Romance in Baahubali: The Beginning: Female Domestication or Love? Movie was good. But did it deserve a National Award?
By Sindhu Ravuri
scenery also frame this scene in an ethos of passion. This scene’s expert manipu- lation of visual and auditory aesthetics and its pronounced consistency with the quintessential Bollywood love story (involving an initially unwilling woman and a devoted, unrelenting man),presents it as an innocuous moment of romance, cloaking any obvi- ous devices of subjugation. In fact, the scene’s portrayal of romance may even be progressive relative to past Indian cinema due its female character’s status as a fierce, independent warrior. Most critics and audience members, including at first myself, would label the battle between these two characters as an intense or passionate love (proven by the YouTube title of the scene). In fact, Baahubali not only garnered wide- spread critical acclaim, but also became the third highest grossing Indian film globally of all time, indicating major audience approval of the work’s con- tent. However, I believe that there is indeed a strong correlation between gender inequity, specifically female domestication, and romance within Baahubali, going even so far as to say the presented scene constitutes an immensely aestheticized sexual assault, which in itself insists that true love necessitates the nonconsensual expo- sure of a woman and her vulnerability. Avantika’s attire, including padded leather war gear and pants, are physical manifestations of her rebellion against the conventional mold of female domesticity and subjugation often wit- nessed in Bollywood films. By stripping away these elements of her armor, Shiva therefore symbolically steals Avantika’s core identity as a robust, athletic, and powerful warrior. In the process of defeating her in battle, Shiva even exposes her naked body, unleashing her sexuality. Such actions imply that a man
can use a woman’s sensuality as a weapon to debilitate and overpower her – a mindset often leading to rape and sexual assault. Interestingly, Shiva himself remains completely clothed throughout the scene, demonstrating that the unethical manipulation of an opponent’s body, thus their self-agency, is solely applicable when the target is a woman. Secondly, Shiva’s dousing Avantika in a waterfall, after twisting her wrists and thrusting her under its force, sym- bolically represents him cleansing her unique persona; he literally bathes, or disinfects, her of any warrior character- istics (like grime, or her coal black bindi – different from the red one usually upon a woman’s forehead). All the while, she squeals in an attempt to escape, similar to a victim being violat- ed, but her cries for help are overshad- owed by the camera’s glaring perusal of her wet body. Finally, Shiva singlehand- edly reconstructs Avantka’s face, and thus her sense of self, by painting upon it with make up, relegating her to the orthodox perception of feminine beauty. Moreover, this fight scene in Baahubali subliminally advertises the Hindu perception of the ideal Indian woman, originally engendered by the postcolonial nationalist movement (through its aim to reinforce strict morality, tradition and culture) and religion (through characters like Sita – the pure, altruistic, and subservient wife and mother in the great Hindu epic Ramayana). More specifically, both impetuses proliferated the view of women as creatures of the household, guardians of tradition and honor, and emblems of domesticity. Thus, Shiva’s dominance over Avantika in this scene implies that any woman who rejects the inherited roles of wife or mother is ulti- mately punished by sexual assault. In other words, anomalies like Avantika
A chipped, mahogany battle mask falls over the edge of a towering water- fall, inspiring Shiva to pursue the maid- en behind it. Soon, in the ancient (6th century) city of Mahishmati, he discov- ers her – a highly trained female warrior named Avantika. He waits until she immerses her hand in a cool pond, and, unbeknownst to her, paints a beautiful lavender design upon her fingers and wrist, as if marking his territory. Later, he surreptitiously places a venomous snake upon her neck, intimidating her long enough for him to tattoo her once again on the shoulder. When she finally confronts Shiva, to her a complete stranger, Avantika ferociously plunges into his heart, only to, despite her proficiency in guerrilla warfare, repeatedly miss the mark. Subsequently Shiva, a villager with no previous experience in combat, man- ages to sneak behind her and rip off her shirtsleeves. Then he, with a mischie- vous, charming grin, disentangles the strings of her armor in one graceful ges- ture – leaving her upper body mostly naked – removes the tie in her hair, douses her bare body in water, and forcibly smears squashed red berries upon her lips (like lipstick) and black berries upon the edges of her eyes (like kajal). Finally, he unravels her pants until they form a skirt. Thus, Shiva molds Avantika into the quintessential model of feminine splendor. She glances at her unfamiliar reflection in a nearby sheet of water, and, over- whelmed at her unleashed femininity, embraces Shiva in an expression of true love. Shiva’s effusive persona and seduc- tive dance with Avantika commands this scene from Baahubali: The Beginning, a Bollywood film interna- tionally released this past July. The dul- cet background score of the violin and flute, accompanied by lush, green
72 indiaparentmagazine.org
August 2016
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