Devi - An Analysis of Irony
- The Crux
- Apr 9, 2020
- 5 min read
By Fatima Azhar
In a mere 13 minutes, Devi delivers a greater message than most Bollywood films and is a heavy helping of irony, horror and realization; where even the smallest of details are symbolic and represent something much bigger and much more important.
This film, presented under the Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films banner, is the directorial debut of Priyanka Banerjee and is also written by her. Its cast includes familiar names, actors who have proven their mettle in the film, television and even digital industry of India – Kajol, Neha Dhupia, Shruti Hassan, Neena Kulkarni, Mukta Barve, Sandhya Mhatre, Rama Joshi, Shivani Raghuvanshi and Yashaswini Dayama.
The film starts off with a group of women in a small room; some are old, others young, some are sitting on the floor playing cards, while others are sitting on sofas, one is sitting at the dining table at the back studying, one is praying in front of small shrine on the side, while there are countless others sitting various corners and places, adding to the number but not really visible.
It is a congested space, with these women dressed in their own ways, someone is wearing a sari, someone is in a suit, another in a Burqa and yet another in a mini skirt.
There is a girl, with her oiled hair in two braids and red ribbons tying them up, trying to get the television to work, she hits the television a few times and it starts working, a reporter appears on the TV speaking of a victim and how they are unable to contact the family of the victim and how protection rights are under discussion. Before the reporter can say anything else, the TV stops working again we find out that the girl is deaf, as the woman in the suit speaks to her in sign language.
Suddenly, the doorbell rings and an argument erupts over whether they should open the door and let the person who is outside into the room; they speak of there being no space, they say the room is getting too hot because of the number of people in it and they speak of the need of a system. During this conversation, you can see the women passing remarks on each other as well, like the woman in a Burqa makes a remark on the girl in the mini skirt and you can guess there is no real affiliation between these women.
At one point, one of them says, it’s not like we were given a choice, we were just stuffed into this room. It is after this point that we start to understand what is going on in this room; every single woman in the room has been a rape victim and are now dead. Once, they start discussing the perpetrators of the crime committed against them– thinking it could be the basis of deciding who stays inside the room and who goes out - you see them become agitated and angry.
Then one of them suggests that they decide on the basis of how each one of them died, on which another gets angry thinking she’s cheating because she was burnt to death so she would definitely be staying. We find out another difference, the way they died, some of the victims were strangled, killed with a broken bottles, with a knife, yet another had her head smashed in and then there was one who died from the trauma of rape.
It is here that an argument breaks out, stemming from the cutting remarks of the older woman at the one who died from trauma after the rape and you start to see the discord among these women even more clearly; each one thinking that she is the greater victim, each one trying to stay in this room because she believes her suffering was the greatest.
Here it is important to note that the way these women are seated is something to observe, the women on the sofas: the girl in the mini skirt who was killed with a broken beer bottle, played by Shruti Hassan and the woman in the suit who died of trauma, played by Neha Dhupia; represent high profile cases; which earned a lot of media attention.
The three women sitting on the floor represent the cases you hear about or don’t hear about every day, these are cases which just add to the statistics and you never even really learn their names; they have been victims of marital rape or have been raped by family members and then murdered. One of the older women was married to a 50 year old man at the age of 12 which highlights the problem of child marriages. There is also a woman in a Burqa sitting on the floor, she represents the the Gujrat riots against Muslims, the Unnao victim and many others who were burnt to death after rape.
The older women on the floor make fun of the girl studying at the dining table, she is a medical student still wearing her lab-coat, still studying for her exam. The deaf girl is also sitting on the floor but in front of the television, highlighting a number of rape cases of deaf women and minors which have not caused much outrage.
Finally, Kajol whose character's name is Jyoti, speaks up. She says, nobody has to leave and we will adjust the newcomers in whatever small space we have, we know how to adjust, we've been doing it our whole lives and even if the place gets crowded it is better than living with those monsters (meaning the horrible men who commit these crimes).
The character in the mini skirt threatens that if someone says anything wrong to whoever is coming inside the deaf girl will hide the remote, which she agrees to happily. Jyoti then reminds everyone how scared they were when they got there and goes to get whoever is at the door and perhaps here, right at the end the most recent victim enters, which leaves all the women in a state of shock. (Watch the short film to find out)
It is perhaps fitting that this short film came out of a country like India where on one hand the woman is worshiped in the form of "Devi" while on the other hand a lot of women suffer gruesome sexual assaults and death as a result. But this short film shouldn't be simplified into a story about rape victims, no.
This film talks about consent and child marriage. It speaks of the diversity of the victims and gives a message that clothes do not result in rape. It speaks of the different kinds of torturous deaths the victims have but also speaks of the trauma a survivor suffers pushing them off the edge. It speaks of pain which isn't visible, no blood but that is still pain.
All the victims in this short film, right down to the last one, are inspired by real life rape cases a quick google search shows as much.
None of the victims are particularly ashamed of what they went through, but in spite of the suffering they all shared, they are still not united, they are still pointing fingers at each other, passing comments, trying to be the person who gets to stay in this room. This is perhaps the most subtle message in the film, that if women don't support women, if women don't understand each other's pain, where are we really headed? I suggest that everyone see this short film; it's wonderfully made and carries a message everyone, regardless of what nation they belong to need to understand.
There is a controversy regarding "Devi" saying it has been plagiarized from a student film called "Four". After watching both films, you can see that Devi is not a copy, though it might have been inspired from the student film. Do you think Devi is a copy? Let us know in the comments.
Fatima Azhar
The writer has an interest in script-writing and is doing her Master's in Journalism. She also enjoys writing poetry and painting.
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