India is an amazing country! Although bright colors are revealed everywhere from the inside to the outside, it is a black and white patriarchal world that is hard to shake!
Following Dangal's "Wrestling! After "Dad", Indian director Aamir Khan's new film Secret Superstar "Secret Superstar" once again focuses the film on women's dreams and gender equality. The 150-minute movie still has no cold scene. Behind the touching mother-daughter relationship is the awakening of Indian women's self-awareness!
No matter where in the world you are, how do you become your true self? Always a question worth thinking about.
The talented 14-year-old girl Insia has loved music since she was a child and dreams of letting more people hear her beautiful singing. However, due to her father's objection, she cannot participate in the music competition and can only be a masked singer. She secretly uploaded the self-playing and self-singing video to youtube, but unexpectedly it became popular overnight! Become a household name hidden big star.
Outside of the online world, Inshia's life is no different from that of an ordinary Indian girl. Apart from studying, she also has a patriarchal father. The difference is that she has a seemingly ordinary but unique mother.
【A cherished dream has wings to fly】
The confident Inshia and the gentle and timid mother seem to be two extremes (she always thinks so). Yet an uneducated mother with a natural sensitivity to music can easily tell the difference between good and bad music. Hidden behind ordinary housewives is a love for music! Because of this, a mother who never knew she could have dreams in her life naturally made her daughter a person with dreams.
"Dream" and "self" have always been inseparable. In a country like India where women are considered property of men, "dream" is an absolute luxury for most women! Many girls don't have time to realize who they are? I was married as a wife early, and there is no other possibility for a long life in the future.
Inshia is lucky to have a mother who works hard to protect her despite her scars. And in order to protect her mother, she has gradually grown into a girl who dares to speak up in the face of injustice and is no longer timid!
The mother-daughter relationship has always been an extremely important part of a woman's growth process: the daughter seems to be the mother's young self, and the mother seems to be the daughter's future self. Mother and daughter are connected, if you don’t want to let the past regrets and future limitations repeat the same mistakes, let’s work together to change the status quo for each other.
There is no unshakable authority in this world, and I am afraid that mother and daughter will be enemies! The saddest thing for a patriarchal family is that the deeply victimized mother unconsciously becomes the perpetrator of her daughter's fate!
[Forbearance of domestic violence is the greatest harm to children]
There is a lot of reference to domestic violence in the film, which may be a common phenomenon in India. But in fact, domestic violence is not uncommon in other countries in the world. There are still many women like Inshia's mother who silently endure violent husbands who disagree with each other in order to maintain the integrity of the family!
They always thought that as long as they put up with it, it would be fine. But in fact, it won't get better if you endure it. Violence is not stopped, it will only intensify! It's a human issue.
And the most terrifying thing is not the violence in front of you, but the damage to the hearts of the children around you over time! Every time Inshia and her younger brother saw their father beat up their mother, they looked extremely frightened! That fear is not only the fear of the father at the moment, but it will gradually evolve into two completely different feelings of "anger" and "approval".
Inshia's sympathy for her mother who didn't dare to resist gradually turned to contempt. And the two boys in the movie: Inshia's younger brother and Inshia's classmate Qintan, are simply the incarnation of angels! This also seems to imply that the boys are kind and innocent in nature before they are polluted by the idea of patriarchal supremacy.
However, if things go on like this, when Inshia's younger brother grows up, he will become a copy of his father before he knows it. The reason why Inshia's father thought it was right for her husband to beat his wife must be the result of the family of origin.
A truly complete family is not formal integrity and apparent harmony, but mutual respect and equal treatment among families. When parents have a peaceful relationship, their children will have a healthy mind. Be sure to remember: if you blindly endure the immediate damage, you will only cause more damage in the future!
【This world always thinks that what you see is everything】
This time, director Aamir Khan plays a funny musician who is unique and has a bad reputation. In the music competition program, he ruthlessly criticized the competitors who were not good enough; the divorce lawsuit with his wife was all over the city. Most of the audience thought that he had a very bad character, including Incia, and thus negated everything about him.
In fact, what looks bad on the surface may not be really bad; divorce is not a question of good or bad character. The world always thinks that what it sees is all there is to it, and there is always an endless list of labels for those who are different.
When most people take prejudice as the truth, society as a whole takes a narrower and narrower path.
The so-called "Best Singer Award" is not awarded to the singer who can sing best, but to the singer who has a good image and is present at the scene. The film satirizes the phenomenon of generalization and putting the cart before the horse in India, as well as many social problems such as "abortion" (baby girl), "child marriage" and "domestic violence" caused by the concept of "preference to women".
A director with a sense of social responsibility is like a ray of light in the dark society, illuminating the problems that have been ignored for a long time. There are also men in power who take Inshia’s window seat as a matter of course on the plane, and there are men like Aamir Khan who encourage Inshia to take back her seat loudly.
Aamir Khan:
Criticizing ourselves and our country is the first step in our progress. There is no need to be ashamed of your own country being put in the spotlight. What should be ashamed is where our country is still lacking.
This may be the reason why every time I watch an Indian movie, I can always be moved by the innocent eyes. It is true that they are not good enough, but they never hide it. They are nakedly poor and unfair, and they may not change for a while, but as long as people can start to think about these issues through movies, the progress of society is just around the corner.
I think, like "Wrestling! Friends of "Dad" should all like "Secret Superstar". The two movies are like sisters. Behind the mud and masks, the girls' cherished dreams give them the possibility to fly and have enough confidence to get their own window seats on the plane!
The original text was published on WeChat public account: Ai Yong (ID: aiyung32)
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