3 min readFeb 27, 2017 11:06 PM IST
First published on: Feb 27, 2017 at 10:19 PM IST
This is adult content and might not be for the squeamish or the sanskari. Viewer discretion is advised.
The past week was full of discussions on women’s desires and their absence from the film world. All India Bakchod’s latest video is a trophy for all women in this scenario. It champions what has been missing from the screen for years without once making it a social issue or a social message.
At first glance, it seems like a meeting of roommates. However, it casually starts naming all of the body parts that we usually shy away from speaking out loud. Of course, Vagayanti, Clitika, Geeta and Boobita and later Anu S, are only word play. Hymen, of course, is hung on the wall in memoriam. It creates a sense of relatability that makes one cry with laughter. Unwanted period? Vagayanti personifies it. Cramps? Vagayanti delivering the punches right. Needs? Clitika knows what she wants. The girl’s best friends aren’t a part of a safe sex PSA or a feminist message on labelling women sluts. They are conversations that every woman has on a daily basis in her head.
With the boss cap on her head, Vagayanti is the mother of the group and to no one’s surprise, has the best responses to the girl’s inane actions. Clitika is the very embodiment of desire, very real and just as dramatic as she should be. Geeta and Boobita are, of course, beautiful conjoined twins.
The video is reminiscent of their old video Man’s Best Friend, which also makes a short appearance. But thankfully, AIB makes sure that women are not left alone. The best part are the writers of this lovely sketch. Anuya Jakatdar, Manaswi Mohata, Ayesha Nair and Supriya Joshi have managed to get through without patronising a single element of the female body of the girl herself. Bollywood, please note: relatability comes when women write about women, not with a bunch of men on the writers table. Brownie points for the brilliant sanitary napkin advertisement (Ryan micro-Goslings? Yes please) and ‘blue water’ for ‘viewer sensibilities’.
Not once does the video even gloss over the girl’s free sex life. It doesn’t offer commentary. That’s the best takeaway from it: there is no social commentary, there is no message. The video is feminist in every aspect of it. Is it a heteronormative narrative? Yes; but that doesn’t affect the video in any way and it also needs considering how the quarrel between the best friends begins.
So thank you AIB, for being there when no one else was. For being the voice that they are so adamant on stealing and killing. For making me laugh at my own body without once telling me that it is only for a cause in a social issue. For letting me know nothing about me is ‘dirty’ or ‘unspeakable’. Thank you.
PS: Dear men, we are glad we have more than one best friend.
Share
