexes, a movie that stands out as one of the most hard-hitting movies to come out from the Mumbai film industry. This is a movie that looks at deeply ingrained attitudinal problems embedded in our society, problems which have eluded quite a few reviewers on this movie; I attempt to place my viewpoint on these ignored aspects in this review. This is a movie that is, to my mind, more about Men than Women; we need to see the story from this angle and engage with the highlighted problems in a deep introspection

THE PLOT

The plot is simple : three ladies meet 3 or 4 boys at a rock concert, share a drink or maybe two, go to dinner, and end up getting molested. A feisty one responds, and cracks a bottle right slam-bang on the “gentleman’s” head, and the three run. So do the four “gentlemen”, but then the nightmare starts for the ladies, as the threats and the intimidation starts. They are wrongly accused by the “gentlemen”, and one of them gets arrested. In  steps a retired top lawyer to the rescue, and fights the case for the ladies.

WHAT THE MOVIE ISNT ABOUT…

The above isn’t about what ladies wear, or indeed what they should wear; it isnt about ladies drinking, about going out with boys, about saying no to the opposite sex, about not equating sharing a drink with an invitation for sex; about smiling and talking being equal to something else; it isn’t about freedom of women, or about how much freedom is too much freedom; it isn’t about the invasion of western mores into our eastern society. This is a hard-hitting expose on the Male Chauvinistic Pig, and the frankly reprehensible male dominance in Human Society in general and Indian Society in particular.

EXPOSING THE MCP…

It is a brutal expose on the Gender Equations prevalent in our society, and how lopsided they are. If it is not ok for the Girls and Ladies of your family to drink, then – as a corollary to that, it isn’t ok for the Gents to drink either. If it is not ok for the lady to have multiple partners in her lifetime as casual  or not-so-casual lovers – then it isn’t ok for the Gents either. If it is not ok for the lady to stay out late, then it isn’t ok for the Gent either. Why should things be so different for the two sexes? Why the completely variant value-judgements between males and females of the same Homo Sapiens species?

This is exposed very skillfully in the movie, in a gripping court-room drama in the second half; the first half having set up the climax in a riveting and mind-blowing series of events of shocking & jarring victimization that lay bare the other problems touched in the other reviews. But the second half strips our society bare, strips it stark naked in the blunt court room scenes that take your breath away. You get to see the Male of our Indian  society in all his resplendent nakedness and gory ugliness, and leave you feeling utterly disgusted at the prevalent chauvinistic attitudes that bedevil our society.

PLACING THE MAN ON A PEDESTAL…

Few people, in my limited reading, have touched upon this : I agree with the other points raised; namely saying no is no; that dressing is not a barometer of character and neither is drinking, that ladies should have independence; and the point on morality judgement etc. These are obviously true and spot-on; but my point, my question, goes far deeper – why do women {and men} look for approval from society? Forgot the song – Kuchh To Log Kahenge; Logon Kaa Kaam Hai Kehenaa? By doing so, you are automatically placing the man on a pedestal!

Furthermore, why do we place emphasis on purity of women – just women, and not on men? Why not place the precise same moralistic judgmental attitudes towards men as you do towards the ladies? Why has no one ever thought to ask a man if he is a virgin? Why is no one asking as how can the same attitude be seen modern, forward, rough-and-tough in males but undesirable in females? Why has no one in our entire society ever questioned the sexual need in males and their now-established penchant for prostitutes? Why has no one ever questioned the so-called tough man when he has multiple affairs, or drinks, or dresses in a forward fashion? We have never ever questioned the man – not even in our movies, and that is a fact.

THE REAL PROBLEM IS THE MAN!

The problem isn’t that we need to stand by our women; that goes without saying. The real problem is that we need to question the Men, and make it unacceptable behavior  - or rather, have the same rules apply for both the sexes. You cant have differentiation. We know we are patriarchal; we know ladies have to suffer a  lot – is that news? That is a known and established fact! High time our movies took the next step and ask some hard questions of the Man. Don’t say we need to support our women – start by saying that I need to look at the boys and men in our family, and have true equality.

It has been cruelly highlighted how Meenal had mulltuple sexual partners in her history; what about the men she slept with? Did they not have multiple sexual partners? Why has no one in our society ever questioned the man? Why is it not an equally big question for the man? Is sex just a conquest for the men, involving no love? Or is drinking a solely male priviledge? It has been forcefully highlighted about the drinking by the ladies. Werent the men also drunk? How is it ok for a man to partake in drinks but not the lady of the house? These are the questions this movie raises – and many many more…

We need to highlight the differential approach towards the two sexes far more than other aspects in my opinion; like in that sad statement “unko aukaar dikhaao” or words to that effect. The difficulty is that we are a male dominated society, and unless we both support the women as well as make it less sexy and more intolerable for the man to misbehave, change will not happen. As it stands, the feeling is that for the man, drinking & flirting and sex is ok – duly supported by our movies in sorry portrayals. If drinking, flirting is ok for the boys, then it is ok for the girls. And if it isn’t ok – then both sexes are in the wrong – and it needs to be highlighted.

Most movies show the women suffering, or fighting against all to make it; this has basis in reality. But we also need to show how the man can suffer and lose everything, how his sick behavior harms him – not just in the end, but in his daily life. Make it less sexy to be patriarchal! Instead, we see the opposite – in our love stories, in our other movies about how the man goes after the girl etc along established moral codes and norms of society.

We are the same society which calls a decent actor a chocolate boy, in another example of the stereotypes that rule our minds. These stereotypes need to be broken down; need to be addressed; the man needs to understand his failings…  and that is where Pink scores, in the Court-room where the defense Lawyer highlights these very aspects in his epochal code-book for conduct, and the six points he raises about how society views these from different parameters for the two sexes…

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