Text Credits: Shibul Pavithran 

The Supreme Court of India in a landmark verdict strikes down 158-years old colonial law and allowed gay sex among consenting adults in private. Supreme Court said that right to love anyone was an individual choice. They further said that consensual sex between adults is not a crime.

#Breaking: #Section377 of IPC insofar as it criminalises consensual sexual acts between man and man, man and woman or woman and woman is unconstitutional and struck down.

Sex with animal will however remain criminal.

Judgment in Suresh Kumar Koushal overruled.

— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) September 6, 2018

LGBT community who have been living under constant fear of prosecution can now live without fear and stigma.

Source: pinknews.co.uk

“LGBT Community has same rights as of any ordinary citizen. Respect for each others rights, and others are supreme humanity. Criminalising gay sex is irrational and indefensible,” said Chief Justice Dipak Misra, who headed the five judge bench hearing the case. The judgment was delivered by a Bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices Rohinton Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra.

Source: foreignpolicy.com

What is Section 377?
Section 377 refers to ‘unnatural offences’ and says whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to pay a fine. The Centre, which had initially sought adjournment for filing its response to the petitions, had later left to the wisdom of the court the issue of legality of the penal provision on the aspects of criminalising consensual unnatural sex between two consenting adults.

The Supreme Court began hearing petitions against the ban in July, beginning an emotional debate over the right to freedom and privacy. While hearing the case, the judges have made observations that have largely given hope to the gay community. The Supreme Court in their  historic verdict said:

1. Section 377 is arbitrary. LGBT community posses rights like others. Majoritarian views and popular morality cannot dictate constitutional rights
2. No one can escape from their individualism. Society is now better for individualism. In the present case, our deliberations will be on various spectrums
3. To deny LGBT community of their right to sexual orientation is a denial of their citizenship and a violation of their privacy
4. Autonomy of an individual is important. He or she can not surrender it to anyone
5. Homosexuality is not a mental diorder

Twitter has been been flooding with happiness and rejoice ever since the verdict was given.

Historical judgment!!!! So proud today! Decriminalising homosexuality and abolishing #Section377 is a huge thumbs up for humanity and equal rights! The country gets its oxygen back! pic.twitter.com/ZOXwKmKDp5

— Karan Johar (@karanjohar) September 6, 2018

SC decriminalises #Section377: What the court said

“Section 377 is a colonial legacy and it continued in the law book even after independence.”

Read: https://t.co/yxarh6e8cQ pic.twitter.com/iaUHBvfIXB

— Times of India (@timesofindia) September 6, 2018

So pleased to learn that the SupremeCourt has ruled against criminalising sexual acts in private. This decision vindicates my stand on Section 377& on exactly the same grounds of privacy, dignity &constitutional freedoms. It shames those BJP MPs who vociferously opposed me in LS.

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 6, 2018

Crying tears of joy for the lgbtqi community. One day there won’t be any labels and we will all live in utopia. pic.twitter.com/veQe1S92FD

— Sonam K Ahuja (@sonamakapoor) September 6, 2018

Congratulations to all the activists and petitioners on #SupremeCourt judgement scrapping #Section377 Your perseverance just made #India a freer place for everyone ! #LoveIsLove #Pride #377Verdict #377Scrapped Three cheers for the #SupremeCourt pic.twitter.com/grA64TTB3w

— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) September 6, 2018

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Text Credits: Sandra James

Veere Di Wedding is a movie that excited the Bollywood fans and enthusiasts much before its release. The anticipation was mainly because the movie marked the comeback of Kareena Kapoor and also because of the all female lead cast in the film. But as soon as the official trailer launched, the movie received flak on social media and attracted controversy. The argument of public dissing on the movie was that, Veere Di Weeding reduces women empowerment and feminism to women drinking, cussing, smoking and openly talking about sexual desires. Many even wanted to boycott the movie for it’s wrong depiction of women empowerment.

So finally during an interview with Anupama Chopra for film companion the cast opened up and addressed the double standards and hypocrisy towards the female led movies in Bollywood. When Anupama asked, is there danger of reducing women empowerment is to behaving more like men or to smoking, drinking, this is how the Sonam Kapoor and Swara Bhaskar replied

Sonam Kapoor jumped right in and made herself clear. She said:

“It’s completely misconstrued what feminism and women empowerment is. It’s a choice. The choice is that we are all four different characters and we all have different ways of behaving.”

