In the walls of the streets of Kolkata, we often get to see posters of sensual 'Body Massage' which are surrogatory advertisements for prostitution. A few years ago, when a Radio Jockey from a popular radio station had conducted a sting operation on his live show, their reality got exposed.
Various Kolkata-based media houses have conducted investigations on such rapid usage of posters. Unfortunately, like many issues in Bengal, this matter too just remained a hype that failed to garner enough attention like the #MeToo movement which created a stir worldwide.
Body Massage with real-life inspiration
There has been a huge rise in cases of non-consensual sexual advances towards men and women and Body Massage has managed to take the matter seriously. However, here instead of a woman fighting for her life, her dignity we see her ending her life. This isn't the ending an innocent woman needs or deserves.
It was in the year 2000 when Preity Zinta fought this mentality in the film Kya Kehna. Although she was forced to watch a play on Priya Bakshi's scandalous life where she was made to end her life for committing the heinous crime of getting pregnant before marriage, Priya got on stage and fought back with dignity. That doesn't really happen in Body Massage, which is what keeps us devastated.
A must-watch
Body Massage tells the story of an aspiring actress whose photoshoots get wrongly used for a prostitution ad. It keeps morality aside and focusses more on Chandan's perspective of a woman, whose photos he observed on the posters of Body Massage ads. Eventually, he falls in love with Nandini and tries to protect her dignity. Instead of focusing on the humiliation faced by the woman, Body Massage became a story about Chandan's struggle in dealing with a crush who committed suicide.
Content aside, Body Massage acted more like an alert message for all the aspiring actresses and models who pose for a photoshoot without knowing much details about the project. Often times, these photos are misused and wrongly used in advertisements without the consent and permission. This is more common among actresses who do not have a very privileged family to stand by them.
