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Scathing Social Reality and Male Chauvinist Mindset in the Pink: A Case Study

Article · August 2017

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NEW MAN IINTERNATIIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIIDIISCIIPLIINARY STUDIIES ((IISSN: 2348--11390)) UGC Approved Journal
No. 45886 Impact Factor: 4.321 (IIJIF)

Scathing Social Reality and Male Chauvinist Mindset in the Pink: A Case Study

Dr. Datta G. Sawant*

Mr. Dileep B. Korde**

Abstract

Pink is the critique of scathing social reality and double standards of men and also of women
towards women. The director has imbibed the intended message through terse acting of characters,
depicted prejudices and ill psyche inherent in public mind. The three women who are lead
characters in the movie work and live independently; this very idea of living without support of
men becomes basic social evil they did in eyes of society around them. The incident happens in
the capital city of India, what would be the situation in rest of the county. The three women—
Meenal, Falak and Andrea—has to suffer for their direct rejection to have sex with the men. ‘No’
is the word which has gained utmost prominent in the whole affair of actions revolving around the
lead personae. Meenal’s acting upon ‘no’ on that day of incident becomes the major cause to get
suffered has disclosed the long time rooted male chauvinist mindset even in women acts against
women.

Keywords: chauvini(st)sm, scathing social reality, trauma, feudal orthodox mentality, male ego,
patriarchal.

* Main Author, Assistant Professor of English, Toshniwal Arts, Commerce & Science College,
Sengoan, Dist. Hingoli, Maharashtra-431542 e-mail: dattagsawant@gmail.com

** Co-author, Assistant Professor of English, Late Ramesh Warpudkar Arts, Commerce & Science
College, Sonpeth, Dist. Parbhani, Maharashtra-431516 e-mail: kordedb85@gmail.com

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Introduction:
Literature, in a broader sense represents complex acts happening in the society on both
levels— physical and psychological. Movies/ films are incorporated into popular literature, a
strong medium of representation of the acts around society. Today, movies are not watched or
produced only to get entertainment as the single goal but to contemplate on social issues forming
a reasonable effect over public mind and society. Movies like Chak de India, Taare Zameen Par,
3 Idiots, Swades, Matroobhumi: A Nation without Women, Arakshan, Dangal, Peepli Live, Nayak,
My Name is Khan, English Vinglish, OMG, Udata Panjab, Fire, Damini, Gadar and the list goes
on, have formulated a vast impact over the public psyche and resulted into socio-political protest
against social ill; e.g. the candle march shown in Rang de Basantee is used in real life events to
protest and show angst in the minds of present day youth. It has been aroused cogent and emphatic
emotions helping to alter the opinion of individual and public in general. There are movies which
focuses on the issues of women and their representation—Mother India, Queen, Arth, Lajja,
Astitva, Mary Kom, Dor, Neerja, Bandit Queen, Damini, No One Killed Jessica, Kahani, NH 10,
Black, Bol, Pinjar, The Dirty Picture, Gulab Gang, so and so forth; ardently discloses the social,
economic, political and cultural issues of present day women in variant forms and also displays
forceful retrieval of those women struggling for their rights and survival. This has been secured
some change in views of society towards women but there is still a larger portion of society who
do not wish to bestow the rights and dignity to women—the typical patriarchal mindset. How
working women are caught in the conflict of maintaining their dignity, and became the victim of
male chauvinism is aptly portrayed in movie like Pink.
The case in study:
Movie: Pink, (in Hindi (Bollywood).
Cast: Taapsee Pannu (as Minal Arora), Kirti Kulhari (as Falak Ali), Andrea Tariang (as
Andrea Tariang), Amitabh Bachchan (as Dipak Sehgall), Angad Bedi (as Rajveer
Singh), Rasool Tondon (as Dumpy), Vijay Verma (as one of friends to Rajveer),
Tushar Pandey (as Vishwa), Piyush Mishra, Dhritimaan Chatterjee, Vinod Nagpal,
Dibang and others.
Director: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhary.
Producer: Rashmi Sharma, Ronnie Lahiri, Sheel Kumar and Soojit Sirkar.
Production: Rising Sun Films.
Writer: Soojit Sirkar, Ritesh Shah.
Release: 16th September 2016.
Duration: 136 minutes.

