WHAT A WAIST OF TIME

 So, it’s finally done. Sanjay Leela Bhansali's newly christened film, Padmaavat starring Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor will finally release at a theatre near you. The movie title has dropped an I and gained an a, Deepika Padukone is now digitally covered in red pixels, the Supreme Court has wrapped the state governments on the knuckles, and almost alls well in Bollywood again. In addition, Akshay Kumar freaked out and moved Padman, because let’s face it, the melodramatic period film would not have borne well for his film on periods. After a much ado about a waistline and plenty of debate on the plotline, Padmaavat* is now finally releasing at a theatre close to home.

While there have been controversial movies made before, whats saddening is that no one was upset or ashamed that their ancestors normalised mass suicide over self defense as an honourable death. From a supposed romantic scene between Khilji and Padmavati, to the queen was dancing in a public space, or most horrifyingly, that about 4 inches of her waist actually showed when she raised her arms for a dance movement, there never seemed to be any concrete grievances. It's also ironical that while Deepika's abdominal nudity created furore, the men in the film seem to spend large parts of their time showing of their perfectly sculpted abs and warming phallic swords in a bonfire. 

 It also amazes me that for all his fervent respect for Rajput culture, 200 crores couldn't buy Mr. Bhansali historical accuracy. Perhaps it was a long time coming for the man who has regularly distorted fact and fiction and used his female actors as item girls to sell the film. Who can forget Priyanka and Deepika dancing together on Pinga, baring their chopping board torsos.

While it was historically inaccurate, it also showed scant emotional insight from the director if he believed a woman would dance with her husband's mistress. But by succumbing to the demands of the hooligans and the moral mafia, the censor board and government have merely reinstated every wrong perception we have been struggling to change over the years. Activists and educators have cried themselves hoarse over the past few years about not associating a woman’s clothing with the notion of her ‘honour’ or the respectability of her character.

The controversy is also a troubling eye opener into how deeply caste, gender and notions of chastity are linked, with the communal honour being firmly parked in a Rajput woman’s veil and vagina. Forcing the film maker to digitally cover up his female protagonist’s waist, only confirms that even today, a woman's body is the playing ground for patriarchal honour games. Her body was not hers alone, but instead a pillar holding up the burgeoning respect of a patriarchal society. Even if she was violated by force, she was not a victim, but an offender instead who had allowed the violation of the entire community.

Perhaps the most saddening in all this is that we continue to look at Padmini/Padmavati through a male lens and patriarchal point of view. What do we know about this woman and what she went through? Did she want to be carried away from her home down south as a trophy wife to Rajasthan, a region she knew little about? Did she love her husband so much that she would die than be touched by another man? What agony did she undergo when she was forced to burn herself alive for one man, to protect herself from another? Are the protestors even aware that in the fictional poem it’s based on, Padmavati commits jauhar/sati when the king of a neighbouring Rajput kingdom kills her husband and attempts to capture her to be his wife. So while Deepika’s midriff brought Rajput honour under threat, the shameful behavior of the men in the community, fictional and otherwise, has gone completely under the radar.

While a lot has been said and done about Padmaavat, I keep coming back to just one thought. If we read a news article today about a woman who resisted a potential rapist for as long as she could, before killing herself to avoid rape, would we spend 200 crores to make a glamorous movie out of it?  This is the question the film industry needs to ask itself, as does Mr. Bhansali who has battled lunatics and losses for over a year. No one is coming to see this film because it’s an absorbing tale with unusual characters. It’s simply a big budget movie with three big stars who came together in a casting coup to wear ridiculously expensive clothes, and mouth rhetoric about who is the most honourable of them all.