A Film Review Of ‘The World Before Her’
Historically, women have witnessed oppression by patriarchal societies throughout the world for centuries. With the rise of feminism in the west, the ideas of equality and freedom were initiated in public discourse. Women started protesting for their rights, which increased exponentially in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. These efforts successfully revamped the status of women which was later amplified by the effects of modernization and the 21st century.
The 21st century, our present epoch, has been a very complex and convoluted period of time for women. This is especially true for Indian women who often struggle to find their footing in a world that is driven forward by modernisation yet naturally gravitates towards traditional customs and ways of life.
These contradictions pose a special challenge for millennial women as they are not able to decide on their actual role as women in Indian society. This situation has been explored by the Indian Canadian writer and director Nisha Pahuja who has depicted these ironies in her critically acclaimed documentary – “The World Before Her”.
The documentary approaches this by introducing two young Indian women who live in different worlds which entirely clash with each other in every aspect. The film contrasts the Durga Vahini training camp for young girls and training and grooming program for contestants of the Femina Miss India beauty pageant in Mumbai.
The Durga Vahini is the women’s wing of the radical Hindu nationalist group Vishwa Hindu Parishad. It expects its members to be skilled in martial arts and weaponry and to be the future guardians of their Hindutva ideology. The girls are made capable of defending themselves and their militant ideology. The camp brainwashes them about the dangers of westernization and the superiority of Hindutva over it. The mentors instruct them that a woman should never abandon her “male-dominated” home in the name of a career. Girls are also told that they should be married by the age of eighteen, because, they believe that after the age of twenty a girl is too matured to be trained. According to their ideology, gender equality is against Indian culture and a woman must not thrive for it.
On the other hand, the Miss India training session encourages its participants to be confident and embrace their sensuality. In this beauty contest, professionals train participants on how to walk, talk and look in a certain way and manner that fits their idea of exquisiteness. The women who participate in these events claim that to represent “Modern Indian Women” one should be open-minded, embrace the values of the west and remain Indian at heart.
The film focuses on the life journey of two young women who populate these seemingly different worlds. Prachi Trivedi, twenty-four-year-old training instructor at the Durga Vahini camp in a semi-rural area in Maharashtra and Ruhi Singh, a nineteen-year-old model from the sprawling urban city of Jaipur jostling for the Miss India crown.
Are Women Merely Living In A World Created By Men?
Trivedi and Singh never meet each other in the film; neither do their personal worlds collide. But the contradictions in both of their worlds are explored to an enlightening degree through interviews, newscasts and footage. Neither of the women realises that they are both chasing dreams that actually live out fantasies of men defined by a patriarchal system, governed by the rules laid down by men.
The film shows how women are just “products” of a male-dominated society, often not realising that they are playing into a social structure created by men. The Durga Vahini camp co-ordinator Prachi’s father who is also an active member of VHP claims that motherhood signifies the attainment of womanhood and a woman’s destiny is to marry and serve the family, even though he is aware of the fact that his daughter is reluctant to marry. This clearly portrays the male dominance in society.
In the Miss India Pageant, the film shows how contestants are made to walk the ramp covered in white cloaks so the judges can evaluate them solely on their legs!
The film also contains elements of dark humour where Prachi’s father narrates how he once stamped his daughter with a hot iron rod to teach her a moral lesson. It is also heart-breaking to watch Ruhi’s mother break down in tears as she watches the finale of the pageant. The movie is a harsh awakening and shows us the reality of life for some Indian women.
This movie is especially relevant in the present era where the country is witnessing the rise of both of these contrasting movements almost simultaneously; the fight to stick to the dominant tradition and also to embrace modernisation. Both the worlds are caught in systems that promise to empower women but are moulded in such a manner that it ultimately benefits the patriarchy.
On both the sides of the movie we can witness that women are trying to fight the system while they simultaneously try to manage life within it. In some ways, the VHP member Prachi has a regressive attitude, but at the same time, she has a strong inclination to rebel, be independent and also become the commanding leader of her clan. And in the Miss India’s ‘liberal’ environment, there are several moments where the participants are forced to make choices based on their looks even though they are uncomfortable.
The Miss India contest is subtly exploitative and vapid whereas the Durga Vahini campers are indoctrinated into a fascist culture of violence, religious zealotry and paranoia. Also, the Miss India pageant presents itself as a lavish platform of glamour populated by some of the country’s most beautiful women. On the other hand, the Durga Vahini camps are not filled with exoticism and charm; they house a deep hatred for the Muslims and Christians in India and vow “not to let them take their India”; which is quite antithetical to the country’s constitution.
Another interesting observation is that both, Prachi and the Miss India 2009 winner Pooja Chopra, live in a society where female foeticide is not uncommon.
But the non-invasive and non-judgemental way in which the film director Pahuja has shot the entire film subtly reminds viewers not to be quick and succumb to socially constructed labels because they can often be misleading.
The movie also shows us Ruhi’s parents who are proud of their daughter and offer her unconditional support; I think this is a representation of the fact that women can only be truly empowered if they are given the freedom to choose their path in life, but this can only happen when their home environment is conducive to independent thought.