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NEW MAN IINTERNATIIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIIDIISCIIPLIINARY STUDIIES ((IISSN: 2348--11390)) UGC Approved Journal
No. 45886 Impact Factor: 4.321 (IIJIF)

Pink is the critique of scathing social reality and double standards of men and also of
women towards women. The director has imbibed the intended message through terse acting of
characters, depicted prejudices and ill psyche inherent in public mind. The three women who are
lead characters in the movie work and live independently; this very idea of living without support
of men becomes basic social evil they did in eyes of society around them. The incident happens in
the capital city of India, what would be the situation in rest of the county. The three women—
Meenal, Falak and Andrea—has to suffer for their direct rejection to have sex with the men. ‘No’
is the word which has gained utmost prominent in the whole affair of actions revolving around the
lead personae. Meenal’s acting upon ‘no’ on that day of incident becomes the major cause to get
suffered has disclosed the long time rooted male chauvinist mindset even in women acts against
women.
Traditionally the image of women has been generated as lower or secondary to men
revealed through words and sentences used about them by men and also by women. Meenal is a
courageous and independent woman who breaks the taboo towards women. Her courage can be
seen after the incident occured, Meenal, Falak and Andrea travels home in the taxi, fear overpassed
their mind and head, the driver of taxi heavily under impact of sleep and slumbers getting taxi
imbalanced, in this situation Meenal comes to front seat beside the driver so that he could not
slumber. Falak and Andrea resist her not to step out of the taxi but Meenal dares. How women can
be brave, is an unresolved question in the mind of a larger portion of society, whether educated or
uneducated. The discrimination is found in the mind of professor like Javed, his attitude is
completely male chauvinist when Falak meets him and shares the sour incident, actually she came
to release her trauma to some extent, wanted to emotionally bond with Javed but he disappoints
her. It is revealed in their conversation:
Javed: “Look Falak, I can either be truthful or liberal. What you want me to be?”
Falak: “I just wanted you to hold me.”
Javed: “Meenal ka samaz me aataa hai.”
Falak: “Meenal ka kya samaz me aataa hai.”
Javed: “akele kamare me, nahi jaati, istarahaa.” (Chowdhari).
Falak trying to find out what wrong her friend Meenal did in the eyes of Javed. Instead of
supporting Falak, Javed keeps distance from her. She seems emotionally attached with Javed but
he didn’t have any kind of attachment with her after the incident. The view towards women which
already had in Javed exposed in front of Falak.
Ankit Malhotra another character with feudal orthodox mentality unnecessarily intervenes
in the matter although he was not present at the place of incident, he instigates Rajveer to revenge

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No. 45886 Impact Factor: 4.321 (IIJIF)

the girls who have hurt his male ego. He unwantedly calls Meenal and abuses her, replying angrily
Meenal challenges him to see face-off, Ankint’s male ego erupts turning into the criminal and
disgusting act of kidnapping Meenal and molesting (raping) her in the running van. They felt doing
so as revenging but forgotten that they are committing a very serious crime against a woman. The
attitude and opinions regarding women are based on immoral and illegitimate cultural inheritance
acquired through from the families and patriarchal society around. Vishwa, one of the friends to
Rajveer and one who involved in the whole incident at that night seems conscious about the crime
they committed; in fact, he wanted to compromise between Rajveer and Meenal with her friends,
meets to Falak, both wanted to settle the matter but the efforts taken by him were spoiled by Ankit,
he insisted Rajveer often and often to close the matter. Falak calls Rajveer through Vishwa and
begs his pardon on behalf of Meenal, Rajveer is not ready to accept her begging and uses harsh
abusive language about Meenal, “where is that witch Meenal”. (ibid). Meenal entirely recognized
the intension and psychology of the men opposite to them didn’t want to compromise but Falak
and Andrea wanted to shut the matter up. The problem gets worse when Falak tries to negotiate by
begging pardon of Rajveer over the phone but in return gets infuriated by the language used by
Rajveer made the issue more complex.
Meenal goes to police station to lodge a complaint against Ankit and his friends but instead
of getting her work done, she was treated differently by the police officer over there. She has to
listen to the officer unwillingly, the officer, on the exact opposite tries to prove her how she was
wrong, and in an indirect way threatens her not to lodge the complaint. Women are the worst victim
of male dominated society. In most cases, a woman compelled not to register the complaint against
man as Meenal forced in this case. The police officer uses the tactic of diverting Meenal’s mind
from the case and indirectly warns her: “apke jaisi acchi ladki, aise ladkonke saath jati hai kahi”.
(ibid).
Meenal, Falak and Andrea has been affected worst due to sexual harassment and emotional
blockage, get no support or sympathy from the people living around them. Their jobs also come
under scanner when Falak reaches her office, all the staff members, her colleagues stare at her, the
feeling of awkwardness fills into her mind; she was called by her boss who shows naked pictures
of her own on internet, she argues about it that she didn’t know anything about that, but the boss
finds it as of no use. He advises her to take leave for some days and she has to stay at home for no
reason.
The Pink becomes successful in delineating the harsh reality of our society that the attitude
and behaviour of women towards women is scathing favouring the male dominance. Sarla
Premchand is a lady police officer, lodges back dated complaint against Meenal, directly

