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Social critique in song

Updated On: 16 March, 2020 05:26 AM IST | Prachi Sibal

In a musical video that uses lavani and humour, Paromita Vohra talks about the biases women face when they enter a police station

A still from Aika To The Baika

Bilkul Pandey, a police officer chants slogans of "listen to the women" and "jai nari shakti" without putting much thought into what it entails. There's Kunti G, another officer, with sections from the Indian Penal Code on her fingertips, but quick in retracting her suggestions when Pandey urges so. Pop culture imagery dominates the police station, Bappi Lahiri is wanted for chain snatching and prisoners double up as musicians. Aika To The Baika (listen to the women) from Agents of Ishq, a multimedia project about sex, love and desire, directed by filmmaker Paromita Vohra tells the story of what happens when women decide to enter a police station to file a complaint.

Domestic violence and sexual harassment complaints are easily dismissed and not registered as FIRs. The complainants here aren't bruised women but lavani dancers. The conversation takes place in song and uses humour without being preachy. Women play men, and it compels you to "look at gender conceptually" and move beyond the "literal depiction of the gender biases," Vohra believes.

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