Directed by Nisha Pahuja
North American opinions on beauty pageants vary wildly with some deeming them innocuous sideshows while others consider them corruptive and exploitative. In India, Hindu extremists have decried such contests an affront to their beliefs, leaving contestants lightning rods for scorn and even threats of reprisals.
While the two young women spotlighted in Nisha Pahujas provocative documentary are a study in contrasts, theyre united by their struggles amidst a fiercely patriarchal society. A finalist for Miss India, 19-year-old Ruhi jumps through every degrading hoop thats presented, confident that victory will ensure a career that offers her financial equality with men. Meanwhile, Prachi has spent two decades attending camps run by the Durga Vahini wing of fundamentalist movement, thus growing up a militant whos vehemently opposed to the progressiveness that Ruhi embraces. Consequently, shes also fighting to keep herself subjugated.
Prachi is undoubtedly the more fascinating of the two subjects. After delighting in terrifying the camps younger recruits, she returns home where shes left to sit and smile politely as her father warmly reminisces about the times hes beaten his insolent daughter. And while the abuses suffered by Ruhi are less shocking, Pahujas withering portrayal of the lead-up to the crowning of Miss India leaves little doubt that dignity is the first casualty of the war for the tiara.
Just as the pageant lends the film its structure, its outcome leaves Ruhi with a semblance of closure. Conversely, as Prachi talks about the violence shes willing to resort to in order to protect Indias traditions, theres the troubling sense that her journey has only begun and its bound for even darker places. Curtis Woloschuk
