Posted:
I have been seeing many posts about padmaavat's Misogyny and the glorification of jauhar. Now I watched the film. It was not the best film I have ever watched, but it was definitely very entertaining.
The posts criticising Bhansali's depiction of jauhar have really puzzled because I am a firm advocate for human rights and equality for both males and females, but I did not find the movie sexist in any way. I think that we should interpret the content of the movie and judge in the parameters of the context it was set in, the 13th (?) century. At that point in time, there was no firm laws nor was there any human rights court. If the women had been captured by the men, they would have probably become sex slaves for the entirety of their lives. And who are we to judge them for choosing death for a lifetime of slavery? I am not saying that the choice to die is the correct one. Some of us may choose to live. In this situation there is no right or wrong choice. Instead, shouldn't feminism be all about providing the woman with the ability to make a choice and NOT judge her if she did something you wouldn't agree with?
I might be based for this but I actually did see some sort of poetic beauty in the jauhar scene. It did show the bravery and dignity with which the Rajput women faced their doom. And I felt a strange sense of satisfaction when I watched it because it was their empowered and rather intense way of saying f**k you to the enemy who killed their sons, husbands and fathers. They would have been forced to become the slaves of the invaders, but they made the choice out of their own free will to say no to that, and isn't there something to celebrate in that?
All I am saying is, you are not going to get women empowerment in a history movie. If you could you would see deepika fighting alongside shahid for chittor. That's what I would expect from a modern day hero and heroine, not from ancient characters from history.
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