International Women’s Day, March 8, is around the corner and coincidentally, India is discussing the 2012 Nirbhaya rape case once again, thanks to a BBC documentary shot around it.
In the documentary, one of the rapists – Mukesh Singh – is seen unabashedly blaming the victim for the heinous incident. “A decent girl won’t roam around at nine o’clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy….When being raped, she shouldn’t fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape,” the man says without any remorse.
While there’s general outcry on social media against this declaration, we aren’t really surprised. First, he’s a rapist. He’s obviously not going to hold forth on women’s liberation. Second, we have seen this before. Heard this before. On screen, and everywhere else. Heroes famously ‘advising’ women on their clothes. Heroes spouting some irrational morals for women to abide by. Heroes stalking women to win their hearts..
A list of movies that have valiantly tried to undo whatever little good that has been done:
1. Kaadhal Kondein
They call it a ‘psychological thriller’. This Selvaraghavan film has Dhanush playing a youngster, desperately trying to win Soniya Agarwal’s heart by stalking her and staring at her. Sonia’s character treats him with sympathy and shows hints of romance too. But any sane woman watching this film would find Dhanush’s character a creepy stalker.
2. Sivakasi
Ilayathalapathy Vijay, in this 2005 film, teaches women ‘how not to get assaulted by perverts on the street’. Hema (Asin) beats up a guy in a market for touching her inappropriately. The hero interferes. He briefly scolds the pervert and then lectures Hema to stop wearing Western clothes and ‘dress like a good Tamil girl’ to prevent getting molested on street.
3. Three
three
This directorial debut of Aishwarya R Dhanush has Dhanush and Shruti Hassan in lead roles. Dhanush’s character, an upper-middle-class school boy meets Janani (Shruti). He is smitten by her looks and starts following her around with his sidekick. He even joins the tuition class which she attends and stares at her during the classes. The girl is initially timid, but later, is seen reciprocating Ram’s feelings.
4. Yaaradi Nee Mohini
Recommended
Yet another Dhanush film. The hero, an unemployed software engineer, stalks Nayantara. His pursuits make her uncomfortable. Remember that melodious song in which a dreamy-eyed Dhanush is seen following Nayantara? Towards the end of the film, the girl is sympathetic and finally, she prefers the hero over her longtime lover.
5. Thambikku Entha Ooru
To talk about misogyny in Rajinikanth movies, we will need an entire day. In this 1984 movie, Rajinikanth’s character forcibly kisses the arrogant heroine (Madhavi) to teach her a lesson. And, she falls in love with him soon after.
6. Aadukalam
In this National Award winning film, Dhanush plays a rooster-fighter who falls in love with an Anglo-Indian girl Irene (Tapsee). He stalks her, even though she dislikes him. Making it worse, the residents of the colony ask her to choose between two stalkers.
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