Friday, July 06, 2007

Provoked


I saw provoked yesterday. It is a beautiful story of indomitable human spirit. It is a real story about the life of kiranjit ahluwalia, an indian staying in UK, who after having been emotionally, sexually, physically abused for 10 years, burnt her husband to death.

Imagine being scared in your own house for yourself..imagine protecting your kids from their own father..imagine just being quiet , suffering, so as to protect family honor..imagine being abused physically during your pregnancy..having to beg money from your own husband to feed your children..And this is the hell that, kiranjit ahluwalia faced and a huge number of battered women continue to face everyday of their lives.

So finally, after another particularly vehemant beating, quite rightfully provoked, she killed him and landed in jail. People feel restricted in a prison and she, ironically, felt free for the first time. In her words "jail of law where atlast i found freedom". It is in prison that she started living her life finally, learnt english, made friends and rebuilt her broken spirits.

Aishwarya rai's acting in the movie is really commendable. She has raised the bar for so many actors with this superb piece.

Some lines i liked in the movie-

"In life there is no honour in silent suffering. There is no affection,no comfort to be found in love that is abused. It is our responsibility as mothers, to raise our sons to treat women with love and respect not violence and anger only then will the suffering end. My story is a part of the picture. I may not be important, but the issue is. Please donot forget that there are many women who need help from you"-(spoken by kiran(aishwarya) at the end of her trial)

"a women is a toy, a plaything broken at will, stuck together at will"-(spoken by kiran(aishwarya) describing what she felt about the abuse)

"wat sort of a world is this..where a women has to lose her marbles to get justice and a man just has to lose his temper"-(spoken by nandita das who plays a woman working for the NGO which helped kiran)

What kiran faced and how she managed to hold herself through the torture reminded me of a line by karla in shantaram-"I don't know what frightens me more,the power that crushes us or our endless ability to endure it."

PS: the society that supported her cause is SOUTHALL BLACK SISTERS
in case you want to read more on the case

3 comments:

yash said...

@gurveen;(in regard to "random musings")Now do u accept the fact that no person can be immaculately scrupulous throughout his/her life. Circumstances compelled a simple woman to commit a homicide. Man has to give up honesty,candidness, or so called “etiquettes” for sustenance.It is just an example of such malpractices prevalent in the society today.Even more brutal mishaps/sufferings/tortures prevail ,most of which are not disclosed.

Gurveen Bedi said...

@nimit:thanx..yup...awareness is needed the most yaar..so tat atleast the taboo in india associated wid "going against ur husband" will reduce..
@yash:aaarrrrrghhhhhhhhhhh...tats different..tats soooo different..tat was being honest at work nd stuff..nd this is surviving wen ur husband is beatin u black nd blue...
chal lets just agree on da fact tat we think different about"random musings"..coz on this topic neither will u agree to wat i say..nor will i to wat u say ever:D

Vikash said...

thanx for the suggestion. going to watch this now. :)