Then Swara Bhaskar took over and said: “It’s taken 105 years for mainstream Bollywood to make a film about four girlfriends and none of them are falling in love with the same guy.”She added, “No one asks Anurag Kashyap why his characters swear this much?”

Sonam later talked about how Pyaar Ka Punchnama a highly misogynistic movie was widely celebrated. She added,

“Pyaar Ka Punchnama was very misogynistic. Nobody has said, “don’t you think you’re being misogynistic by portraying women in a certain way or men as commitment phobic?”

Watch the full interview here.

The post Sonam Kapoor and Swara Bhaskar Call Out The Hypocrisy In Bollywood appeared first on FWD Life | The Premium Lifestyle Magazine |.

Text Credits: Sandra James

Veere Di Wedding with its official trailer release on April 25th 2018 earned enough buzz to get the B-town and got Bollywood enthusiast talking. The trailer showed four friends drinking, swearing, discussing sex and love in a fearless abandon and promised a coming of age tale in a true female centric light.  The movie promotion hit the media and press with a trending hashtag, #ImNotAChickFlick. This indeed was a strong move to shatter the box fitted concept of “chick flick” which goes against the values of feminism. The cast including Kareena Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Swara Bhaskar, Shikha Talsania and the producers including Ekta Kapoor, Rhea Kapoor went ahead and explained how Veere Di Wedding is not just a movie for the female audiences but anyone.

The movie hit the big screen on June 1st 2018. The critics everywhere unanimously agreed the movie trailed to be flat and shallow. So what went wrong?

Here is the simple plot: four women trying to come in terms with love, life and commitment and that is pretty much it. The movies makes a run through each of their lives but fails explore their character in depth. The audience watching the film can understand about complexities of their situation but somehow cannot become a part of their journey. The movie which is set on friendship, lacks moments of true camaraderie. This is exactly what Sneha May from Film Companion encapsulates in her remark, “the movie is half baked”.

Further, the movie nowhere discusses the ambition or career of the women in the movie. All throughout the movie we do not get to know about their careers except for Avni (Sonam Kapoor). It is ironical how the writers have failed to show the professional side of the women, in a movie which is intended to be “women empowering”.

In the end Veere Di Wedding is a good commercial fluff with Laugh out loud (Lol) moments and decent amount of glam and sparkle. Veere Di Wedding proves that a fun filled entertainer about women made by women could also create the commercial rage, like any male driven movie. If you are ready to break into fits of laughter and not seeking any major life advises and just looking for some fun and relaxed theatre experience then this is the film for you.

The post Veere Di Wedding: Expectations Unmet, Opportunity Missed appeared first on FWD Life | The Premium Lifestyle Magazine |.

Padmavat has already suffered enough of controversies hatred and threats. Padmavat is an Indian epic periodic drama directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, which is an adaptation of an epic poem by a Sufi poet Malik Muhammed Jayasi in the same name.

The recent issue is apropos actress Swara Bhaskar’s open letter to the team. Many celebrities has already reacted on this.  Actress Richa Chadha, Mini Mathur and Jwala Gutta has stood with Swara claiming that every person has the right to opinion and freedom of expression. Swara has criticized Bhansali for glorifying the act of Jauhar in the climax scene of Padmavat where Padmavati, played by Deepika Padukone in the company of other women walks to commit self-immolation.  She commented that she felt like a vagina while watching the epic film.

The comment however caused an outburst from filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri. He tweeted that, “If they (pseudo-feminists like to twist it out of context, it’s her choice. I felt that Swara’s intent wasn’t correct. The intent wasn’t to help the cause of women but to use this opportunity for self-gain”.
He also added that, “We have interviewed many ‘ex-naxal’ women in Bastar. Each had a gut-wrenching stories to tell, full of abuse, rape and misogyny. If they marry they aren’t allowed to have children. I think fake feminist Swara must take a trip to understand how the ‘real vagina feels like.”
Swara reacted by saying: “I’m sorry did you suggest that I go get myself raped?”. The twitter war is still going on.
However a person definitely has the right for opinion and freedom of expression, but attempting to degrade a piece of craft by mentioning a piece in story line is not at all appreciable. A director doesn’t intend to promote rape if his piece of work has such an incident in storyline. Here, Bhansali is portraying a period film, so he needs to be honest in representing his ideas.

Text Credits: Silpa Rajan

The post Swara Bhaskar’s comment on Padmavat a mere act for publicity? appeared first on FWD Life | The Premium Lifestyle Magazine |.