From Barbie’s lipstick shade to thousands of chick-lit covers, from gooey Mother’s Day cards to the wasteland of toys for girls, the color pink has traditionally indicated a certain stratum of feminine experience. And that is probably because it represents love, care, nurturing, and gentleness.
In the recent years, of course, we have seen a backlash against the color. Some claim that the ‘pinkification’ of objects help spread the message – women cook, men work. Researchers, politicians, and educators have debated the effect of the color pink on young girls and have even suggested that it is linked to women’s career choices. Slowly, we have seen the color lose its traditional meaning of being warm and fuzzy, to representing weakness and a lack of intellectuality.
But honestly, all is not lost. If pink has an image problem, it is also subtly being re-appropriated, with writers, film-makers, and artists rediscovering a subversive identity forged in women’s rights, breast cancer awareness, and queer politics. There are so many shades of pink and that represents the different shades of feminism and how layered it is.
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As a person who had grown up in India, it is safe to say I’ve been fed a heavy dose of Bollywood. And as most people know, the female actors in Bollywood have never really had powerful roles. There’s rarely a movie made which explores female characters or their relationships. But in the last decade, there have been multiple films which are women-centric, have mainstream actresses as protagonists, and the story is portrayed through the woman’s point of view. This change is an industry which is predominantly patriarchal, has been very slow but it’s something that has picked up momentum since 2013. This year, a film was made which is unprecedented – in terms of the story and the concepts it explores.
How many times has the value of consent been taken for granted in our society? How many times has South Asian culture considered consent, important enough to be acknowledged and discussed at a national level? Consent, as simple as it sounds, is not simple to apply in a global culture not only because women are never actually given bodily agency at any point in life, but also because standardized laws do not fit individual lives. Women and their personal sexual experiences are seldom seen without judgment, and they can rarely express their sexuality openly – which is squelched, scrutinized, and questioned at every point.
Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s ‘PINK’ takes this very aspect of consent as its central theme. This is perhaps India's first truly feminist film which talks about the ‘character assassination’ every woman undergoes because she chooses to take charge of her life, and determines its course on her own terms. The film actively questions the pre-conceived notions held by the society I come from, and the moral policing it does, with respect to independent women.
Official poster of the film
Sexual violence is not new to Bollywood films. But it is usually shown with the camera objectifying the victim, lingering over her body and trying to use the scene to arouse, rather than repel the audience. But Pink deals with the theme of consent, and specifically, sexual consent quite effectively. A resounding point that the film means to convey is straight-forward and simple – that a NO means NO, whether she is drunk, flirtatious or is a sex worker. No is a sentence in itself and it needs no further explanations.
This film has started nationwide discussions, and has made consent and what it means in the South Asian society a talking point. After the multiple heinous rape cases in India and all the other atrocities that women have to endure in the workplace, on the streets and often even in their own homes, this film was much needed and widely appreciated by the audience. Personally, I am so happy that a few Indian, male film-makers had the courage and persistence to get a film like this made! Nothing can be more socially relevant to India right now than the message of this film.
Edit (Nov 9, 2016):
With the outcome of the Presidential Election last night, the fight for women and their rights is more crucial now than ever. I hope all of us can stand together in solidarity and support because that is what we desperately need.
