As India continues to wait for that day when the rapists of Nirbhaya will be hanged till death, the repeated delays and twists and turns in the hanging fast begs us that question, what kind of a lala land are we turning into. A country where the criminal continues to breathe while an innocent girl is brutalized, tortured and left to die, often dying a painful death. A country where one worships a goddess, but the feminine form of the goddess, in real life is shamelessly scarred for life.
Kajol starrer Devi, a 13-minute short film made under the Large Short Films Banner pushes the boundary further to show us where we are reaching, as not even a young child is safe. Set inside a room, the film has women of all hues who have fallen prey. A housewife, a woman in burkha, a group of old Marathi ladies, a student preparing for her exam, a corporate worker and a rich young girl addicted to alcohol. Some burnt, molested, raped or some facing an acid attack.
The list of traumatic experiences continues. As such people away from the curious eyes of the public jostle for space in a small room where multiple victims spend time, a report suddenly starts bothering the people there as yet another person of the fairer sex has been violated. A fight breaks out on who would play the sacrificial lamb so that the victim can get a safe haven. It is the conversations that start that bring out the emotions around how age, dress sense, professional arena and relations aside, a man often veers away from the right track and scars a woman for life.
Bringing out how even a burqa clad woman is as susceptible to rape as a mini skirt wearing lass. It also says the most gruesome of rape modus operandis might exist, but the shame that it brings with it is far more deep and painful. The climax comes in the form of a little child who walks in with Kajol who typifies the deep rooted perversion that has seeped in. In India, every 22 minutes a woman is raped.
As per a Thomson Reuters report India is the most insecure interms of rapes. Indian courts have a backlog of more than 1 lakh rape cases. Each day close to 90 rapes are reported in India. The conviction rate in rape cases is just 32%. Crime rates in rape cases are higher in India where nearly 80% of women worship goddesses. Film stars women like Kajol, Neha Dhupia, Neena Kulkarni, Mukta Barve, Rama Joshi, Sandhya Mhatre, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Shruti Haasan, Yashaswini Dayama. It is produced by Ryan Stephen and Niranjan Iyengar and Directed by Priyanka Banerjee. It has been edited by Sanjeev Sachdeva.
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