Entertainment / Pink Saris – Empower Women

Pink Saris – Empower Women

Entertainment Jun 06, 2013

by Anokhi Admin

Kim Longinotto's Documentary film, Pink Saris expects to herald change for girls in remote parts of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. "If girls spoke up, the world would change," says Sampat Pal Devi, the outspoken leader of the well-known Gulabi Gang (Pink Gang) who speaks up for atrocities against women. The camera follows the real lives of five young women – Rekha, Rampyari, Kunni, Niranjan and Renu. All of them come from the lowest caste in Indian society, also known as the "untouchables." Their problems range from domestic violence, sexual abuse, child marriages, female infanticide, unwed pregnancy, inter-caste marriages and primarily a lack of education. They come knocking on the doors of the overbearing Devi who is a self-proclaimed "messiah for women."

Sampat Pal Devi (right) in Pink Saris

The film operates on many levels and brings out the complexities of a society and its' individuals. In the remote villages of Uttar Pradesh women still cover their heads, hide their faces behind saris and are ashamed to speak up. A father-in-law rapes a woman while her husband is away. She runs away and seeks refuge with Devi, who challenges the father-in-law in front of the whole village and tells him that he will rot in jail. A young girl elopes with a boy of a higher caste and after staying with her and getting her pregnant abandons her from fear of being disinherited by his family. Devi steps in, takes up the cause, gets the police and press involved and gets the two married. She initiates the women she helps into her Gulabi Gang by presenting them each with a pink sari. Devi herself got married as a child and was thrown on the streets with five children. She was in danger of starving but she brought herself out and is a survivor. However, she cannot help or find a solution for every desperate woman who approaches her.

Acclaimed director Longinotto doesn't base the film on statistics and says she doesn't like films with voice overs that tell you what to think. She loves films made by women which are about change. On the same note she also admits that her film shows that Devi really can't change anything. Talking to ANOKHI after the screening of Pink Saris at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival Longinotto says, "I thought really strongly about the way Sampat worked, I mean she's a complex person but what she does well is bringing things out into the open and I think that's what we can learn from her. For example when she goes to the father-in-law who has been raping his daughter-in-law, she gets everybody there and says this is what's been happening behind closed doors and they go, "No, no, you can't say this, it is shame," and she says, "Shame? What's the shame?" I love that because in UK and in all of Europe there's been priests raping little boys and girls, it's been going on for 40 years and nobody's been able to speak up because it is shameful. We can learn from Sampat and if there were more people like her then all these taboos would be broken up."

Renu (left) in Pink Saris

Even though it might seem like Pink Saris is Sampat Pal Devi's story, in essence the film represents the struggles of the five young women and the implications their stories have on thousands of others. It's not often that a documentary film maker gets so involved in the life of it's subjects that they want to change their life situation. But Longinotto admits that she's never been so haunted and was really depressed when she came back from India. She feels a responsibility towards them and has already started the process so that the girls can get passports and travel to England.

"Films don't change the world, we know that," says Longinotto, "but you can be part of the change and that's what people can do which is changing consciousness saying that we are going to celebrate when a girl child is born. Women are goddesses as Sampat says, they're the best thing." About the fiery Gulabi Gang leader she adds, "I admire Sampat and really respect and love what she's done but for me the heart of the film is the girls and the point of the film is their story. She's on another journey."

BY PREETI THANDI

_{Sources: wmm.com, hbo.com, and gulabigang.in}

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Pink Saris – Empower Women

by Anokhi Admin

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