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| Vogue Designer Eyewear Brand Ambassador Deepika Padukone |
Only
a month or so ago, after much negative publicity meted out to film maker Leslee
Udwin for her film India’s Daughter,
Vogue India has launched its empower series starring Deepika Padukone and 98
other women in a Ad film called My Choice,
made by Homi Adajania. The video which has gone viral has lines that have been
repeated over and over again, in the last two to three years, with regard to
women’s choices around her body, her mind. The debate on women’s body and
choices has been central to the women’s movement in India, and has been gaining
force and strength in the last few years. It is clear that women in India want
to break out of the shackles of male controlled patriarchal domains in private
and public life.
The
film made for the consumption of HNI consumer in urban India, with purchase
power, is a poor representation of women in India. While it might be said with
some certainty that women in India have come out in the open and are leading
from the front, when one actually goes to see, the percentage of such women is
a minuscule amount as against her male counterpart (See HERE) Moreover, she is still
battling regressive attitude from both genders against herself. In any case,
she has fought to come up front and continues to fight for herself, even after
that. We can certainly say that she is struggling to make her place in the
workforce and become visible in public spaces. She is empowering herself.
Despite this, it is not as if she is not fighting her own doubts, about
herself.
The
truly, autonomous, individual woman, is yet to emerge here in India. Be that as
it may, there are many highly empowered women in India who are from the film
industry even, who could have featured in the Vogue India ad.
Deepika
Padukone, has always come across as a wimp. Whether in private life or on
screen life, she has not made a Statement
for herself, which could have made the vast many women in India hold her in
high esteem and emulate her as a role model. Thus, choosing her for the ad, was
a mistake, because, she fails the test in marketing
the idea of an empowered Indian woman. At best the ad will bring to the
fore, the issues women face in India, by giving it a celebrity endorsement. Whether
male attitude changes positively towards women, our need as Indian women to
claim back ourselves in every sphere that affects our lives, becomes critical.
I
would say that the film has done far more for Deepika’s flagging image in the
filmy world than it has done for Vogue India. The lines are clichéd and have
now become used and abused many times over. I wish the film made one single
statement, instead of so many words, blurring one into the other, creating a
sense of euphoria. All bubbles, no substance.
Saddled
with one after another film that failed the Box Office, in fact her PR Agency
has tried to make much ado about the exposure of her cleavage in Finding Fanny (check on Twitter @HotDeepikaPadu )so that by using negative publicity,
the film could muster up money. The strategy failed and she has come across an
actress, who continues to use her body and her love, for publicity and to make
her films run. Given this background, sadly, Deepika must climb the first step
to self empowerment. And Vogue India, must apprentice a few more years in
India, so that she is not blissfully clued out of what is the real Indian woman.
Also read:
Radhika S in TheHindu
Sudhir
Srinivasan in The Hindu
References:
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