The Indian Film Industry is no stranger to scantily clad women in sarees erotically gyrating while keeping the tag of a ‘Sanskaari’ woman. This was precisely what Raj Kapoor was criticized for, in his movie Satyam Shivam Sundaram . While trying to negate the shallow outer appearances and propagating the notion of inherent beauty in one’s soul, the movie accomplishes exactly the opposite, with most of its views coming from the libido of men going to the theatres to watch Zeenat Aman with little to no clothes on. The film became a semi-vulgar display of semi-naked curvaceous bodies, victimization, and helplessness of women, loss of all female agency, and some very problematic display of tribal culture. While watching the movie, apart from the unnecessary victimization of Zeenat Aman and a lot of tears, two questions kept recurring in my mind – does she possess absolutely no agency? How is this blatant exoticization and Brahmanisation of tribals and Adivasis allowed? The opening monol...