Recently, Shakun Batra’s directorial Gehraiyaan was released on Amazon Prime. While internet is divided on the reviews, many have fallen in love with the finesse with which the past lives of the characters are interlinked with their present lives. How the past trauma has impacted their present is what builds the depth of the characters!
Alisha (played by Deepika Padukone) and Zain (played by Siddhant Chaturvedi) played the two troubled characters who fight hard to conquer the demons of the past. But, even after fighting hard, they often tend to fall back on the same. And, as the flirting turn into passion, they lower down their guards to let the other have a glance of what’s buried deep inside them.
At different points, the movie paints the reality so well that you can’t resist, but be drawn to them. While there are many hard-hitting scenes, there is a specific one, where Zain talks about his childhood trauma. This hits you hard as it talks about the plight of women in abusive marital relationships.
At a specific point in the movie, Zain opens up about his abusive childhood. He shares how at the age of 6, he was sent off to boarding school, which left him detached from his parents and family. At such young age, he was aware of his father being an alcoholic and an abuser. He also shares how he knew his mother had been suffering from domestic violence as a result of his father’s aggressive drinking.
But, the situation got worse when he went home on a vacation and saw his dad physically abusing his mother. He tells Alisha how the scar on the forehead is his father’s gift to him for caring!
This hard-hitting conversation is a reminder of why women choose to stay in an abusive marriage. It is sad how women, for the sake of family’s honor or out of fear of ‘Log kya kahenge’, refuse to raise their voices against abuse. They keep suffering in silence just because it’s a matter of “Ghar ki izzat!”
There are so many well-educated women, who still accept the abuse in their marriage as their fate. They refuse to take a stand against their abuser. Gehraiyaan isn’t the only movie that captures the plight of women in abusive relationships, there are many movies on gaslighting and emotional abuse that capture a similar plight!
It is high time that women start taking a stand against their abuser. It is the 21st century and there shouldn’t be any place for abuse – neither at home nor at public places. NONE. Period.