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humiliates her in public by arresting her before the people living in their colony. She took Meenal
in the police van by saying that she has a complaint of attempt of murder—in loud voice. She has
been arrested on Friday intentionally so that she couldn’t get bail till Monday. Falak, Andrea and
Meenal’s father goes to meet Meenal at the police station, they kept on waiting for a longer time
till Sarla came from the routine round. Falak tries to convince Sarla but she retaliates at her. She
speaks derogatory language before Meenal’s father: “pesha karti hai wo, pata hai ki nahi apko”.
(ibid). What kind of intensity and rage could have been produced in the mind of a father?
Humiliation. Sarla could have handle this matter very effectively and faithfully but she fails doing
so. Her treatment given to Meenal, her father and friends is a clear indication of male chauvinist
mindset inherent in women.
Prejudice regarding women is deeply rooted in every strata of society, Mukesh Kumar,
waiter and Ramakant Vijay, manager of the RS resort is prejudiced when they speak in the witness
box:
Mukesh Kumar: “aaraam se pahle baithe huye the, hans-hans ke baate kar rahe the apas
me, maine ladkiyon ke hav-bhav aur kapde dekh ke myaanejar saahaab ko pahle hi kaha tha ki ye
koi kapal-wapal nahi hai, nikaal do, subhahi jaayegi ye, ab aisi ladkiyaan…..nahi to ye kadkiyaan
kadkon ke kamaron me kyon jaati….aur waha bhi ek-ek ladki ek-ek kadke ko alag le jaa rahi thi”.
(ibid).
Ramakant Vijay: “sar main kaise bataa saktaa hun itne logo me….sar wo kuch ladka-kadki
jo private me karte hain apas me, wo wuski baat kar rahi thi…” (ibid).
Both the witnesses, without knowing the truth put some facts before the court, the manager
and waiter assumes things which are already set in their mind, they think that what they said must
be happened; they couldn’t think of any other possibility. Again, two male witnesses presume the
same things about the victims—Mr. Gupta and Mr. Sinha. Mr. Gutpa says: “sar mai sach kah raha
hun, maine dekhaa hai, meri sosayati ke bahut logon ne dekha hai, ladke to aate hai inke yahaa.”
It is a faulty attitude based on assumption expressed by men, neighbour to Meenal,
immediately proved so by Mr. Sehgall before the court. Once Meenal and Mr. Sehgall walks in
the evening, two passerby heard saying, “wo, wo dekh Surajkund kaandwali” (ibid), displays the
biased mind of people in the society. Mr. Sehgall becomes successful in establishing the truth but
he has to go to the extreme of argument, some of his questions asked to Meenal in the witness box
are rigorous in nature, even the judge also asks whether it is necessary to ask such questions openly:
“Are you a virgin, Ms. Arora?”
“When did you lose your virginity?”
“You are a woman of questionable character.”

