During one of the crucial scenes in Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, a daughter wants to give up on her dreams to tread the path that most girls chose back then. A visibly disheartened father says to her, “I want to give you the wings to fly and you are asking me to cut those wings.”
I was watching the movie with my father and couldn’t help but think that every girl deserves a father like hers, and like mine.
The movie dives straight into the point without much ado as we are introduced to the little Gunjan Saxena who is enamoured by the world of ‘flying’ after she gets a peek into an airline’s cockpit. This opens the doors to her dreams and she knows right then what she wants to become when she grows up.
But patriarchy strikes soon enough as she is told off by her elder brother for harbouring such dreams because ‘girls don’t become pilots’.
It was interesting to see that it’s the father who gives it back to his son calmly but firmly, bringing forth the fact that a parent cannot always ensure bringing up kids with a certain mindset. The society more often than not does have a countervailing effect as the son’s response shows, and it is a constant struggle of going back and forth with open and difficult conversations.
This movie review has been written exclusively for Women’s Web and the complete article can be found here.