Don’t Watch Rasbhari

Funny thing is originally I was gonna write a post urging people to watch Rasbhari. It’s a show that depends heavily on the ending, it could either be an excellent subverting-tropes feminist piece or a total regressive dumpster fire. Yep the latter. Yeah.

My original post would have commended its fun and frothy approach, disposing of heavy-handed narratives to rather imply and subtly nudge the viewer to think about the hypocrisy of our patriarchal society. I would act amazed at the 2.7/10 Imdb rating and say how even if this is a 6/10, it’s a 7.5/10 for me because it was not talked about at all like Bulbbul and so on. This was before the ending rolled into the picture. So instead I’m going to shit on this. Of course, spoilers follow, because I will list specific plot points, like come on if I’m telling you not to watch it, do you really think I would be nice enough to ensure you could after this heading?

SPOILERS (duh)

So Rasbhari is the name of the ghost supposedly haunting the nice English teacher of the town, Shanu ma’am. It’s told from the point of view of Nand Kishore, a testosterone fueled horny teenager as the men of the whole town start sleeping with Rasbhari, the ghost of a prostitute. The women start a witch-hunt, led by Nand’s mom of all people, in revenge. Pretty standard stuff, interesting base for a feminist show which could also be fun, frothy and entertaining and so on. But nope.

From the beginning, it has this fun Indian sex-comedy tone by which I mean the men are defined by their horniness and women are either disapproving aunts or one-liner cardboard objects to be fucked. But Swara Bhaskar was in this and hey idk she seems to be pretty liberal so I had a lot of good faith and patience in this. If anyone has heard of Spec Ops you’ll understand but I thought it would lure in people with it’s standard sexy fare before subverting it and shaming the characters and in a meta way the viewers. Then we could talk about whether the sexuality was too overt, was the means for propagating this message right, instead of me shitting on this for the fuckin message.

“Why will someone wear designer underwear if she doesn’t want to show it?”

Nand, masturbating machine and sexual harasser

When we first meet teenager Nand Kishore, he is telling his friends of his most recent glorious conquest, where he had a peek at a girl’s underwear while picking up a pen. The girl who caught him red-handed and squealed to the principal is portrayed as a no-fun “too mean” know-it-all. Over the course of the serial, the two will start developing feelings for each other and in the end have sex. But not before the sex-crazed Nand lusts over the hot teacher and rebuffs the girl countless times. Yes in hindsight, YEah. Hindsight.

I personally think that the actors did their job quite nicely. The characters are one-note but Saxena, who plays Nand Kishore makes the misogyny and constant crude sexual innuendos appear as products of the hormonal teenage years, even fun and throwaway as they constantly talk about wanting to have sex, masturbate in the bathroom, try to kiss the teacher, and discuss their fantasies and crushes in the most disgusting way possible. I thought hey, that’s exactly how teenagers do talk so cool authentic. Oh hindsight.

Swara Bhaskar from the beginning is shot as the male gaze staring at her body, lingering on her waist, her blouse, the movement of her hair and so on. It feels very unnecessarily sexy but watching the first episode, having liberal twitter warrior Swara Bhaskar you have faith right? You think hey this is a commentary on the male gaze, on the constant sexualisation of the female body, of how even a teacher is ogled by the students all the time. When she has sex with the local gutka-chewing cable-guy, the camera is used like a voyeur’s eyes and again I thought this was commentary as Nand leaps and jumps through balconies to get a better look at what is happening. So things start when our amazing masculine, paan-bahar enthusiast cable-person entertains his friends over beer about how incomparably amazing the sex with the “masterni” was and rumors start circulating.

They reach the local wives circle. Now these wives oh my GOD hahahahaha.

“ Our sexual attractiveness goes away after 4–5 years of marriage, then men have to look for new fires to cast their wood in”

Pushpa, Nand’s mom

These women, who organise their parties for gossiping about other people’s lives, are portrayed as aunties who can’t sexually excite the men in their lives in any way. So the men go on “trips” and “get massages” which even they know but their anger only arises when their sexual needs start getting fulfilled in the city itself. A special note to Nand’s mom here, the leader of the pack, who alternates between being the sweet caring can’t-find-no-wrong mother and a venomous bitch of a lady who pokes wives about their husband’s extra marital affairs and gossips about sex lives. The complicated image that is never then pored into, is quite intriguing as you realise that all that godly devotion can’t help her empathise with another woman or even bother her to keep her husband in check. Her subservient husband worship has a sharp contrast to her constant open abuses of “kulta” and so on, as she goes on making assumptions and spreading rumors about a person she hasn’t even met.

