This movie talks about how there are two Indias,the rural India with conservative values and urban…  

This movie talks about how there are two Indias,the rural India with conservative values and urban Indian with modern values,the documentary shows how parallel life runs ,depending on what kind of family you are born into.According to me both sides have good things  

I watched this movie to pass the time, fully expecting to answer email and play a few games while…  

I watched this movie to pass the time, fully expecting to answer email and play a few games while it was on in the background. However, I was soon so absorbed by the contrast in characters and their world views that I had turned off the computer. This review may contain spoilers. There are two 'camps' contrasted in the film: One for future beauty- queens, complete with fashion advisers, make-up artists, publicists, photographers, etc. that prepare contestants for the Miss India contest; and one for girls with 'traditional Hindu values' to prepare them for life... as mothers and terrorists, apparently. The personalities encountered are engaging and quickly move beyond the stereotype; one learns about the young women's families, backgrounds, ambitions, dreams, and fears, whether they be the beauty or the beast... OK, "beast" is a harsh description of the homely camp counselor who thrives on the fear she instills in her charges, and who doesn't want to become a wife and mother, thus defying the very traditions she espouses, but wants to further the cause of traditional Hindu culture by making sure other females will; but she is no beauty, not inside nor out. Watching her view the Miss India contest on television, with her abusive father (he branded her for lying as a child and cheerfully admits to beating her often), I saw an envious woman, wishing she could compete with the westernized culture. If she were born beautiful, which culture would she choose? But then you listen to the beauty-queen contestant, whose mother saved her life, when her father wanted her killed for being a female baby - and nothing is simple anymore. A culture where female life is valued only for the production of male offspring, and as a domestic servant, versus a culture where a female is only worth something when she is beautiful; neither is desirable. I have been fascinated by India since childhood, and a trip there was on my 'bucket list'. After viewing this film, I have removed this item.  

"The World Before Her" (2012 release from India; 90 min.) is a documentary focusing on two women.…  

"The World Before Her" (2012 release from India; 90 min.) is a documentary focusing on two women. As the movie opens, we get to meet Ruhi, a 19 yr. old who is in the final group of 20 young women competing for the title of Miss India 2011. The beauty contest boot camp will run for 30 days leading up to the pageant itself. Next we get to meet Prachi, a 24 yr. old who is a camp leader at Durga Vahini, a Hindu nationalistic training camp for women between the ages of 15 and 23. We also get to know the respective families of these young women. Couple of comments: first and foremost, kudos to director Nisha Pahuja for bringing us these insights into Indian society, it was an eye-opener for me (I've never been in to India). Second, beware, the documentary contains some disturbing archive footage of Hindu extremists brutally attacking women for the heinous crime of being seen with a man or for being in a bar, or for simply being a woman. There is also some fairly shocking footage of the beauty pageant contestants getting botox injections and skin whitening treatments. Third, one can only imagine the pressure that weighs on girls and women in India. At one point Ruhi's mother describes how disappointed and let down she felt when giving birth and being told it was another girl. We should all be thankful for living in a country like the US where, compared to India, women are treated and live like queens. I saw this movie at the 2014 International Women's Day festival held by the Cincinnati World Cinema, and the screening was PACKED I am happy to report. "The World Before Her" raises a lot of poignant questions, and is worth checking out, be it in the theater, on DVD or on Amazon Instant Video. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!  

Just watched this film and really enjoyed it. I don't have much knowledge of the traditional Hindu…  

Just watched this film and really enjoyed it. I don't have much knowledge of the traditional Hindu culture or its fashion/modelling/pageant. This documentary depicts two very contrasting and opposing worlds existing for the women in the Indian society of today: 1. There is the world of the nationalist and Hindu extremists. They run fundamentalist schools in which they teach the young women that Hinduism is the only way and that they should do (even kill) to defend their values against the evil enemy, notably Christians and Muslims. They take girls between 15-25 years of age, when they are most easily influenced by this sort of brainwashing. According to the teaching of these schools, women have a "duty" to marry and reproduce, they should not attend regular schools (except for learning to read and write) but they should know how to use a gun to fight for their religion. These schools are often called "terrorist schools" for their support of violence. Their students take pride in having no Muslim friends. The girl who was interviewed along with her family as the one representing this group of women, admitted that she likes being scared of, and that if she had the authority she would have very much liked to be able to physically hit the girls in her group (she was now a group leader). When you hear the fact that her father has been hitting her "a lot", you can imagine where all that anger comes from... The same anger that would eventually be ventilated as violence towards the "evil" ones, the ones opposing their Hindu "values". As these women are not allowed outside the home much, this may be an outlet for their frustrations, boredom and/or anger. 2. On the other hand, you see a totally different group of women, who, in my opinion, are also victims of a sexist society. According to the film, there aren't many opportunities for most women to gain independence and have a career, and beauty business is one of the few available. Many Indian girls aspire to become models, Bollywood actresses and ultimately Miss India. The problem lies not in what they want, but in the way in which these are achieved: They would have to shed the sari and many traditional values and even their own comfort level. They often have to receive Botox treatments to look "perfect", and this is done by actually measuring their facial features to the tenth of cm. Excuse me, but isn't that an insult to one's natural beauty? Doesn't it mean that if you remained yourself, you probably wouldn't stand a chance of ever competing there? Who's winning the crown? The Botox treatment of the girls themselves? And perfect according to whom? What's the standard? Are these people out of their minds? Can't they see that this sort of criteria and propaganda is putting enormous pressure on most average Indian girls and even flattens the self-esteem of the pageants themselves? Their legs were so skinny and shapeless I wanted to puke. What's this sort of pageant trying to achieve? Are there any intellectual criteria in this, like whether she has attended university or not? Like if she can speak up for herself, etc.? No. It's purely physical. These girls have a lot of physical and emotional stress during a whole month of beauty boot camp, only to learn that a woman is most valued by her looks and not even her natural looks, but what other people want from her. She is valued if she has an unnaturally skinny body. As an Indian woman, she learns that she doesn't need education or a career other than doesn't use her external beauty. (I believe that the film doesn't portray the atrocities of the pageant world enough... or is it intentional? I doubt that they are trying to glorify this, although it's shown under a more positive light than the so-called terrorist camps!) In short, both groups are slaves to their sex and to the abuse of the society. Very saddening. I'm sure that there must be women in India who are not necessarily part of either group, who have careers that need training and education and have nothing to do with their gender, who take pride in their Indian ancestry and at the same time do not give in to any fundamentalist thinking, who are striving to build a better world, where women are respected and elevated in status, by their many many many abilities rather than by the size of their legs and breasts!