It's Time For A Change - A Critical Response to Anurag Kashyap's That Day After Everyday

N.B: This blog entry is an analytic response of the documentary. Please do watch this documentary as it will only enhance your experience understanding my point of view and analysis of the film. IIts only twenty minutes but they will be a really powerful 20 minutes you will spend! The link is above and spread the word! :-) 

Written by Nitin Bharadwaj and directed by independent filmmaker, Anurag Kashyap who has been known in the past to make radical films such as Dev D (2009), Gulal (2009), That Girl In The Yellow Boots (2011), and Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) have produced a short Youtube film entitled That Day Every Day (2013) that takes the subject of eve-teasing (a topic I have discussed before my previous blogs) and molestation cases. The ending of the film is powerful and riveting speaking to the importance of self-defense. It is also interesting to note that both Anurag Kashyap and his wife, Kalki Koelchin have been proactive in exploring the problematic issues of India's insidious rape culture and its numerous implications.

Image via ytimg.com

As a post-colonial scholar and a woman whose roots are embedded in India, this film immediately caught my attention. While the film was kept short and sweet and only ran for mere twenty minutes, it packed with it a sharp punch especially towards the end of the movie. I was deeply saddened that the film did not have subtitles, which limited the audience of the film especially in the much broader international context such that this film could be made available to audiences all over the world. Like many of Kashyap's films, the topic is controversial and provocative. The film stars Sandhya Mridul, Radhika Apte, and Akash Sinha, and other names.

Image via Wikimedia.com

       The film starts with Radhika Apte making food and tea in the kitchen as a voice hovers over her speaking to her about the current troubling events happening in India as well as ridiculous studies that suggest that the reason for the increase in rape is due to the increased consumption of the Indo-Chinese dish known as "chow mein" doing nothing but revealing the anxieties that are instilled within the Indian society as they target those who are "others" within the larger Indian context. In other words, the chowmein consumption is not only associated with the othering of the Nepali and other "Asian-looking" immigrants but is also associating them with promoting a dish that acts almost like a viagra for men increasing their sexual desire and increases rape cases. The man then advises her to quietly walk without dealing with the men who eve-tease her and fears that if she rebels, then she will be found dismembered on the corner of the street. He says, "auratein jitni chup rahe utna accha hai" or "its better if women are silenced, its better to prevent provoking sexual harassment or molestation. Within the first minute and thirty seconds of the film, the story has already highlighted many problems that are associated with India's rape culture. I want to repeat again that rape culture in general is universal and insidious and varies from one experience to another. We do not do justice if we compare rape cultures between countries because we, in my opinion, do not have and should not appropriate the trauma as it is unique to each victim's experience regardless of whether the violation was brutal or a case of eve-teasing or sexual harassment. He also reprimands her for not going to work and developing a professional career - he argues that it only adds to her vulnerability towards sexual violence. Like this first instance, the film continues on to show two other women who are also being reprimanded and advised by their loved ones to stop going "out" as much to prevent and protect themselves from sexual violence and rape. 

                                                               Image via Indiaopines.com
                The film is very visceral in that it shows men harassing women and eve-teasing them in a quite scary manner especially when the women are trying to get to work. Even at work, the women face sexual jeering and eve-teasing from peons who drool over her using their smart phone's camera features to stalk her and use excuses to get physically close to her. In the middle of the film, the women are seated in the car and are encouraged to stand up for themselves. The film's ending is quite radical in that these women physically fight against the men and try to save themselves rather than being "rescued", which speaks profoundly to the contradictory space that women occupy in India at this time. While I am still struggling with Marxism, I do think that a woman's economic and social status as a professional woman and are desiring now to become part of the "New" middle class culture (Read Leela Fernandes's India's New Middle Class) plays a role in making her a vulnerable subject to these atrocities but before I can completely make this claim, I want to understand the politics of marxism and classism further to shape my point-of-view. The issue is far more complicated and sensitive and this observation is just one aspect of the problem. 
            With the growing capital economy, malls in Delhi and Bombay are laced with bars, clubs, and movie theaters and women who participate in the professional world earn enough living to support themselves and their families. The lifestyle, culture, and expectations are definitely in the midst of evolving as women become more and more independent in their respective fields. It is not to say that such progress is "linear" but a complicated zig-zag line that sometimes takes two steps forward and one step backward (and the cycle continues - with different variations). Earlier, yes, there was eve-teasing, sexual harassment, and rape that took place within India but now due to the increased use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter, information is more readily available and people are able to connect via cyberspace and distance is no longer an issue. Anyone can be a journalist, a writer, a blogger, and a contributor with mediums available for people to express their emotions, thoughts, and concerns. 
              The women featured in the film all belong the middle class. They work, use a shuttle bus to return to their homes, stay together and communicate with each other as a band, and fight the men who are eve teasing them together as a unit. The ending is pretty comical actually when the man asks her if she wants a cup of tea coming to a full circle. 
             Now, for the most interesting and fun part - the fight scene. Did it not remind those who have seen the movie of the typical 90s Hindi/ "Bollywood" film fight scenes. The men harassing the women and the women taking the opportunity to band together and literally fighting back showing their empowered "superwoman" selves (Thanks Ramanpreet for this observation). As women who have been in India and walked through the streets, we questioned if this ending was realistic or not. Here is my answer and its a double-edged sword. I think what the film portrays is totally possible if women take self-defense classes and are able to stand up for themselves and literally fight the men (and are prepared and armed with pepper sprays etc) but if we really think about it, the film makes a very salient point - how will they stand up for themselves if their families encourage or advise them to be couped up within the four walls of their home - will it really solve the problem or is it just a solution that takes us back to the times of purdah and zenana? The film strives to encourage women from all classes to stand up for themselves, which I think and believe is a strong and empowering message! 
               Kudos to Anurag Kashyap and Nitin Bhardwaj for such an excellent rendition of a film based on glaring issues that need to have a dialogue in this world!! 

© Nidhi Shrivastava 2014 This content is subject to copyrights. Please ask for my permission before using this content for any purpose.