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Dangal (lit. Wrestling competition): 2016 Indian Hindi-language, director: Nitesh Tiwari, starring Amir Khan, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra.
The only thing that can save the child from unnatural injury is the efforts of the parents not to shirk the psychic difficulties of life by deceitful manoeuvres or by remaining artificially unconscious, but rather to accept them as tasks, to be as honest with themselves as possible, and to shed a beam of light into the darkest corners of their souls.
This insightful observation regarding the role of parents in the lives of their children conveys the mindfulness that parents could reflectively invest in raising their own consciousness about the responsibility of being a parent. It encourages each parent to recognise the individuality and separateness of each of their children, responding to the uniqueness they represent without imposing their own unfulfilled longings on the child. Jointly, this means parents create a secure and thriving environment for the development of their child, while being cognisant of not imposing their projections on their children.
These perspectives prove relevant in the context of the Indian film Dangal , whose title is the Hindi word for wrestling. The storyline communicates some degree of consciousness on the part of a parent, in this case the father, in the lives of his two oldest daughters. This biopic narrates the dilemma of amateur wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat, grappling with the duality of being both father and coach to his two daughters, Geeta and Babita. This review points to the looming shadow of patriarchy, globally present even today, which unconsciously sneaks up on men and women, despite their well-intentioned attempts to endorse underprivileged individuals, including women.