BAFTA award winning British director Leslee Udwin’s controversial documentary film India’s Daughter will be launched by Meryl Streep, Ann Hathaway and the film’s associate producer Freida Pinto in New York on March 9th. India’s Daughter will be premiered at an event marking the 20th anniversary of the Fourth UN World Conference on Women.
While the documentary will be aired in the UK, Switzerland, Norway and Canada on Women’s Day, March 8th, India might not get to see it at all. A bit ironic considering that the horrific incident took place in the Indian capital, the ‘victim’ and perpetrators of which were Indians and which has come to define India as a country unsafe for women. Isn’t the story most relevant to us?
The opinion in India remains divided as usual. The film no doubt is hard hitting as it centers around an interview of the main accused Mukesh Singh, who callously says that women are more to blame for rape than men.
Udwin, a victim of rape herself, interviewed Singh for 16 hours to get an insight into his psyche. He was driving the bus in which Jyoti was raped and still shows no remorse for his actions. Singh says in the film “A decent girl won’t roam around at nine o’clock at night. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes.”
Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting, Rajyawardhan Rathore announced in Parliament earlier today that, “The language that the accused has used in this documentary is unacceptable, promotes violence.” He added “This entire documentary is against the programming code of I&B ministry. I&B issued a notice that the documentary won’t go on air because of the language used by culprit in the documentary. Airing of documentary would be contempt of court... broadcasting would be against I & B broadcast code.”
Home minister Rajnath Singh and Rajya Sabha member Ambika Soni were more concerned about how the director managed to get permission to shoot the documentary. While Meekashi Lekhi of the BJP was worried about the effect the film is likely to have on tourism in India, she said “The sense of this House is signalling to the government to not let this documentary air. There should be proper investigation in this matter. This affects tourism... the police should take appropriate action... they should be charged under appropriate sections.”
But Rajya Sabha member and popular lyricist Javed Akhtar held the opinion that the film will help reveal how many people in our society think like rapists. He said ”Achcha hua ki documentary bani, ab pata chalega kitne log hain jo uss rapist jaise soch rakhtey hain. It’s good this documentary has been made. If any one finds it objectionable, they should change their mindset”.
The controversial film’s associate producer Freida Pinto throws a bigger question at India with her tweet - why are we so scared of reality?
While a lot of people on social media have criticised the film for providing the rapist a public platform to speak his mind, Freida Pinto emphasises the need to reveal his true psyche in order to call upon global action.
Journalist Shekhar Gupta hinted that it’s time for India to face the mirror
Senior journalist Barkha Dutt of NDTV (a channel that was scheduled to broadcast the documentary) shared her point of view via social media.
Suhel Seth hit the nail on its head with a series of tweets.
Leslee Udwin expressed in a recent interview to NDTV that she was shocked to hear the appalling statements made by Mukesh Singh. As a victim of rape herself, her only agenda is to fight for gender inequality and not glorify it in any way. However, she feels that it’s crucial to reveal Singh’s thought process if we wish to make any real changes in our society. What the world thinks of India will be revealed soon after March 8th, but what India thinks of itself is evident enough.
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