A favorite among fans is Jab We Met. I myself have watched the movie at least ten times, and I've always longed for my Geet moment. I really enjoy the film because Kareena Kapoor's Geet is shown as being a strong, self-assured woman. A confident girl who isn't afraid to succeed. But because of this course, I now watch media with a highly critical eye, which has made it easier for me to see the problematic elements in movies and shows. Therefore, I want to look into the subtle misogyny present in this movie.
Geet and Aditya, who met on a train, are the focus of the film. Geet is a beautiful carefree woman who adores Anushman and is ecstatic to marry him. Aditya, on the other hand, is unhappy because his relationship with his girlfriend ended. To cut a long tale short, Aditya causes Geet to miss her train, leaving her stranded at the station by herself at midnight.
She walks to the station master at this point to inquire about the arrival time of the next train, at which point he begins making remarks about how risky it is for her to be by herself at the station since "Larki aik khuli tejori ki tarhan hoti hai."
Even though Geet is self-assured, she is terrified, and rather than making her feel comfortable, the station master makes her afraid because if a woman is alone, it can only mean one thing, right?
Men think in this way which is why women experience anxiety as soon as they leave their homes. Even the men who were standing in front of the station master's office kept entering and gazing at Geet. The master could have stopped them, but he chose to let them go on.
It's vital to understand that millions of people across the world watch these disturbing sequences. Though I’m aware that these scenes are added to movies for drama and spice, it’s important to know that media has an impact on every decision we make, thus it is crucial to create films that reflect the ideal society. Because of the many problems in our culture, women have safety issues everywhere they go. Making movies that advocate for women's safety might have a positive influence on how we think.
We cannot advance if all men have the belief that "Larki aik khuli tejori hai." Some women likewise think in a similar manner as men. For instance, Geet met her grandfather when she and Aditya arrived at their house. She employs the same argument the station master used against her to persuade him to let Aditya stay.
All of us have experienced hearing our parents make sexist remarks such, "Your brother can study abroad, but you can't because it's unsafe." If we advocate for women's safety in movies, it will also affect circumstances in real life.
What is your guys’ take on this?
While master's dialogue "larki ek khuli tajori hai" seems problematic, Geet's reply sets a good precedent for all the women that we live in a world where men do pass such comments and give unsolicited advice, we should stand our ground, be strong enough to ask them to keep their ideas to themselves and not stop ourselves from travelling alone only because there are men like master out there.
When this movie was discussed in class, there was a point made regarding how the harassment scene is shown in a lighter tone and should be regarded as comedy, but a question came to my mind that given how the world is normalizing harassment, is it actually something that can be shown as something funny?
Sure, some people probably had a good laugh seeing Geet being trapped at a railway station, and standing up for herself, and being considered to be a prostitute at several places like the hotel and then the street, where the man on the bike went after her.
But, for me, it was extremely problematic. Maybe because, I was in a very similar situation like this,…
While this is a brilliant blog post, I also feel that taking the trainmaster scene dialogue out of context, and placing it here is not a smart move. The bit where the trainmaster reminds Geet, "larkiyan khuli tajori ki tarhan hoti hein," she immediately sets the entire narrative right by replying with a dialogue that is so famous and one that also tells the train master to keep his opinions to himself. I think this was a very realistic portrayal of the south Asian society at large, where random men do make such comments that are completely uncalled for. However, the movie itself does not encourage this, as was evident from Geet's response and her course of action.
T/W: Mention of rape jokes
I would agree with the comment above. Geet has just been away from home, something that she fully understands, would not sit well with her conservative, traditionalist family members at all. She uses this to her advantage, strategically donning the role of the "satti savitri" knowing that it would get her out of an otherwise complex situation with her grandfather (and male family members). The tongue-in-cheek tone is able to make this little act seem very subversive. On the other hand, I also think that the entire scene involving rape jokes with Aditya was completely unnecessary. By humorizing a very grave and bleak aspect of South Asian society, it undermines sexual violence, and also belittles…
I want to agree on the apparent misogyny in the scene but it's inevitable to see the whole idea in a different light, and that is: We, as viewers must understand that it is important for the media to show the reality of society. If everything shown on media is sugarcoated or is a desired version of our society rather than the reality, then the media will never be able to use their platform to fix the problems present within a society. What is usually done or must be done in a well scripted movie is that there are always 2 points of view to neutralize a controversial topic or a scene that might spark arguments among viewers.
If on…