Nuts Imagining "Rape" Scene in Bahubali

The romantic character Don Juan was popularized by actors like John Barrymore, Errol Flynn, etc since the early days of cinema. Johnny Depp also played him, more recently. Don Juan is a famous classical male hero who is amorously aggressive towards women. His style of behaviour is so famous, that "Don Juan" has become a categorical phrase to describe such behaviour. That particular Bahubali scene we're talking about is much tamer than Don Juan behaviour, and is clearly a playful scene. And Don Juan type of movie heroes, along with their amorous scenes, have been seen many many times around the world without sparking controversy.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Juan_(1926_film)

http://img.soundtrackcollector.com/cd/large/Adventures_of_Don_Juan_FMA_MS106.jpg

http://www.tailslate.net/wp-content/uploads/2004/06/Don-Juan-DeMarco_featured.jpg


Let's take a look at the famous Sean Connery, playing the famous hero James Bond:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW5Cwv5oiSc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pUXH1Bye88

Hey, I saw those movies as a young kid, watching them with my family. Lots of people have seen James Bond movies without turning into rapists. Many of us continue to love James Bond movies, even while not being ignorant of James Bond's particular lust for women. James Bond movies have not destroyed society, or caused its downfall. The character Shivudu's behaviour in Bahubali is far tamer than James Bond.


Don't try to just make up nonsense because you can. By doing so, you're only saying more about yourself than about the subject you're commenting upon. Those who've been attacking Bahubali for its love scene only look like clowns. I invite movie-goers to directly watch Bahubali for themselves, to decide for themselves what's really going on, rather than believing in manufactured controversies for the sake of it. There are people who are out to bash this movie for reasons other than what they're outwardly claiming. There are certain critics in the media whose names are well-known for certain types of politics. Viewers would do well to be wary of taking their claims at face value.

The 'Adarsh liberal' people who are here to "save women" need to calm down.

May be these female perspectives on the movie might help you:


Title: 6 more reasons to attack Baahubali apart from making Avantika look like a victim
Link: http://theauthorportal.com/2015/07/23/6-more-reasons-to-attack-baahubali-apart-from-making-avantika-look-like-a-victim/

Title: Baahubali’s Avantika, Popular Cinema And Indian Feminism
Link: http://swarajyamag.com/culture/baahubalis-avantika-popular-cinema-and-indian-feminism/

A balanced article, acknowledging the feminist tone of this movie
Title: Is Indian Cinema Finally Empowering Its Female Characters?
Link: http://idiva.com/opinion-entertainment/are-aggresive-women-characters-in-hindi-films-a-sign-of-empowerment/15072368


Lets examine the four main female roles in BB and see how they help to destroy stereotypes held against women:

1. Sanga(Foster Mother of Shivudu): When the couple find baby Shivudu in the waters, it is Sanga who goes against her husband's warnings and decides to raise the baby as her own. It is she who orders the tribal men to close the opening to the cave. In another small scene, when Sanga was performing the 'abhishekam' to Shiva-lingam, her husband does not 'dare' to stop Sanga from doing so. These subtle cues tell us who is the boss in their marriage and depicts Sanga as having her own independent mind.

2. Avantika: The introduction sequence of Avantika shows her as an unforgiving and fearless warrior who kills a marauding soldiers of Mahishmati Kingdom. She then is shown as a person having a mission in her life and as being wholly dedicated to that cause. The chief of the rebel force(scene in the cave), chooses Avantika as the person capable of rescuing Devasena, overlooking many men in the cave. Isn't this a clear statement of support to feminism by the writer and director?

3. Rajamata Shivagami: When the reigning king and queen die, it is Shivagami who shoulders the responsibility of ruling the kingdom until the heirs to the throne are ready. She successfully protects the kingdom from falling prey to traitors whom she ruthlessly gets killed. Shivagami herself kills 3 people(2 at the waterfall), coincidentally killing all three while holding a baby in one hand. The scene in which she kills a traitor and the next scene where she breast feeds two kids sitting on the throne, shows how women can successfully hold leadership roles while at the same time perform their motherly duties. This scene for me, is the strongest feminist statement any Indian film has ever made. Shivagami treats her husband's(Nasser) advice to make their own son(Bhallaladeva) as the king, with contempt and responds even more forcefully when he questions her decision to make Baahubali as the king after the battle with this statement: This is my word, and my word is the law!(much more powerful in Indian language).

4. Devasena: Though she has very little role in the first part, she is expected to be a warrior herself in part 2(as evident from part-2 teaser). However, even in part-1 she is shown as a strong women who does not succumb to the pressures of Bhallaladeva and does not take help from Kattappa when he offers to free her, Devasena's character is obviously inspired by Sita Devi from Ramayan. Also she is shown to be making a pyre in the middle of central square of Mahishmati to eventually burn the corpse of Bhallaladeva. This shows the resolve and courage of Devasena.

