It wasn't JUST a slap!!!

2020 promises to be a year of many FIRSTS!

For the first time last night, I decided I wanted to watch a movie without my husband tagging along. You see, all along I’ve wanted him to join me for movies. Most often I would miss out on the movies I wanted to see, because he didn’t like the subject, or the director, or the ideology, or the star. I don’t blame him. He had his reasons; genuine or not. I regretfully tagged along and gave the movies a skip. Not yesterday though!!!

I wanted to see Thappad and decided I would see it, even if I had to watch it all alone. Just as I logged into bookmyshow and selected my seat, I thought id ask my girlfriends if they wanted to tag along; and they did. Yehhh

So, five of us, hurried through our chores, cooked dinner and kept everything ready for our families and then dolled up and went for the movie.

Then as five of us sat and watched the movie, we went through an internal conflict. We retrospected, we introspected,  we responded, we sobbed, we empathized with the protagonist, and we sympathized with our own selves. Don’t get me wrong. We come from happy families, we come from happy marriages, we love our children, we love our husbands.

But for the umpteenth time I sat there wondering ‘WHY’, ‘why do we women choose to keep quiet, why do we accept this, why do we brush it under  the carpet, why do we tell our daughters that its ok, why do we silently watch other women fight their battles, why do we ignore a mans actions, why do we forgive him and tell others to forgive him, why do we advise women to forgive and move on! Why, Why, Why?

Thappad is a movie that questions all the teachings that mothers teach their daughters. This is a movie that questions age old patriarchal norms. It questions a woman’s self-worth.

Mind you, the husband loves his wife, the in-laws adore their daughter-in-law, the parents love their daughter and the brother loves his sister. Yet, when it came to calling out the wrong from the right; each one of them kept silent and then asked the wife to forgive and move on. WHY?

I recommend the movie to everyone and also ask them to watch it with their entire families and make a promise to fix things before it is too late.