TWENTY-SEVEN minutes into 3 Idiots (2009), the voiceover takes a break from deifying Rancho (Aamir Khan) and introduces a college student, Joy Lobo (Ali Fazal), as “someone just like him”. Close to building an inventive helicopter, Lobo requests the college dean, Virus (Boman Irani), for an extension. Virus denies it, calling his project nonsense. Six minutes (and two songs) later, Rancho makes the helicopter work. As it flies and settles outside Lobo’s room window, its camera records his body hanging from the ceiling. Two words wail from the wall: “I quit.”
Rancho calls it a “murder”, implying Virus, representing the educational “system”, is responsible. He cites figures—a student dies by suicide every 90 minutes in the country. (That number has nosedived to 41, according to a 2021 report by the National Crime Records Bureau.) Even before 3 Idiots, another Bollywood film, Chal Chalein (2009), had a similar scene where, fearing his father’s rebuke, a student kills himself. Here, his friends literally accuse the father of murder, suing him with the help of a lawyer (Mithun Chakraborty).
Much like our society, Hindi cinema has shied away from challenging people upholding tradition, such as parents or teachers. Suicides allowed these stories to open a channel of long-shut inquiry, as it’s inconceivable to think of those as villains who have always been considered heroes. Or, quite simply, it eased the filmmakers into asking a disconcerting question: What kind of a society gets away with murdering its own children?
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 21, 2023 من Outlook.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 21, 2023 من Outlook.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 8500 مجلة وصحيفة.
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A TRANSFORMATIVE JOURNEY
The LGBTQIA+ community has battled long and hard against deep-set social prejudices and unjust laws and notched up significant victories, but more remains to be done to achieve a just and inclusive world
LANGUAGE & PREJUDICE
In its state of unending flux, language evolves just a semicolon behind changing societal constructs and, therefore, you may now call sex, sex, and queer, queer without causing any social seizures!
CONSENT IS THE CORNERSTONE OF HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS
Educators can empower the youth by providing them various tools and resources so that they can make informed and empowered choices and cultivate meaningful emotive connections based on reciprocity, love and understanding
WON, BATTLES WARS YET TO BE FOUGHT
Despite major setbacks in courtrooms, the queer movement will soldier and ultimately win because it is quintessentially a battle for love and to live with dignity
EQUITY NEEDED TO HARNESS YOUTH DIVIDEND
India's youth population presents a significant opportunity for an economic surge, but realising this potential requires an equity-oriented approach that addresses the country's vast socio-economic disparities
"WE HAVE REACHED A POINT WHERE WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO FUTURE GENERATIONS"
Laxmi Narayan Tripathi is a trailblazing transgender activist who has been instrumental in securing legal rights and changing perceptions of the transgender community.
AWARENESS KEY TO RESPONSIBLE CONDUCT
Programmes that raise awareness and equip the young with guidance and agency to challenge skewed social stereotypes can shake deep-set prejudices, trigger affirmative action, and overturn the status quo
PROTECT YOUTH FROM CYBERSEX CRIMES
Battling loneliness and lacking awareness, India’s youth are sharing much more than what is good for them online and becoming the unwitting victims of crimes ranging from sex tortion to doxing and more. The prevailing laws, unfortunately, are inadequate
"TBBT HAS PUT YOUTH AT THE CENTRE OF THE DISCOURSE 99
Mohammed Asif is Executive Director and Dr Komal Goswami is Chief of Party at Plan International (India Chapter). While Asif leads the organisation’s initiatives in welfare and development for children and equality for girls and women in India, Goswami leads the purposedriven initiatives of Reckitt executed through PLAN India. In an interview with Naina Gautam, they talk about The Birds and Bees Talk (TBBT) initiative, the opportunities, the achievements and the challenges so far. Excerpts:
A RIGHT IN THE MAKING
Though the Supreme Court disappointed the LGBTQIA+ community on the issue of civil union, it hopes that the recent announcements by the Indian National Congress, CPI(M) and BJP will pave the way for a legislative solution to its rights