Viral video: Can women never feel safe around unknown men, Alia Bhatt's short film asks

Director Vikas Bahl has come together with Vogue to create a short film titled, “Going home,” which stars Alia Bhatt and looks at the concept of women’s safety. In this film, Bahl, who made the much-appreciated film Queen recently, creates a utopia where it’s perfectly safe for a woman to be out late at night alone. The video shows Bhatt’s car breaking down, following which she takes a lift from five complete strangers who drop her back home. No questions asked, no harassment, no molestation, all perfectly safe and very unreal. At the end of the video, it does acknowledge that a scenario like this is impossible in the real world and asks whether it’s even possible to give a woman this kind of world, where there’s no fear or distrust for men. The plot of the video is simple: Bhatt is driving back home alone late at night (something many of us might have done or even taken an auto or cab late at night) and reassuring her parents that she will be home in ten minutes, when her car breaks down. While she desperately tries to restart the engine, a SUV with five men turns up next to her. The director makes sure that these guys look and act a bit like all those guys we dread running into in an empty parking lot or a road in the middle of the night. From the way they stare at Bhatt to the silent gestures they make to each other to communicate without speaking so that the girl doesn’t get a whiff of what is going on, they definitely are the boys from your nightmares. As Bhatt seeks their help, these guys alight from the car, each looking ecstatic like they have just landed a lottery. At one point, where Bhatt bends and searches for a torch in her car, the video shows one of the guys looking at her as if he is just about to grab her butt or something. However, nothing like that happens. This is what happens: the boys, who are evidently excited at the prospect of being in the vicinity of an attractive girl, ogle at her a bit. Also, like most boys would in the situation, check her out and have these silent gesture-exchange about her presumably. When she asks for a lift, they look elated. However, sensing that she has nowhere to run and can be easily overpowered, they don’t attack her. They first try fixing her car and then drop her home, though they all act the way most boys we know are likely to around a hot woman - silly and infatuated. [caption id=“attachment_1766379” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Alia Bhatt in the video. Screenshot.[/caption] Now given that all Indian men are not sexual predators, one might want to say that a situation like this is not impossible to replicate in real life. However, the unfortunate bit here is, women in India are subjected to sexual harassment so relentlessly that a situation like this seems absolutely Utopian. They have to come to equate men with danger and you can’t blame them for doing so. If a woman’s car breaks down in the middle of the night in an empty road, the first thing she usually does is call for help from family or close friends. The next step would be mostly making sure that the doors are locked and she is inside the car. Finally, she is most likely to sit inside the car praying fervently that help arrives soon. For most women, who are out alone at night, the sight of five men in a Scorpio is not a reassuring one. The film challenges that notion, which is a great idea. However, what seems a little disturbing is that  Bahl builds up a sense of tension as soon as the men arrive on the scene with one of them particularly leching at her. It’s like the audience is waiting for something bad to happen as the tenor of the video changes completely. When it doesn’t we all breathe a sigh of relief. In a utopia, there would be no need to feel relief, as a woman reaching home safely after taking a lift from strangers would be normal. Also the problem with the leering attitude of the men is that it seems in total contrast to their final action. Why not imagine a group of men who drive to Alia and immediately offer her help? Why only depict leering men, because that seems to be confirm the notion that a group of men will continue to leer at a women if they find her alone, even in a so-called utopia. Wouldn’t men also be much nicer in such a world? Irrespective of that, the film deserves credit simply because it acknowledges that women need to be in public spaces at all times, even at night and that it’s not unreasonable for a woman to expect safety at all times. This idea by the way is something that many women’s groups have been arguing for a long time. As the video states, safety of women at all times should be the norm, rather than an exception.