16 days of Activism: Some questions around Moral Panic!
Madhuri Dixit and Sanjay Dutt in Khalnayak
When the famous Bollywood film Khalnayak (Villan, 1993) was released there was an outcry in the nation protesting against the obscenity and vulgarity of the song ‘choli ke peeche’ featuring two women, (Neena Gupta and Madhuri Dixit) singing to each other in erotic banter with a silent male audience.
Before the 1990s, women in Hindi cinema had quite clearly been divided into good women and bad women, ie, the heroine and the vamp. ‘Choli ke Peeche’ sees one of the first instances of the merging of these two identities in the early 1990s- such an expression of a woman’s sexuality was indeed difficult to digest for a large part of the Indian population.
The protesters alleged that such an obscene song would increase vulgarity in cinema and lead to increased sexual violence against women- nobody however spoke of the second version of this song in the film. In this version the male lead assaults the female lead. No ban was demanded on this version that actually depicts violence against women.
Bollywood songs are much bigger than the films they belong to. They live on much after the film has released and often are not dependent on the box office status of the film. They have a massive impact on audience, even people who might not watch Bollywood films would have definitely heard its songs.
On the occasion of this year’s ’16 days of Activism’- the question that this song and its reception poses is one of deep mindsets. Is assault on a woman so commonplace that it doesn’t strike the mind as problematic? And is sexual agency so outrageous that it needs an immediate ban?
‘Choli ke Peeche’ became a huge hit and won several awards and created a whole new genre of song and dance in Hindi movies which were to be reflected in cinemas through the next few decades to come.
The above video is a tribute to this cult song and its spirit.
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DISCLAIMER: This song is from the film Khalnayak (1993) directed by Subhash Ghai. All creative content belongs to him and his production house. Parts of the song ‘Choli ke Peeche’ were used from youtube. No copyright infringement intended, apologies if any committed.
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Editor’s Note: This post is a part of a series of posts we are hosting on this blog highlighting various issues and activities across the world during the ongoing 16 days of activism against gender based violence.
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