sponsible parents/brother would send her sister/daughter away with a stranger (however in- domitable he may be and however much she is in love with him)? This is another way of saying that it’s ok for girls to be given away without marriage to powerful kings, like the Rajputs often exchanges their daughters in marriage or otherwise to save their own throne. Female mitigation of strength does not end there. In Bahubali The Beginning, Sivagamini as the mother Queen was dominant not just because of her queen ca- pacity but also because she was portrayed as noble, ob- jective, powerful and even sharply sly (she would deter opponents coveting for throne in one stroke through her spies and Kattappa help) but in the second half she unexpectedly becomes this dimwit who doesn’t seem to have her own sources of information (spies) and her own thinking of what is right and wrong. She becomes so dependent on her wily husband and plotting son who she already knew (first half) are both cruel and conniving. This behavioral change is in such contrast to her original character that it is hard to swallow. Such injudiciousness in making judgments, especially about
women in general are weak. Though Devasena fights her battles and Shivagami is the king maker, rest of the women without exception are submissive. For example, in one scene where Devasena’s palace is being attacked, hordes of women are shown shiver- ing and shaking in a room, while Prabhas gets busy pep-talking a decrepit prince into fighting the enemy. Alternatively, if all women came together and intimi- dated the enemy with anything handy, they would have probably had a better chance of survival. In the entire kingdom of Devasena, she is the only female who can defend herself. The rest are all shivering and quiv- ering helpless maidens! I find this very disturbing and frustrating! Devasena’s brave character is yet again betrayed by director Rajamouli, who makes her pine for years at the mercy of the cruel king (in reality she could have been raped, abused and brutalized by the cruel captor and made her his mistress very easily as his- tory is witness to such atrocities) just so her ‘son’ could free her. Instead she could have escaped, re- volted with the help of her followers and at least
a son like Prabhas, who she loves and cares for deeply and vice versa, doesn’t gel with the a strong and sly character of Sivagami. She is neither fair to her people nor to her adopted son/daughter-in-law in the second half. Instead she comes across as narrow-minded, ar- rogant, drunken in power and prejudiced. She actually asks Prabhas to conquer the little kingdom and bring
helped her own kingdom that is ruthlessly being broken down by Rana. Instead like a dumb idiot rots there waiting for a son to bring her valor back! What a waste of strength! I also found her being given away by her brother to Prabhas to be taken with him to his kingdom, without even getting themmarried, utterly shocking! Which re-
66 www.indiaparentmagazine.org
Summer Camp Special 2017
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker