The irony of India as a nation is that we need to speak about sexual and reproductive health as an urgent, most pressing need of the hour. And yet, we continue to pretend, behind the shadow screens of propriety and tradition, already languishing under the oppressive burden of patriarchy and orthodoxy, that no one is having sex in this country.
Be it married couples, young lovers, the middle class, the urban upper class and anyone else between and beyond, we are still unable to find that space where we can openly discuss sexuality and all the decisions that surround this vast territory. Consequently, India remains a nation not only marked by the staggering size of its population, increasing at a breakneck speed by the hour, but also by its frustrating shying away from any measures to address it.
The film is a conversation around the same topic, taking the viewer into the life and experiences of a regular Indian household marked by its lack of knowledge and awareness of contraceptive methods like condoms. As the patriarchal head of the family struggles with a box of flavored condoms he has chanced upon, the family too gets pulled into the rigmarole of confusing them with candy. The narrative handles it all with ease, ensuring there is never a dull moment, as the taut plot parodies, informs, entertains and educates, all in a single endeavor.
Read LessBe it married couples, young lovers, the middle class, the urban upper class and anyone else between and beyond, we are still unable to find that space where we can openly discuss sexuality and all the decisions that surround this vast territory. Consequently, India remains a nation not only marked by the staggering size of its population, increasing at a breakneck speed by the hour, but also by its frustrating shying away from any measures to address it.
The film is a conversation around the same topic, taking the viewer into the life and experiences of a regular Indian household marked by its lack of knowledge and awareness of contraceptive methods like condoms. As the patriarchal head of the family struggles with a box of flavored condoms he has chanced upon, the family too gets pulled into the rigmarole of confusing them with candy. The narrative handles it all with ease, ensuring there is never a dull moment, as the taut plot parodies, informs, entertains and educates, all in a single endeavor.
The idea of the film is based on a real-life experience that I had in my late teen years. I was playing cricket with my buddies when the fielder, while looking for the ball, found a box of condoms with images of fruits and whatnot. Not knowing what the product was, it was declared to be a box of chewing gum. It was only later that we discovered through the local pervert that the perceived gum was a condom.
This experience always remained with me. I questioned its validity more and more as I grew up, and soon realized that porn is the source of sex education for most Indians, that condoms are marketed in a way that the effort is to talk about everything else around the product, but the product itself, and that most Indians are still embarrassed to buy condoms over the counter due to smirks and winks that will accompany it. I wrote and directed this film just to show the same antipathy towards it all.
This experience always remained with me. I questioned its validity more and more as I grew up, and soon realized that porn is the source of sex education for most Indians, that condoms are marketed in a way that the effort is to talk about everything else around the product, but the product itself, and that most Indians are still embarrassed to buy condoms over the counter due to smirks and winks that will accompany it. I wrote and directed this film just to show the same antipathy towards it all.
Utkarsh ThukralDirector, Death by Condom