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“Did he pay you?”

“Did he force you?”
Publically we cannot and ought not to ask these things to a woman but when we assume
things, it becomes inevitable to clarify. According to Mr. Sehgall, since many years, we are taking
efforts in wrong direction to save our girls, instead we should take efforts to save our boys from
committing the heinous crimes and not the girls because the boys have become the victim of feudal
mentality and they do crime to showcase their pseudo manliness. The same attitude percolates
from the mouth of Rajveer:
“Only the men drink…aisi ladkiyon ke saath na aisa hi hota hai, aisi ladkiyon ka naam pata
hai, kya bulaya jaataa hai inko….raanXXX” (ibid).
He uses derogatory abusive words in the court before the judge, a serious offence but the
judge only warns his prosecutor to control the client. The independence of women is curtailed not
only in the society but from the home they live in. Treatment differs as per gender, Rajveer is the
outcome of such family and society.
At end of the movie, the defence and argument made by Mr. Sehgall is worth noting and a
slap over the feudal mentality, adheres to respect the opinion of a woman and also warns us not to
cross the line:
“No’, no your honour, ‘naa’ sirf ek shabd nahi apne apme ek wakya hai, your honour ise
kisi tark, spashtikaran, explanation yaa vyakhya ki jaroorat nahi hoti, ‘naa’ ka matlab ‘naa’hi hota
hai, my client said ‘no’ your honour and these boys must realize ‘no’ ka matlab ‘no’ hota hai. Ise
bolnewali ladki parichit ho, friend ho, girlfriend ho, koi sex worker ho, yaa apki apni bivi ho, ‘no’
means ‘no’ and when someone says so, you stop.” (ibid).
Mr. Sehgall very skillfully defends Meenal and her friends and successfully pulls them out
from the case. He explains that how society imposed restrictions upon women and controlled
through pseudo socio-cultural and traditional norms—see appendix. His eyes get wet while
finishing the above remark. The court finds Rajveer, Dumpy and Ankit guilty and pardens Vishwa
with an intimation. Though the case won by girls, they have to face the society and public outside
the court. This verdict has helped to change the public opinion towards women and this has been
very clearly indicated by the gesture of lady attendant of the courtroom when she shakes hand with
Mr. Sehgall, her feelings can be read in favour of the girls and ultimately regarding women.

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No. 45886 Impact Factor: 4.321 (IIJIF)

Appendix

A Girl’s Safety Manual

Mr. Dipak Sehgall, the prosecutor defending the girls prepare a safety manual for girls in
the course of the trial which is a vivid indication of the scathing social reality and male chauvinist
mindset of our society, the manual is as follows (my translation):

1. No girl should go alone anywhere with any boy, in any resort or should never use the toilet
of or with the boy; if she does so, people over there will assume that she came there
willingly and had issued the license to them to touch her inappropriately.
2. No girl should speak with laughter or by touching any boy, if she does so, he will consider
it as a hint, laughter as consent and her natural behaviour can become the proof of her loose
character.
3. In our society, needles of the clock decide character, when the girls go alone at night on
road, the cars slow down, its window panes come down; in the day, this idea never come
to anybody’s mind, never.
4. No girl should drink alcohol/ wine with any boy, if she does so, the boy will think that if
she can drink with him, she won’t hesitate to sleep with him…. Wearing jeans, t-shirts,
skirts, etc. this should not be done by girls…. Girls should not stay separate in city, should
not stay alone… they should not speak laughingly…. Don’t give them mobile
phones…don’t educate them…perform their wedding as early as possible.

Primary Source:

1. Pink. Chowdhari, Anniruddha Roy. Rising Sun Films: 2016. Film. E-copy.

Secondary Sources:

1. http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/movie-review/pink-movie-review-
amitabh-bachchan-taapsee-pannu-star-rating-3032180/
2. http://movies.ndtv.com/movie-reviews/pink-movie-review-1317
3. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/movie-reviews/pink/movie-
review/54325066.cms
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XvGq135VhQ
5. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6YUOvZrNyAcJsx3D6f3Oe6r5PckuH_B9
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0KUtYyDMQE
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q12lKfaK40

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