Vir Das dancing to the tune of ‘Ja Chudail’

Remember the song ‘Ja Chudail’ from the movie ‘Delhi Belly’, where Vir Das’ character crashes the wedding of his ex-girlfriend and sings about all the atrocities the bride has committed against him? 

This trend of representing women as blood-thirsty witches who ruin men’s lives has only gotten more popular with time.

Dream Stories TV’ is a YouTube channel that was created in January 2019 for the moral education of children. However, the channel hasn’t served this purpose at all. 

The channel has 3.57 million subscribers. Neeraj Bhaskar, the creator of the channel, shared with ‘The Print’ that men make up 75.3 percent of their audience.

A video from the channel ‘DreamStoriesTV’

Why Do Men Enjoy These Videos?

A lot of frustrated, lonely, and disgruntled men blame women for all the misfortunes that befall them. Hence, they enjoy stories where women are depicted as deformed beings who are ugly and inhumane to the core.

When the ‘chudails’ burn and degenerate in the end, these delusional men view it as ‘liberation’ from the clutches of evil women.

The videos are heavily inspired by the 2018 movie ‘Stree’. While the movie gave utmost respect to the supernatural ‘Stree’, these videos cater mostly to the sentiments of male chauvinists.

As a result, many of these videos present the wives of their protagonists as ‘chudails‘ who are hell-bent on wiping the male race.

The climax usually features some wise man tricking the ‘chudail‘ and killing her, thereby, saving the villagers from her wrath. These videos feed into men’s inane misbelief that women ensnare men and trap them to lead a miserable existence.

The Key- Word ‘Chudail

Neeraj Bhaskar states that because ‘Chudail’ videos are getting so popular, his channel has created a separate section just for them. Other YouTube channels have also started using the key-word ‘chudail’ in their title to increase viewership.

‘Chudail Kal Aana’ a video from the channel ‘My CartoonTV Hindi Stories’

A video from the channel ‘My CartoonTV Hindi Stories’ titled ‘Chudail Kal Aana’ garnered 9.7 million views in six weeks. Another YouTube channel called ‘Best Buddies Stories & Rhymes’, with over 5 lakh subscribers has specifically been uploading videos with the keyword ‘chudail’ in the title for the last three months.


Also Read: Forced To Eat Human Excreta: The Preposterous Practice of Witch-Hunting in India


Is This Appropriate For Kids?

I grew up watching some of the most popular shows and movies of our time such as ‘Son-Pari‘, ‘Shararat‘, and ‘Harry Potter‘. And although these shows witnessed female characters as witches, they were always depicted in a positive light.

 They never employed their magic to fulfill some nefarious motive. 

How can videos that depict women as frightening ‘chudails’ be of any moralistic value?

The parents might brush it off as mindless entertainment, but content like this usually contributes towards internalizing sexism in young minds. Dr. Rajesh Sagar, a psychologist from AIIMS is also against children consuming such problematic content.

A Christmas Carol

A good example of ghost stories that provide a good moral lesson can be found in Charles Dickens’s classic novel ‘A Christmas Carol’. After the spirits visit Ebenezer Scrooge, he transforms into a kinder man.

Witch-Trials

Everyone knows about the Salem Witch trials and the atrocities that were committed by prosecuting innocent women on suspicion of witchcraft. Similarly, India too has a history of lynching women on such false notions.

The data from the National Crime Records Bureau shows that around 1700 women were murdered on the suspicion of witchcraft between 1991 to 2010. 

The Grapes Are Sour

Fox and the Grapes, a tale from Aesop’s Fables

The popular ‘Aesop’s Fables’, features a tale where a fox seeks to eat some grapes but is unsuccessful in its attempt. When unable to reach the grapes that hang on a high branch, the fox deems the grapes sour instead of admitting its defeat.

Similarly, when women reject these men because of their slimy ways and repulsive behavior, they are unable to deal with it, and hence as a coping mechanism, start finding numerous faults in women. The women take the shape of evil in their eyes.

They humiliate women by calling them ‘Chudail’, ‘Dayan’, and ‘Pishachini’. They safeguard their fragile ego by believing all women are manipulative bi*ches with sinister intentions.

The purpose of this article was to point out the fault in content posted by these channels and how it affects people, especially the children. 

Perhaps, in the future, these channels might come up with a better storyline that doesn’t sponsor misogyny.

What do you think about such videos?


Image Credits: Google Images

Sources: The Print, YouTube, Scientific American

Find The Blogger: @ishitabajpai6


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