I know at this point you are thinking why did I have such faith in such a regressive show. But it was always shown in this tongue-in-cheek manner which I thought was trying to imply the hypocrisy and sad nature of the lives in Meerut, in the heartland. Also, second episode onward every episode begins with a short feminist look into Shanu’s childhood and life before Meerut, highlighting hypocrisies and the mistreatment of women, often at the hand of their own mothers. How if an affair is caught red-handed only the girl is shamed and beaten up by the crossed wife, no questions asked to the men. “Aadmi toh raakshas he hi.” Hindsight.

However, I must say that the second episode opening is especially touching and seems to have touched a nerve among the Indian masses.

In a party, a group of drinking men gaze at a young lady as she dances to the steps of the song, which are ofc as per Indian standards full of sexual metaphors. They chide the father for allowing the daughter to dance like that. I felt the song showcased the hypocrisy of our society, where people love discussing Raveena’s hot body in “Tip Tip Barsa Paani” but constantly throttle their own daughter’s freedom.

Prasoon Joshi, the great Indian social reformer put out a tweet about how wrong the serial is for sexualising a young girl and the Imdb bombing followed.

“I am sad to see the irresponsible content of the web series Rasbhari, in which a small girl is shown doing inflammatory dance in front of drunken people. Creators and viewers have to think seriously whether it is freedom of expression or freedom of exploitation? #RasbhariReview”

by srty-89067

“Expecting a good from prime video. But this web series is disgusting. A little girl is doing provactive dance in front of men. Disgusting show.”

by manasv

Such intelligent men banded together and bombed the rating to 2.7/10. Shitloads of reviews about how Swara Bhaskar sucks ass and cannot act but I actually think the cheeky acting of the, well, actors inspires some hope and faith that maybe things will get better. They don’t. But, Swara actually acts well. Her small-town English teacher misses articles while talking in the language and her slight ‘sh’ pronunciation of ‘s’ is nice too.

Which just makes me wonder why did she take this at all? The countless shots of Swara’s back and her blouse and it’s unbuttoning as the sexed-up Rasbhari or even when the students or Nand are ogling the teacher gets so repetitive and base, the intentions of the serial become unclear.

The plot really like opens up about Rasbhari in episode 5, as Nand follows Shanu ma’am’s husband, who is outstation often. In the three episodes in between, Swara has had plenty of sex, Nand has been taking tuitions from Shanu and then tried to kiss her. Got slapped and typical sad-moment for the ‘hero’. Here the husband opens up to him that Shanu isn’t the one having sex, but Rasbhari. Because of this they had been shunned in their previous city and ultimately moved away. The husband has tried doctors and tantriks but nothing has worked. Here, I want to talk about the sweet devoted husband, who loves his wife unconditionally and doesn’t do a Indian male typical move of walking away from a “used” woman or whatever bullshit they do, fuck that. This husband is so sweet, so caring and their relationship is so nice that you will understand my later frustration amazingly. Just remember very sweet husband.

After Nand gets to know all that, he also starts respecting Shanu and in two separate sequences, Shanu teaches him about being honest in your relationships and Rasbhari teaches him how to express his emotions to his crush. So he and the girl first become best friends then after Rasbhari, become a couple. I loved these two sequences here because the sex was shown healthily and I actually physically cheered when the two kissed. Nand did not have sex with Rasbhari and things looked so great. I felt like an inversion was coming where all the cheating men will suffer and the show will take it’s stand and there’ll be some great ironic lines. I really expected that Shanu will get more control and we will get to know more about Rasbhari, the character and her backstory. Oh hindsight.

Along this Nand character growth line, also a subplot of the the women of the city growing more angry continues. Turns out every man is horny and every wife is pissed. All this then comes to boiling point when Nand’s mom finds the lovebite on his neck. She assumes it’s Rasbhari’s and she calls on her army to drag the woman out of the city by her hair. I loved the implication here where the women don’t blame their husbands but the ‘whore’ and the ‘home-breaker’. I mean women pulling down other women like that in a patriarchal society is a nice implication. However by this point, you realise all the structure and the towers depend on the ending and it could make or break this. Yes.

Nand’s friend who has been slapped by him for making sexual remarks on Shanu ma’am, has had a complete makeover and overhears this planning and informs Nand. So Nand goes to stay at Shanu’s house and to keep her safe. And this is where everything fucking has a fucking earthquake, every development is broken down and it’s all shit, FUCKING SHIT from here.

