Pink, the movie, broke moulds in different ways as it attempted to showcase the importance of consent to Indian society. The engaging movie became a commercial and critical hit for all the right reasons. And, Deepak Sehgal’s closing speech and, the famous dialogue on consent about ‘No’ being a complete sentence, irrespective of who says it, touched so many hearts!
But, it wasn’t just a powerful closing argument but many powerful statements that left a long-lasting impact. These statements shattered the patriarchal ideology that women are responsible for a man’s actions. And, also focused on how our society shames women, who are survivors of sexual assault.
“Sharab ko yaha ek galat character ki nishani maana jaata hai, sirf ladkiyon ke liye. Ladkon ke liye to ye sirf ek Health Hazard hai!”
It is heartbreaking how women’s clothes or their lifestyle choices are blamed or used as an excuse to justify the sexual assault. Shameless society blames women for assault and says women were “asking for it”.
“Jo ladkiyan party mei jaati hai aur drink karti hai, wo pushtaini hak ban jaati hai aapka… ladkiyan kisi (ladke) ke saath dinner, drinks pe jaati hai to woh unki apni choice hoti hai. Available hone ka sign board banke nahi jaati woh.”
Along with Amitabh Bachchan’s powerful performance, the film’s writers also deserve credit for bringing this powerful issue of consent to light so eloquently.
You can watch the entire scene here:
No one would deny that we need more meaningful movies like Pink or Thappad, that focus on the real issues women are grappling with. We hope Bollywood would start doing a better job. Rather than giving us dumb stupid characters or toxic characters as romantic heroes, Bollywood understands the immense power they hold to bring change to our society!
