Baat Badi Hai, a new track from the award-winning film Tale Of Rising Rani, has captured the imagination of social media upon release. The song, directed by filmmaker Prakash Saini and produced by Ashok Kumar Sharma under the banner Stripes Entertainment, features actor Stuti Agrawal as the young, fierce Rani, who is the film's protagonist. Netizens are taken with the choreography of the song, which showcases Rani as a fighter, standing up against society, for herself and her dream of pursuing a full education.
Tale Of Rising Rani, a Hindi-langauge coming-of-age story that tracks the life of a young girl resisting gender prejudices in her village so she can follow her aspirations, hasn't yet received a release date in India. But has already won several prestigious international film awards this year. Baat Badi Hai, which offers Indian audiences only the second look into the film after the trailer, has already hit the right note online. The lyrics have been penned by Jitendra Raghuvanshi and choreography has been credited to Nikhil Sharma.
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Watch a clip of the song here:
An Apt Song For Girl Child Empowerment?
Baat Badi Hai is gathering praise for its rather artistic choreography, which shows Rani symbolically (and literally) fighting tooth-and-nail against everything that limits girls and young women from having individual identities. Donning face paint and a feisty demeanour in the song, Rani comes to blows with grown men - who perhaps signify social evils that hold women back - and in the ">film's own words, "manages to rise and shine" by "fighting her battles." The empowering message it relays is quite in sync with the song's sombre, but dramatic ambience.
But though it portrays Rani as a lone fighter, the usage of the metaphor of self-defence does raise some doubts. For starters, I find the representation of women as a "strong" gender to be a dated trope. And somehow, it seems to signify that the onus of achieving gender equality lies painstakingly with women only. It pushes the narrative, somewhat as this advertisement did, that the fight is, was, and always will be women's, with society remaining resolutely unyielding about its patriarchal mindset.
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More About Tale Of Rising Rani
Tale Of Rising Rani, based on real-life events, offers a socio-political commentary on the justice system in India's rural sector, through the eyes of young Rani, who is determined to overcome every obstacle thrown at her in the fight to pursue an educated, independent life. The film's official synopsis describes the plot as the "evolution of a village girl," who braves pressures of marriage, injustice, and racism, to actualise a better life for herself, and those around her.
Director Saini, speaking on the film's origins, said, "Although coming from a similar village background as my story depicts, I’ve been noticing a lot about underage marriages. I took much interest in one of the families from the village and noticed a lot that could change for the better."
Tale of Rising Rani has gathered praise across the world, including but not limited to the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards, New York City Independent Film Festival, Oniros Film Awards, and World Film Carnival.
">Check out the film's trailer here!
Views expressed are the author's own.
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