“I hate wasted potential. That shit crushes your spirit.”

in Gone, Gone / Thank You by Tyler the Creator

I hate this serial. Nand calls his girlfriend over the night before he has to help Shanu run away from the mob coming next morning at 10 am ya know. Then Rasbhari appears and in what maybe the most bizarre and wtf moment I have ever witnessed, Rasbhari kisses the girlfriend and then Nand. SHE KISSES THE GIRLFRIEND AND THEN NAND.

She then commends him for learning kissing so well like his English and leaves and the two have sex. Because who doesn’t like a good fuck before a mob attack for good luck? Meanwhile, the men are lured to the house of a transgender prostitute where the mob of women also arrive and catch their husbands red-handed. Infact they push the men aside to knock at the door, hoping to catch Rasbhari and beat the shit out of her before a hired camera. The prostitute opens the door and then the women and men are confused. Nothing happens to the men, because whenever does that happen anyway. A story with a horny ghost is now realistic. Like this has no catharsis okay you just accept that men are horny and aunties are angry. That is the conclusion. Amazing.

So Shanu and her husband pack their bags and leave for a new city. As Nand is waving them goodbye, you are thinking “Is this the end? 6 minutes are left, how will they manage to fit Rasbhari’s story here? Will she follow Shanu again and we will expect a new season?” No. Nah man this is the best twist in that any sane person will go wtf and the worst twist because WHAT THE FUCK.

So, Nand has an epiphany that Rasbhari and Shanu didn’t even know about each other’s existence so how did Rasbhari commend his English skills after she made out with him and his girlfriend? Yes, they now imply that Rasbhari and Shanu were the same and Shanu was lying. Because fuck teaching Nand about honesty na? Because fuck being loyal in a marriage? I don’t even know how to feel about this. What do they want me to feel? What is the conclusion?

What a fuckin ass.

Prime Video recently has tried to lure in the liberal audience with shows like Four More Shots, Paatal Lok. It has tried to copy the Indian gangster feel of Sacred Games and in all these respects I think it has failed. Paatal Lok for all it’s social commentary had silent women and a punching bag of a transgender character. When I first saw Paatal Lok, I thought it’s extremely realistic take was amazing. But as this article pointed out, the women still ended up unheard and sidelined. Four More Shots is garbage, nobody even likes that and any sane person can identify the regressive parts of Mirzapur which are just plenty. What all these seem to have in common is sprinkling a dash of “oh ya feminism”, “implied social commentary” to ironically portray all the regressive parts. Funnily, it still ends up with this confused message in the end, as it is neither true to what the writer intended to show, his backdated mindset included, or what being liberal and progressive means. This is the fucking same okay.

The only people who lose in this show are the wives, who just want a loyal husband(mob mentality, gossip and all that aside) and most of all, the husband. My heart aches for the husband so much. This is such a dirty offensive ending, because here is a man who loves his wife so much and is always kind and caring to everyone and all that does end up happening is his wife knowingly sleeps with the entire town. It is such a disgusting implication that all the tongue-in-cheek, self-awareness can never make up for it. You cannot show such a sweet man constantly supporting his wife and then expect us to laugh or quietly take in the revelation that his wife just likes sleeping around. It betrays both the liberal mindset you had implied and the Savita Bhabhi people of the world who were being shamed for making assumptions(I mean they already got pissed at the child dancing and left but still).

I don’t have a problem with sexually liberated women who take charge of their sexuality. I don’t have a problem with people sleeping around. What hurts me is that the two sequences I had loved are rendered moot. The person teaching us honesty is a serial cheater and Nand ends up giving in to his most base desires by kissing Rasbhari.

Writing this as I hear my dad watch another funny Facebook video about how girls are dumb and men are amazing, I just feel sad. I’m not an indie film lover, I barely watch anything anymore. But after the 5 episodes and seeing the 2.7, I wanted to fight for this. I wanted people to see it. To see all my good faith betrayed, hurts me. This had a lot of potential and watching it become the regressive nightmare it did, I have no words.

This just leaves me doubting what kind of person am I that I watched 7 episodes of this crap with so much enthusiasm, faith, patience and also who am I that I was enjoying the tone, thinking a subversion was coming. When I went into this, I expected a horror comedy like Stree but feminist like say Pari or Bulbbul. I wasn’t even mad as anyone should be that the ghost was introduced as late as episode 5. The ghost turned out to be a total macguffin. None of the lingo was inverted and it has one pointing out, which is just moot, it’s dust. Why would Shanu even do it? Even that is never implied or talked about.

This serial has no message,no purpose. It is not even loyal to itself. Like it’s titular prostitute, it sleeps around and only teases and frustrates you, which is very ironic and poetic. This thought ends up being the only pleasure I derived from this.