As Indian films make their way into the Oscars, is it time to create a masterpiece that subverts misogyny?

In October 2021 I visited Kashmir for the first time. I was with my family. After a glorious week travelling across Srinagar, Gulmarg, Pahalgam and Doodhpathri, we decided to go to Sonmarg on our last day. The union leader and our driver, along with six other random men, surrounded us and convinced us that since the Thajiwas Glacier, which we’d come to visit, had not yet formed, we should go to Zero Point near the Zoji La Pass. Private cars were not allowed for tourists at any destination in Kashmir, so we stepped into a dilapidated Sumo that pulled up––my one-year-old daughter, my four-year-old daughter, my 69-year-old parents, my husband and I. It would be our car for the entire day for Rs 6000, pre-paid of course. After the initial majestic peaks and Sindh River, we entered a narrow dusty mountain road that was a straight plunge down to deeper and deeper valleys, with many trucks on the way to and from the pass fighting for that tiny space. What the leader had conveniently forgotten to tell us is that Zoji La is one of the world’s most dangerous mountain roads to drive a vehicle! On the way back, after two hours, we were all starving and shaken by the drive. It began to rain. We asked our driver to stop at a Shiv mandir where army jawans were making fresh halwa and puris with chana, and distributing it to weary travellers. The driver refused and said something about army men endangering tourists lives! We firmly told him to stop. We got off and ate the meal quickly, among cheerful army men serving anyone and everyone who stopped, while signing old Hindi film songs. It was such a pleasure to watch these brave kind soldiers and one of the most uplifting moments of my life. Once back in the car, the driver began to talk loudly on his phone and drive like a maniac with one hand! When my husband politely asked him not to, it riled him up even more. He began shouting, honking and speeding through rain-washed roads, while continuing to be on his phone. I took videos of him speeding past vehicles and treacherous turns at over 80 kms per hour! We all clutched on to whatever we could find and prayed to not be killed! Imagine being stuck inside a speeding steel casket on one of the most treacherous roads in the world with your entire family, the people you love the most in the world! I was so afraid, especially for my little babies, that I was trembling. We all were. We had travelled around the country and the world, and never experienced such aggression. It was one of the scariest experiences of all our lives! At one point, I just shut my eyes and began to pray.

When we reached Sonmarg market, I couldn’t believe we were alive! We quickly jumped out of the car. My daughter’s water bottle had fallen on the floor of the Sumo. We left it there. None of us dared step back into that vehicle. In less than four hours this nameless man had destroyed us. I’ll never forget the moment, when after all this, he asked for baksheesh! He thought we owed him something! I never spoke of this incident to anyone. Classic PTSD. There is so much anger in the average Indian man, it is unfathomable. Especially the anger towards women. We see it’s ugly manifestation inside homes, outside on the roads, in buses and trains, in the every 13 minutes a woman in India is raped. But recently, after we began the new year with the shocking case of Anjali being dragged and mutilated under the car of five drunk men, came the story of Swati Maliwal, the Delhi Commission for Women chairperson, being dragged by an inebriated man Harish Chandra in his car as well. Why? Because she protested him trying to molest her! As she mentioned, her fate could as easily have been the same as Anjali’s. While we’ve perfected films celebrating male bonding¬¬––over things, like the love of cinema in Chhello Show , or over each other, like male friendship in RRR ¬¬––why can’t we do the same for male-female bonding to bring in a more equitable society? To make men understand that women are neither their enemies, nor their servants or chattels, but their compatriots. The former film took us to the Oscar’s, why hasn’t the latter? Or do we not know how to make sensitive films about real issues without being pedantic or dull? Have we forgotten how to educate and entertain as we did with classics like Anand? Cinema holds up a mirror to society to reflect its course, but also a torch to society to show a new course. If our films create a masterpiece that can subvert misogyny, celebrate women being out on roads without being molested, raped, or killed, show men not to be bitter but better drivers, it will have far wider positive consequences for creating a more equitable and less violent society, than any other medium. All it requires is intent. Of the right kind. Meghna Pant is a multiple award-winning and bestselling author, screenwriter, columnist and speaker, whose latest novel BOYS DON’T CRY (Penguin Random House) will soon be seen on screen. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and Instagram.