Analysis Of The World Before Her

The World Before Her is Written and directed by Nisha Pahuja.

The film says it is the first to shoot the training at a Durga Vahini camp and for that alone it is a valuable resource to see first hand how young girls are being brain washed into hating Muslims and thinking that wielding a few sticks and learning some artful body moves will give them an identity and make them defend themselves and their country. That was the real value for the film for me was to see young women from rural areas look to the Durga Vahini as an inspiration and towards the end of the film, a group leader says she would want to repeat this training as she quite liked the ideas sown in her head and by going for more camps, they would harden over time.

The director confessed to knowing the Trivedi family for two years before she filmed them and there is a rapport you can sense when she speaks to Prachi, who is a trainer in the Durga Vahini and who speaks openly about her willingness to kill for her beliefs and her culture. But also shows us another side to Prachi- how her father burnt her once, to teach her a
But unlike the Durga Vahini students, one of the girls who is subjected to Botox, a rather harsh fairness cream routine and other indignities wonders if it is all worth it. Here the ideology is high fashion, and that ultimate Miss India crown which Ruhi, one of the aspirants is so keen on, it is affecting her physically. Yet when she doesn’t win it, you get a feeling, she will move on. But the story of Miss India Pooja Chopra whose mother Neera was asked to kill her as a child since she was the second girl. Pooja’s mother left her father and it was a momentous day when her daughter who was unwanted, won the Miss India