Rajkahini – Jauhar of the prostitutes!?
Before I start the review…when the prostitutes were bold enough to ‘burn themselves to death’ to avoid humiliation and torture and daily rape by sleazy sex-starved losers – why did they go through so much humiliation in the first place then!?
A bit about Jauhar::
Jauhar (also spelled jowhar) is the self-immolation of queens and female royals of the Rajput kingdoms, when facing defeat at the hands of an enemy.
The roots of this practice lie in the internecine warfare among different Rajput clans.
The most famous Jauhars in recorded history have occurred at the end of Rajput battles with Muslim empires.
It was followed by females and children of the Rajput clans in order to avoid capture, enslavement and rape at the hands of invaders.
The term also describes the practice of mass suicide carried out in medieval times by Rajput women to save their honor from invaders. The term is derived from two Sanskrit words, Jau or Jiv meaning “life” and Har meaning “to take” added together means to take one’s own life.
During the Jauhar, which was said to take place during the night, Brahmin priests would chant Vedic mantras, and the Rajput women, wearing their wedding dresses, would commit suicide with their children via self-immolation.
On the morning after the Jauhar, the men would carry out the Saka; after taking a bath, the men would wear saffron clothes, smear the ashes of their wives and children on their foreheads, and put a tulsi leaf in their mouths.
Then, they would sally out either to annihilate their enemies or be annihilated by them.
It has been claimed that the Jauhar and Saka were never carried out when the Rajputs were at war with other Hindus, such as the Marathas, as the defeated could expect to be treated with dignity.
It has also been claimed that on several occasions, the Rajputs sued for peace, and the Mughals agreed to their terms. When the Rajputs, their wives and children came to surrender, however, they were slaughtered by the Mughals.
This treachery and deceit may have been the reason for the Jauhar and Saka to be established by the Rajputs.
The film has shown many aspects of our struggle for Independence.
Some of the things pointed out in this film are as follows::
That males in administration were total and utter failures – losers! Also the males who carried out orders of the top-notch officials were also ‘losers’ as them – like king, like subjects!
That the commoners – and especially women – suffered the brunt of all riots recorded since the beginning of time!
That males – be it Brahmin or shudra or belonging to any caste, creed, religion, culture, nation, official position, financial position – all lick the feet of prostitutes – or those women who sell their bodies in exchange of money or pleasure.
When prostitute is approached – all religious scriptures, culture, ethics lose their meaning and existence as well.
A prostitute is seen citing an example from the Bhagvad Geeta – the fact that the body is just a ‘cloth’ worn by the soul – the soul remains pure! So prostitution is kind of okay – according to the prostitute i.e. – maybe a way of self-counselling!
The prostitutes are seen using abusive language, they are shown kicking the clients and hitting them if they even so slightly misbehave with them!
On the other hand the prostitutes are also getting hit, kicked and burnt by cigarettes butts. They are forced to visit war camps where they get infected with venereal diseases! So basically prostitutes have to satisfy the perverts and thugs….and also some house-holders who have the money to spend on such females.
There was a pervert ‘highly-kickable’ Nawab in this film who was the patron of these prostitutes. Watching his lifestyle and perversion….made me think that ‘whatever happens, happens for good’ – the fact that the Brits came in and introduced the concept of Government – of the, for the and by the people was great indeed – or else we would all be still under such sleazy sex-starved and pervert kings and Nawabs who would have bought women (1/4th their age) by throwing couple of alms at their caretakers!
USP of the film-
Here the director has shown and more or less even proved that the prostitutes (among females) and the dacoits/thieves/ terrorists/ uncouth & unruly (among males) are higher or greater humans…since they do not judge people by their cast, creed or religion! They offer their services irrespective of caste and religion! For them everyone is alike….unlike for our kinds of hypocrite commoners who, as the prostitute mentions, do not even let a prostitute touch their shadow in the morning but greedily ‘effs’ them at night!
Film showed how closely the top Government officials, cops and the terrorists are linked together and how they perform their respective duties ….by actually discussing and planning the modus operandi !
Film showed that just couple of (less than 40% maybe) of people actually knew what they were doing while fighting for independence – rest were just waiting for some kind of opportunity of ruckus and unrest so that they could loot well-off merchants and plunder with the modesty of women – any women between the age group of 8 to 80! Similar thing has been shown in many films with Freedom as the theme – eg. 1947 Earth, where Aamir and his friends had their eyes on Nandita Das who was an aayah in a Parsi household …and how they dragged her on the street to rape and kill her! They were the same ones who used to exchange courteous pleasantries with the same aayah when things were at peace!
In a country where people were uneducated, hungry and underfed – who knew nothing about freedom fighting etc….what else was expected from them!? They did only what was most natural for them to do – rape females, loot people and murder them if they screamed!
Breaking News:
If (God Forbids) some riot occurs in the present day – at this supposedly ‘modern times’ of technology and smart phones …..the outcome will still be as bad or even worse than what happened during the struggle for independence…for till date hardly any focus has been given to eradicate ignorance, poverty, and unemployment! Things around continue to be corrupt and immoral – like admin, like subjects after all!
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