INDIA NEW ENGLAND NEWS on the Web
Issue Date: December 15, 2002
Actress enlightens AASRA at group's first fund-raiser
By Christine Walsh
BILLERICA, Mass. — Before Nandita Das took the podium at the Asian American Support and Resource Agency’s first major fund-raiser, a short film presented a glimpse of the actress’s onscreen resume.
The audience saw Das as the mother of a 9-year-old rape victim in “Pitaah,” a tribal woman in “Lal Salaam,” the wife of a psychopathic cop in “Aks,” and a poor Hindu girl living in Lahore during partition in “1947 Earth.”
But it was a clip of “Fire” that roused the crowd. In the scene, Das gets into her cheating husband’s face and yells, “I think you’re a pompous fool. A pompous fool. F-O-O-L.” The audience cheered — after all, this was an evening about empowering women.
While her face didn’t exactly match the color of the crimson sari she was wearing, Das laughed as she began her talk. “After that, it’s really embarrassing to come up here,” she said. “There are a lot of film clips I would have happily disowned.”
For the rest of the evening, however, Das was quite serious as she discussed her career and the problems plaguing women in Indian society.
“While I want to sound upbeat and talk about empowerment and the great things women have done, it’s also important to know things have gone wrong,” she said, speaking before about 150 people at the Wyndham Hotel on Nov. 22.
It’s hard to imagine a case more wrong than that of Saanwari, a rural low-caste woman Das portrays in “Bawandar,” whose fight against child marriages leads to her being gang-raped by three upper-caste men. This happens in front of Saanwari’s husband, who has been beaten so badly he cannot help her.
The movie is based on the true story of Bhanwari Devi, who has spent the past eight years taking her case from court to court.
So far, judges have ruled her claims of rape must be false for three reasons: an upper-caste man would never touch a lower-caste woman; under Hindu rituals it’s impossible for a husband to watch his wife be raped; and two people from the same family cannot rape the same woman.
“The court verdict was just appalling,” Das said.
Like Devi’s real-life story, “Bawandar” does not have a happy ending, which has caused some moviegoers to complain, Das said.
“The fact was she didn’t win,” she said. “It’s only true to show the fact that she’s still struggling for justice.”
As in Devi’s case, most violent crimes against women in India are sexual, according to police records from 2001, Das said.
The situation, she said, is “grim.” Every 26 minutes a woman in India is molested. Every 34 minutes a woman is raped. Every 42 minutes a woman is sexually harassed. Every 43 minutes a woman is kidnapped. Every 93 minutes a woman is killed.
And those are just the cases that are reported.
“There’s so much stigma, shame, humiliation,” she said. “Often, the family tells the woman to shut up and forget it.”
Filming the gang rape scene in “Bawander” gave Das a sense of those feelings that she never had before. Until then, it was easy for her to say that men — and not women — should be ashamed of rape.
“Just for a fraction of a second you almost realize how it must have been,” she said. “There was this feeling of complete humiliation.”
A social worker before she was a movie star, Das has always believed in the extreme importance of being vocal and stating your opinion. While in college, she began performing in street theater.
“It was more about the issues you raise than about acting,” she said.
Her first major film was “Fire,” in which she played a lesbian and immediately earned the designation of controversial actress.
The movie, she says, made her more sensitive about one of India’s taboo issues. When “Fire” first came out, Das would quickly answer, “no,” whenever someone asked her if she was a lesbian.
Over the years, her answer has changed.
“Now, I look into the person’s eyes,” she said. “I don’t have to get defensive. I say, ‘How does it matter?’”
While Das believes that no movie can bring about a revolution, she does think movies can have an impact on people’s lives.
“Some films really touch us,” she said. “We come out not just crying and forgetting about it. They stay with us.”
Likewise, she is not attempting to single-handedly change the world.
“Everything is a drop in the ocean when you do it or I do it or anyone does it,” she said. “Every drop is important.”
