‘Dekh le’ video is an insight to situations that women may have to deal with when outdoors, and most of them are occurrences during commute. A young woman waiting at the signal on her yellow Vespa finds the 2 guys on the bike waiting next to her decide to size her up. Of course with rudeness comes irresponsibility. Pillion or rider have obviously not heard of a helmet.
Then there’s the asleep woman travelling in a bus, and 3 men standing closest to her spend all their time trying to look for as long as they can at her bosom. Another youngster at a restaurant is unaware of a man who seemingly appears to be working, but can’t take his eyes of her tattoo in the lower back. While a tattoo often attracts attention, obviously this non-gent has never heard about staring being rude even if there ain’t sexual intent, and he certainly has plenty of ideas going by his expression.
A woman in a hijab travelling by train, finds a man seated opposite her grinning shamelessly. None of these situations are out of place in any socio-economic background. The video is one that calls for action by letting offenders reflect on their actions. While the intent of this video is to sensitize society. Whether or not it does so is anybody’s call.
Song lyrics, ‘Dekhle tu dekhte hue kaisa kagta hai.’ translate to ‘Do see how you look when staring’. The reflections in the video aren’t the soul stirring one’s but quite literally reflections. The girl on her Vespa pulls her helmet visor in place to allow the 2 staring youth on the bike next to her to get a good look at themselves.
While shifting in her sleep, the bus lady’s necklace locket falls on her bosom, and in it lies a big enough mirror that lets the ogling trio get a look at themselves staring.
The young girl in the restaurant casually changes the positioning of her sling bag, which covers her bag and all the lech can now see is a reflection of himself on the mirror placed on the top flap of her bag. The lady on the train chooses to wear her sunglasses with reflective glass and the man busy munching on peanuts has no choice but to sheepishly turn his gaze away from his reflection.
WWI commissioned their Alumni, Ketan Rana to make an ad on Women Empowerment at Cinema100, 2013. The video message is simple, ‘Think, Reflect & Act!’ The YouTube video has already attracted 1,173,115 views since being published on Dec 16, 2013.
