Respect to all #Africans, from the bottom of my heart, an Indian (/Bhartiyan as we call ourselves, folks of Bharat), on behalf of all the warrior Bhartians.
First of all, a warm thanks to (in this order):-
- the writers Dana Stevens and Maria Bello to create the beautiful story
- the director Gina Prince-Bythewood to present the story that touched millions if not billions of hearts across world
- all the actors – who made the vision of writers and director come true Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, John Boyega – you guys rock, each and every one of you
- and finally, every other individual who made The Woman King come out the way it has.
Heart of Steel
The Woman King, is a storyline that unites us, all humans, in many ways. We endure the hurt and pain in our lives, yet the warrior’s, a leader’s heart, would always land up chosing the path of dignity and conscience. The Woman King, Nanisca, who was slaved and raped multiple times in her early life, though developed a heart of steel due to hardships, yet is not negative and judgemental about how the life in general and of her people should be. She doesn’t want her countrymen and future generations to experience the same pain she has been through. She is a stone heart against slavery. This is what you would see in our real life hero Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev (founder of Isha Foundation) here in India, who has roamed around the country and working tirelessly to make lives better. He started local with Rally of Rivers and the Cauvery Calling project to now global with the Save Soil project.
Real Heros dont fall for petty things
She is fully supported by the King Ghezo of Dahomey, who is equally tormented by his cruel past where his mother was sold as a slave by his own brother. The King, has no ego clash with Nanisca, even when she disobeys his direct order. He is mature enough to truly know what’s good for the people and shows utter respect to Nanisca’s decisions. The ego clash between the powerful and the warriors in the team is pretty common phenomena. You can see that in any period dramas, movies and TV series. Take examples from – Troy (film) where the clash between the Achilles (played by Brad Pitt), a heroic Greek warrior who fights for King Agamemnon, deeply despises him; Game of Thrones where how the clash between the Dragon Queen, Daenerys Targaryen, played by Emilia Clarke and the King Maker, Jon Snow, played by Kit (Christopher Catesby) Harington played out in the end. In the above two epic features, you would see why a great warrior did not follow a power greedy superior.
An Army of Believers
Movie also shows what makes a disciplined and perfect kill machine of an army, proudly called themselves Agojie. Bonded together with a blind faith in the leader’s vision, yet an independent warrior at heart, hungry to the last tooth to develop unbeatable warrior skills for a common cause. What mostly confusing is – how can an independent free soul follows someone blindly? That’s the trickiest and hence a rare mind you would see when you see a team that is best of the bests. “If you want to lead, you must first learn to follow” said Ben Franklin.
Remember, the Fast & Furious series, a fiction where the team did unthinkable standing tall behind the leader Dominic “Dom” Toretto played by Vin Diesel /or/ a more real story Narcos, of the Pablo Escobar, where Pablo could became the king of cocaine”, Escobar was the wealthiest criminal in history. All because of the faithful team he had /or/ The famous #bellaCiao series, Money Heist, heist crime drama, where The Professor, played by Álvaro Morte lead a team to pull of the heist challenging the whole ecosystem of a country /or/ the team in the story of Turkish Police Special Operations assault squad WOLF (Turkish: Börü).
Each of these stories cry of the same tenets of a charcter who is a true follower yet a kickass leader in her/himself joining hands with a group of brave hearts, all having an unshakable belief among themselves.
CONCLUSION
Coming back to the opening piece, and concluding, the movie made me develop deep and huge respect for all Africans. It connected with me at many fronts – perfect creative and technicalities of great story telling, showing the history of a tribe in a positive light which in today’s turmoiled world, creates a positive feeling, the win of good over bad with valor. Though the history of any race shows that there are people among them who betray their own. The Oyo Empire in this case who are shown as oppressors, helping Portuguese, making slaves out of their own countrymen to serve the colonists. That shows that we humans are all the same across globe, with the great, good and bad among ourselves. Many Indian/Bharatian stories, movies, TV shows and series show the same. Yet in the end, the brave hearts prevail. It is upto each race to behold the culture of humanity and empathy over deceit and oppression for power and greed. The fight has been on since the dawn of time and will remain so till the world won’t remain the way we know it today. Decide which side you choose to be on.
