Born into Brothels

For my final review, I chose to watch born into brothels. Women’s rights have always interested me but after I wrote a paper on female feticide for a class last year, I became specifically interested in women’s rights in rural parts of South Asia. Since I am Indian and I have visited India several times, I really wanted to see Born into Brothels. It was eye-opening yet also disappointing. I have always held a biased vision of India because I have only seen the good. It was terrifying to see what those girls went through but at the same time the directors portrayed the girls in a light in which it was impossible to judge them. It made me upset that so much of this goes on in a country that means so much to me but it was important to shed light on such a taboo subject. It is heartbreaking to see what children were forced to do to avoid complete starvation. I always feel that when a foreign director comes into a country, he or she is able to make a better film because they are not indebted to country. Although not the same, I think that Danny Boyle was able to make Slumdog Millionaire such a wonderful film because he wasn’t emotionally attached to the Indian landscape.