Film challenges stereotypes, shows men up against violence

One year since the horrific gangrape of a 23-year-old paramedic in a moving bus here, a documentary honours men across the country who strive to break gender stereotypes and do their bit to ensure gender equality.
Titled "Men against the tide", the film is a compilation of real life stories of seven 'heroes' who in their lives have challenged the masculine stereotypes.
It opens with the story of Mukul Kalita, who came to the rescue a girl being sexual assaulted in Guwahati.
"I have not done anything great. The girl was being brutally tortured by the angry mob. I couldn't take it...I think every responsible citizen should have done what I did that night," says Kalita, a journalist by profession who jumped into a crowd to help the girl.

He was the first one to call the police as well. The Guwahati incident triggered a nation-wide sensation when a girl was molested by a group of people outside a bar on July 9, 2012.
If Kalita came as a messiah for the girl, Mahadev of Maharashtra showed exemplary courage to remove the deep-rooted patriarchy from his village in Sangola.

In Sangola, he says women are restricted to the confines of four walls and not allowed to participate in any social activity.
But Mahadev says he stood against the tide and fought against such discrimination.
Assisted by his group members he says he decided to display banners on a tractor trolley for the education and awareness of the villagers on gender equality. The poster exhibition drew great response from the villagers.

"This documentary highlights a handful of men challenging gender-stereotypes like masculinity. We wanted to convey to people to take men out of the brackets of perpetrators through this documentary," says Abhishek Srivastava, ITVS.