5 Reasons Why 'Pink' Was A Game Changer In Bollywood!

In 16^th September 2016, a film called Pink released. It was a Bollywood film that had Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari and Andrea Tariang alongside Amitabh Bachchan. The director was new in Bollywood (Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury is a known name in Bengali film industry) and the cast was also relatively new. And yet the film created such impact that will probably go down in the history of Bollywood.

It was a film like no other, that came and changed the way we looked at mainstream Bollywood films. Let us analyse a few factors that made this film an unprecedented film in Bollywood:

1.  It explored the meaning of consent

This was probably one of the most significant points in the film. The film explored how a No strictly means a NO. There can be no other meaning to the word. There were many more factors that were attached to this simple statement. One, a woman sharing a drink with you or agreeing to go somewhere with you even though they have just met or her being friendly to you DOES NOT mean in any way that she wants to have a sexual or physical relationship with you. She has consented to your company is not equivalent to her consenting for a physical relationship. It was a slap on the society where even today people try to point a finger at those who have complained about sexual harassment or assault and try to put the blame on them.

2. Consent does not depend on the 'character' of the woman

The film also showed how society, including the women, are quick to judge the ‘character’ of a woman if she has been assaulted. In the film, the defense lawyer constantly tried to prove that the women had loose morals and that they were ‘whores’. It raised the significant point that even if a woman might have had several physical relationships or engages in sex for money, a No would still mean a No.

3. It showed women bonding

Although there have been many films that showed women bonding over, this film passed it casually and yet made a strong statement. No, women do not always engage in cat fights or when they are together, they do not just gossip. It projected how women, like probably everyone else, are human beings capable of basic human relationships like friendship and that there can be good friendship among women.

4. A North East character was portrayed by a North Eastern.

In the film, the character of Andrea was portrayed by Andrea Tariang, who is from Meghalaya. It was probably one of the rare films that had a girl from the north east playing the character of a north eastern.

5.The proximity to reality

The film showed real locations and that made the film even more relatable. The story of Minal and her friends can be heard anywhere across the nation. It was a simple basic story that unfortunately every woman is probably familiar with. It was told in an equally simpler way but the execution overall touched the chords of one and all.