You are a happy 28-year-old successful independent woman until you find out that you are pregnant, and by the way you are also not married. You suddenly become a fret-not, unhappy, berserk kind of woman. Because you fear what’s coming. You know you have all the power to deal with it but you are scared. What would you do? Of course, the usual and most convenient step would be to abort the child but is this step also the most appropriate?
Gauahar Khan tries to unfurl this dilemma in her new short film titled Peanut Butter. She plays the woman of the description above. A woman living alone in a city who is aware that she doesn’t have a man to support her or her child whom she has now decided to abort. But as soon as she moves out to do what is ‘right’, she is taken aback very surprisingly. She meets her own child, who is now by the way a young boy. A conversation with him sketches the entire future for her with the kid who will be no more if she implies what she has decided upon. What will she do now? Whether this kid will change her decision?
Peanut Butter is a simple story. It has been told simply but the subject it treats is a little complicated. Where it strikes the chord is how it shows that the reason behind aborting the child is more important than the decision itself. If it’s because you are not ready for it, it’s fine. But, if you’re doing it because the society is not ready for it, then it’s not. Yes, the decision of keeping the child is entirely a mother’s. And it should, in all sense, be accepted and respected. However, what should not be accepted is the social pressure of not being respected as a single mother. A woman has a choice to let go off the father of her child, if the circumstances imply so. If she doesn’t have a man’s support, it is fine. As long as she is not asking the society to take care of her and her love child, it should be fine, right?
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Your thoughts on the film?
