Sandstorm-a movie

Sandstorm (Bawander in Hindi) is a movie about the fight of a Rajasthani woman against the evils of the society and how she has to pay heavily in terms of her Self-Respect and Dignity just for the fact that she stood for her rights. Directed by Jag Mundhra, and cast being Nandita Das, Raghuvir Yadav and Deepti Naval, this movie has successfully met all the requirements a documentary requires with actors doing justice to their roles. There is subtle music at the background portraying typical Rajasthan and its flamboyant colors even in the dry parched life of the people especially the women who are considered as slaves slogging for their families and have no say!
Nandita Das one was suggested to join the NGO headed by Deepti Naval to fight for the rights of the women due to her brave attitude. In an environment where no woman dares to speak and she can’t even take off her veil to face any other man, this woman having the courage to stand up against the atrocities of men shook the men and the only way they could teach her a ’lesson’ for her was by raping her- the usual convention in men in such places where they prove their masculinity by raping a woman and that becomes a punishment for the woman. It was all in front of her husband where a gang of men attacked her while the couple remained helpless even if they were not at fault, the only mistake they did was to stand up for what is right and opposed the society. Saanvri Devi (Nandita)is then sympathized by Deepti Naval who supports her in fighting for hei rights and punishing the criminals, but open your eyes, welcome to India this is a place where everything other than justice can be attained. She was ridiculed by the society, starting from the compounder to the Police everybody wanted to use her- a woman becomes a piece of entertainment, an object! She was asked to bear this in silence because she belonged to a lower caste and the people involved were the Panchayat leaders who held enormous powers compared to this poor woman. But she dint quit and continued her struggle in search of Justice asking for her rights since she wasn’t wrong. Many NGOs used her as a tool to gain popularity and she also was awarded a cash prize but all that a woman wants after her dignity is hampered is not some cash but the content seeing the one who ruined her life to suffer. Again having political powers, those criminals escaped, very much believable in our system but even if had lost the case, she dint lose her spirit and continued to fight the battle against the men by being a part of the NGO towards the end.
This movie goes on about the woman’s fray throughout in search of justice, but ends with her losing the battle. Unfortunately she encounters all men trying to use her as a sexual object since she is already raped and her poise was struck by the men just because she was brave enough. Despairing is the fact that even if women today are counted as equal, there still is a gender inequality at varying intensities. In states like Rajasthan, Bihar, Orissa etc. any woman who has to be punished is done by assaulting and abusing her in public and the caste decides how worse the torture can go while men are the ultimate rulers. The woman has no one who would listen to her, even if she is nowhere at fault and there is no justice meant for the poor women because the ultimate laws lie in the hands of politicians where no honest man can find a place. We all complain about the political system but there is no change in it, while those leaders heading our nation shamelessly escape and more the money they accumulate, more power they have and more Government servants they have, leading a comfortable life while the innocent victims have to suppress their sufferings and bear it in silence. Rather than pitying this condition, this movie made me think the need to empower the women and to punish the men and this can happen only by spread of education primarily and second by enabling women to stand up for their rights bravely and not quit no matter how much the criminals try to humiliate them. This first needs to start from me as an individual then would be to talk about the other women and I realized that women shouldn’t bear a single mark of disrespect since only if you respect your own self will others respect you. We also need to become self sufficient, not just a trademark of our husbands, but every woman should have her own identity and positions, not letting anyone take her for granted. These are the little values we all need to incorporate. I choose visiting my village in Orissa and talking to the women around and understand the real picture. Opening their eyes to the power they have, than just bearing silently in their world of darkness where all the know is the four walls of their rooms is our utmost responsibility and this movie had shaken me when I was very young to realize that life isn’t all bout having fun, but we too have certain responsibilities towards the other s around us.