Anaarkali of Aarah uproots the idea that a prostitute has no consent
After long years of the dark ages with movies objectifying women, Bollywood has undergone a renaissance with movies like Queen and Pink. Heroine-centric films are now in vogue. Thanks to gradual change in the social mindset, our filmmakers have sensed the pulse of the audience.
The latest addition to this list is Anaarkali of Aarah. The concept of consent by a woman has never been depicted with such crystal clarity and objectivity as it has been shown in this movie. Unlike Pink, where a man is shown to be the protagonist to talk about an issue, the protagonist in Anaarkali of Aarah is a woman and she stands up for herself to make her point.
There are men who support her in the journey but she remains the solo fighter throughout. This difference has made the latter more succinct and powerful in communicating the message.
Anaarkali is an erotic singer in the city of Aarah in Bihar and is often criticised for singing lewd Bhojpuri songs by certain sections. However, she loves singing and continues until she has to confront some powerful men who treat her as a prostitute.
The struggle which Anaarkali goes through to make these men understand the concept of consent is the theme of this film. Swara Bhaskar as Anaarkali is stupendous and this is perhaps one of her best performances ever.
It is always a pleasure to see a fellow Miranda House alumna doing such great work. When I watched the movie, the show received a standing ovation in the theatre and the audience left with misty eyes. This was in the highly patriarchal northern state of Haryana.
The film depicts three different kinds of women in patriarchy. There is someone like Anaarkali who is determined to make her way out of the patriarchal system. She refuses to succumb to the pressures of men in the upper echelons who want to treat her as a prostitute.
The formal institutions like police are also marred with social patriarchal beliefs and do not provide any help to Anaarkali. There is a scene where she is comforted by a lover who requests her to quit singing because of the problems with big shots in the system.
Anaarkali refuses to go into the comfort zone of being a homemaker and decides to get back to singing again. She is a hard-core feminist who does what she wants to do and is ready to pay any cost for it.
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| Unlike Pink, where a man is shown to be the protagonist to talk about an issue, the protagonist in Anaarkali of Aarah is a woman and she stands up for herself to make her point. Photo: India Today |
There is a second kind of woman who thinks the only way out in a patriarchal set up to find professional success as a woman, is to compromise on your value system. While she is a traditional and conservative college lecturer of Sanskrit and an obedient daughter-in-law, she does not mind having an affair with the vice-chancellor for professional gains. Unlike Anaarkali, she reaps the benefits in the patriarchal set up.
The third category of women shown in the movie is a traditional woman who has internalised patriarchy to such an extent that she is totally preoccupied with household chores and other duties of being a good wife.
The realisation that her husband is a lecher dawns on the wife when Anaarkali makes a clever move, exposing the man publicly. The man common to all these three women is a politically well-connected vice-chancellor of a local university.
The irony is that a woman who is brutally honest is treated in the worst way in the patriarchal set-up - a system which establishes supremacy of men over women and makes them their guardian cannot tolerate a woman who has utmost integrity of character.
The men in the patriarchal set up start believing that she is a prostitute and her consent does not matter. While the women who have been pretentious or ignorant are the ones who live an extremely smooth life. The story proves that a woman has to be either naïve or pretentious to survive in patriarchy.
The system externalises the women who disagree with it and forces them into a corner where they are forced to live a conventionally disrespectable life. Haven’t most of us met or known these kind of women?
Watching this movie will clarify the concept of consent for many men and women who do not hesitate to use the term "slut" or "prostitute" for any woman who does not come up to their standard of nobility and decency.
It also uproots the ideology that a prostitute is common property and her consent does not matter.
She deserves to be treated as a human and her "no" carries the same weight as any other woman's.