Let’s start at the beginning: You can’t miss Kalki’s powerful, scary wo-man-logue | Bollywood - Hindustan Times
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Let’s start at the beginning: You can’t miss Kalki’s powerful, scary wo-man-logue

Hindustan Times | BySweta Kaushal, New Delhi
Sep 16, 2016 04:12 PM IST

Kalki Koechlin is known for two things - her versatility as an actor and her feminism. From featuring in satirical YouTube videos to reciting poetry at the smallest of Mumbai cafe, she goes all the way to promote the cause of women. In her recent bid to create awareness about women empowerment, Kalki performed a soul-stirring “wo-man-logue” as she calls it.

Kalki Koechlin is known for two things - her versatility as an actor and her feminism. From featuring in satirical YouTube videos to reciting poetry at little-known Mumbai cafes, she goes all the way to promote women’s cause. In a new campaign to create awareness about women empowerment, Kalki performed a soul-stirring “wo-man-logue”, a solo theatrical monologue, at Young FICCI Ladies Organisation, New Delhi on September 12.

From featuring in satirical YouTube videos to reciting poetry at the smallest of Mumbai cafe, she goes all the way to promote the cause of women.
From featuring in satirical YouTube videos to reciting poetry at the smallest of Mumbai cafe, she goes all the way to promote the cause of women.

In her monologue, Kalki “starts from the beginning” and talks about Adam and Eve - how everything was blamed on Eve and how “we were sidelined from the Big Bang!”

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Kalki during the 'Wo-Manlogue', a theatrical monolgue on womanhood in New Delhi on Monday. (PTI)
Kalki during the 'Wo-Manlogue', a theatrical monolgue on womanhood in New Delhi on Monday. (PTI)

Talking about the various limitations and expectations a woman is supposed to live with, Kalki keeps the tone engaging and continues, “I want to be George Clooney basically, but with breasts and a muffin. But no, no… Shhh. Control! Keep it down, stuff it up, bottle it in, switch it off, cross your leg, wear a bra, sit straight and smile sweetly please for the camera!”

She then calls out to the men: “Dear men. Dear, powerful men! I know you care about women, I know you about her, you want to make her feel like a princess, put her on a pedestal. Make her a goddess and give her a her a special day like International Women’s Day. Let’s be nice to her for one day.”

(PTI)
(PTI)

Calling upon women to embrace their sexuality and refrain from competing with men, she said, “Dear women, will you atleast stand up for me? Enough of the disposed foetus and the unwanted daughter. Enough of girls in fairy dresses, with bulemia and major complexes.”

She even questions the role of religion: “What if your religion told you to do whatever you felt like? Spit, scream, gossip, fight, make noise, pollute, marry a child, perform an honour killing, rape, torture, discriminate, keep locked up, keep uneducated, keep under your control. Does God have a say in such a religion? Has God become a politician?”

Kalki is currently working on her next film Ribbon. (PTI)
Kalki is currently working on her next film Ribbon. (PTI)

She signed off with a powerful punchline: “Sometimes I just want to breathe. Like when you have a man pounding on top of you incessantly in a daily routine, it’s hard to breathe… When the underwire of your bra is poking into your ribs and it’s too hot to be wearing all this, it’s hard to breathe. When you want to stop being stared at by everyone who always is your watchman, your rickshaw wala, your neighbour’s husband… They’re all watching your chest heave every time you breathe… Sometimes as a woman you feel guilty to just breathe. Well, of course we are going to be hysterical. Of course we’re gonna be screaming! Of course we’re gonna be unreasonable, do you think it’s REASONABLE TO RESTRAIN BREATHING?”

Watch Kalki’s “wo-man-logue” here

We simply love Kalki for mouthing all the injustices and cruelties meted out to womenkind, and in such a poetic manner. What do you think?

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Sweta Kaushal has 13 years of experience covering Bollywood and regional movies, TV shows, national current affairs and social issues.

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