Violence against women in real life is a punishable offence.

December 24, 2015 2:19 AM

A campaign called "Frame Her Right" have put out a short video compilation of violence against women in Bollywood films. What they want is for the Indian Censor Board to include a warning in films that contain violence against women and to reflect such violence in the film's age rating. The argument links to the broader debate about the extent to which Bollywood movies reinforce misogyny in India. (The BBC quotes Aamir Khan criticising how Bollywood movies sometimes glorify stalking and harassment, which shows how times have changed). However, the 80s and 90s seem to be something of a low point for sexualised violence in Bollywood, and there are better portrayals of women in more recent films.
posted by Aravis76 (8 comments total)

The Bollywood Bechdel test is much simpler than the Hollywood one: "Is a woman sexually assaulted?"
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 4:04 AM on December 24, 2015

Is it just me, or does even the campaign's name sound vaguely threatening?
posted by fairmettle at 4:05 AM on December 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

Not sure if this is the worst of the bunch, but I watched a movie called "Aamdani Atthanni Kharcha Rupaiya". One of the subplots involved Johnny Lever beating his wife while they ran around with a tune similar to Yakety Sax playing. And this movie came out in 2001.
posted by reenum at 6:21 AM on December 24, 2015

Back when we still called them Hindi pictures and not Bollywood, a movie called Insaf ka Tarazu was a groundbreaking shocker. It wasn't the 'borrowed' plot per se that was new so much as the fact that the whole concept of a heroine led story, the "action" on the screen and the open discussion of something hidden away in shame and suicide were for the first time portrayed in flickering screens across the country.
posted by infini at 6:45 AM on December 24, 2015

Bollywood movies [sometimes] glorify stalking and harassment

The fundamental essence of every song and dance is the nakhra. I've often believed its the movies which led boys to think that harassment and stalking (my roommate had a stalker back in our freshman year in Bangalore) were ritualized forms for courtship. There was no alternate model offered in a society where sex was repressed, segregated and arranged off into advantageous marriages.
posted by infini at 6:48 AM on December 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

I just watched Queen, which is a story that centres the woman's point of view and is all about her developing her confidence and moving on from a bad relationship - but the happy start of the relationship, which is portrayed as sweet and romantic, is all about the guy following her from place to place and refusing to take no for an answer. I think the film may have been making a point, since the guy does indeed turn out to be controlling and unpleasant, but I don't think it would have registered with me as "stalking" if I hadn't just been thinking about this issue this morning. It's so normalised as a model of courtship in Bollywood movies.
posted by Aravis76 at 7:45 AM on December 24, 2015

I'm about halfway through Gangs of Wasseypur, which has been reedited into an 8-part series on Netflix. At least so far, it definitely portrays some violence against women, but not in the fun, sexy, she-loves-being-stalked way that I recall from some other Bollywood movies I've seen and that to me is much more disturbing than more realistic portrayals.

I'd love to never again see a romantic comedy where stalking and creeping is portrayed as welcome and effective. On the plus side though, at least almost no movies these days feature that "slap her when she is acting hysterical" scene that used to be so common (and that shows up in older books as well -- I just reread Le Carre's Little Drummer Girl and it had a couple of scenes that now seem very dissonant and dated).
posted by Dip Flash at 10:16 AM on December 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I think violence by the bad guys can also be portrayed problematically (eg lingering and voyeuristic rape and assault scenes) but there's nothing so shocking as corrective violence by the good guy you're supposed to be rooting for. Dil, which is the first Bollywood movie I ever watched (I was around 8), includes a scene where the hero literally abducts the heroine out of her bed and pretends he's going to rape her in order to Teach Her a Lesson. (This is the catalyst for her falling in love with him.) It's unbelievably toxic stuff.
posted by Aravis76 at 11:24 AM on December 24, 2015 [1 favorite]