To my knowledge no other Indian movie(correct me if i am wrong), have four principal characters as females where three of them wield swords and kill men. No movie had shown a female breastfeeding her two kids on the screen-breastfeeding is a fact of life-why so touchy about it? The above characters shows that this film is pro-feminism and supports almost every single agenda of the movement(political rights, leadership roles, marriage equality, may be #freethenipple(jk), role in armed forces etc). But people "choose" to focus only on a single silly scene(the intention was to generate humor-it evidently failed) which has nothing to do with the rest of the movie unlike other pro-feminist scenes which are pivotal to the story. Where are the articles from feminists celebrating the biggest pro feminist movie ever to come out of Indian film industry?

This hypocrisy becomes all the more pronounced when some of the biggest blockbusters of bollywood themselves have many anti-feminist scenes but the same critics of Baahubali who find fault with its one scene and doesn't hesitate to slander a whole film industry based on that, choose to remain blind.

Let's see examples of blockbuster bollywood movies which had "regressive" portrayal of women:

Sholay(yes sholay): Dharmendra 'sexually assaults' Hema-Malini while teaching her how to shoot a gun. He touches her inappropriately without her consent

Tanu Weds Manu: Madhavan kisses a drunk and passed out girl(Kangana) lying on the bed whom he met for the first time and takes a photo of her

Ishq: Aarmir Khan teaches Juhi Chawla a 'lesson', when she takes away his bag humiliating him, by forcefully kissing her on the lips in the middle of the street

Kambakth Ishq: Same situation, different big stars. Kareena insults Akshay Kumar in a church, how does an alpha man respond to this-of course he shoves his tongue down her mouth to shut her up

Nayak: Anil Kapoor clandestinely shoots Rani Mukherjee(a complete stranger) bathing in a pond, with his camera and proudly shows her the video. And she is impressed!

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai: SRK during a basketball match deliberately messes with the attire of Kajol to win the match, and like a 'good indian girl' Kajol prefers to save her 'ijjat' and loses the ball. SRK scores and wins. Good job SRK, that teaches Indian women what their place is- in kitchen not on playground.

Haseena Maan Jayegi: Govinda pretends to be a blind man and watches a woman change her clothes, after he gets caught and a spurts a cringey dialogue, the girl is in his arms and they sing a duet


These examples are just a minute sample of bollywood films where women are taught to be submissive, taught that 'izzat' is more important than life(countless films have shown female characters committing suicide after getting raped or forcing the rapist to marry the victim), hindi serials portray women as either scheming mother-in-law or the helpless daughter-in-law. Bollywood is the 'baap' when it comes to objectification of women in films, a benign example of this is: a bollywood female superstar Kareena Kapoor acted as a prostitute in an item song called "Fevicol se" in which she asks Salmaan Khan to "Main to tanduri hoon yaar, Gatkale saiyan alcohol se oh yeah!"-translated to: "I am a barbecue hen.. Swallow me with alcohol, oh my beloved!" It also produces songs like 'baby doll' and 'pink lips' that get millions of views, and adult comedy films which show girls as dumb bimbos collecting hundreds of crores at the box office.

More articles on bollywood's anti-feminism:
Link: http://feminisminindia.com/2015/05/07/10-posters-that-show-how-bollywood-reinforces-gender-stereotypes/#.Vbkdwfmqqko
Research article on bollywood's representation of women:
Link: http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/3/7/3/4/9/p373490_index.html?phpsessid=p0fn7kfnjqlhao99juo3rfbkb7

People write about how Baahubali fails at Bechdel test, but why don't I see the same point being raised about Bajrangi Bhaijaan which got released just a week later, which fails at the test too and has Kareena just for 'glamour'?

Where are the feminists and hypocrites when these films got released? Would they strike off these movies from their 'best movies list'? Would they call those male characters(Aamir Khan, Govinda etc) as rapists? Where are articles about these films? Where are non-sensical rants generalizing whole bollywood as Mysonigists, cheap, crass based on a single scene or a song?

Yes, bollywood is seeing a small wave of pro-feminist movies since 2010s, but where is bollywood's own Vijayashanti(first female Indian superstar)? where are mainstream female directors like Bhanumathi, Suhasini and Vijay Nirmala in Bollywood? While Hindi directors like Zoya Akthar have started making films recently, these south female directors enjoyed patronage and fan following since decades(do not cite female directors like Aparna Sen who make "art" movies; majority of Hindi film goers have not heard about them, unlike in the case of south female directors).

Either the people who write such hypocritical articles lack knowledge or they are steeped in prejudice making them selectively blind.

PS: I am not against such articles criticizing the film, I am just pointing out the hypocrisy in not praising Baahubali for its feminist stand(except in that one scene) and being selectively blind to other movies.

Mask of Zorro had similar scenes, (Antonio banderas removes the dress of Catherine zeta jones, kisses her without her permission and no one made fuss about it. : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofmBgLEsthU

your youtube link refers to the song after the scene what people are referring to as rape. If I am correct, it was before this song and the guy removes the clothes of the girl almost in "snatching" fashion even though it seemed that the girl did not want that to happen and then the song starts.