India’s Daughter the Documentary – “Her name is Jyoti and she is light”

I remember when the film Slumdog Millionaire got released, a lot of controversy was created especially on how India is shown in the western take on rags to riches story set in Mumbai. Many criticized it for portraying India in a bad light, even the foremost liberal film critics had questions like why a dark skinned girl grows up into a model like Frieda Pinto, why can’t she grow into a darker skinned girl. It was fiction and yes, there was a defence for these criticisms stating that the creator deliberately could have chosen these setting, which shows India in poor light.

But India’s daughter is a knife that cuts across all the glam of Incredible India, the 3rd largest economy in the world and all that, sharply. It is a documentary it presents facts, it tells us from where these rapists came from, the slums, from the most deplorable conditions in this country. No criticism of this documentary showing India in bad light could be justified. What is shown is what is there. It is a well collated collection of facts, opinions and the entire event of brutal rape. It could make one shed a tear, be inspired, question and above all feel ashamed at how these educated lawyers defend the rapists. The film tells education is one important tool to change things, but alas it has done no good for these lawyers.

It is a documentary that should make us feel ashamed that these rapists have no remorse, and so are the advocates defending them, it is also one that should make us feel hopeful that thousands of people have stood up and as the victims parents say, we named her Jyothi, she is light. It is indeed a gift for India. Which we are bound to take it heartedly. Shunning them from public viewing shows us our own insecurity, our own ignorance which doesn’t let us accept the reality, our own ego not to accept the many realities of this nation coming from an outside, more precisely from a western point of view. It also reminds we cannot fully state that we have come far, we have grown into a great nation until everyone of us have crossed the line, until no person is left behind.

Watch it here: http://youtu.be/1Tfaurfg7EQ