MY CHOICE and Deepika Padukone

Very recently Vogue’s Video on women empowerment featuring Deepika Padukone and other celebrities of tinsel town like Anupama Chopra, Zoya Akhtar, Nimrit Kaur has taken the social media by storm. “My Choice” a video (included in the beginning of my narrative) which strongly portrays the liberty of women to make choices, breaking off the social bourgeoisie fetters around her feet. I found the purpose of the video intriguing and essential. And the execution had panache.

True it is, the society has different set of laws for the different sexes. If a man comes back late from office every night or if his boss drops him home, eyebrows are never raised at his character. But the same may not be true for women. Today’s modern women has the capability of playing the bread earner for her family, yet her hard work is not always greeted with applause. Her family often returns her with apathy for her sacrifices. Whenever a heinous crime like rape, acid attack or domestic violence take place, a huge section of the society raise questions on the woman’s character instead of rebuking the offender. How long can we allow our characters to be judged by the length of our dress? How long a woman will need to prove her dignity to the society and why? It is high time, we fight back and take responsibility of our choices. Breaking ourselves free from the baseless laws of the biased society is the call of the hour! So this video was apt (not completely though) for a country which is plagued by the increasing toll of crime against women. We are not just a body, and are not just born to raise kids (although we love kids), we have our choices, which are truly our fingerprints- a message loud and clear! And I think, this is also a strong answer to the illiterate lawyers featured in “India’sdaughter” Documentary and other people like them.

Now coming to the video, which deals with a hard hitting, sensitive subject lacks somewhere. But where? According to me the visual impact was commendable but Deepika’s voice lacked the required flair. And as the perception depends on the combined effect on all your senses, while visually the video proceeds with élan our ears are not treated too well. And secondly while dealing with a subject as delicate as this, the choices cited should have been chosen with a little more sincerity. While I completely adorn the fact that a woman, should have the freedom of choosing her attire or making sexual orientation choices, I cannot completely deal with the choice of infidelity. An unwanted relationship should be given away with, but transparency is important in every phase of it. The purpose of women empowerment, is giving her a societal status that she deserves. It does not necessarily imply anarchy. We want an environment of peace, respect and opportunity for women to flourish. Our demand is not to do just whatever we want, our demand is to be respected in the first place. Our choice is to be ourselves, a doting mother, a loving wife, a compassionate daughter, a successful professional but above all a respected human, who is not judged by her hotness quotient, who is not judged by her size. And this radical change in outlook will not come by radical moves, it will come with slow spread of awareness and enlightenment. We definitely cannot choose to do things which we may not be wishing to be done to us.

Whatever it is, I congratulate Vogue and the people associated with this video. Though not flawless, yet it is the beginning of a change in attitude. A fight back for the retrospective and a pre plan for the evolving reality of bourgeoisie which instead of reducing is becoming more and more imminent.  

Aritra Chakrabarty Sengupta

N.B. Read what Hindustan Times had to say My choice.

---