*Spoiler Alert*
‘Made in China’, along with being a really comical piece, also managed to impart education on sex. The leading star cast in this movie is Rajkumar Rao, Moni Roy, and Boman Irani. Raghu, who is played by Rao, represents a typical Gujarati businessman with a moustache and a pronounced belly. On the other hand, Moni Roy looks beautiful in a traditional sari, wearing her fearless attitude of a badass wife.
The movie revolves around the life of a Gujarati businessman, who tries his hand at many professions, but fails. So, his in-laws decide to take him to China to up-skill him for business. In China, he meets a well-known and established Gujarati businessman and earns the confidence to be an entrepreneur. On returning to India, he comes up with a plan to start a new business of a soup that could cure the consumer’s sex-related issues.
To execute his plan, he begins his research by visiting many sadhus and tantras to cure sex-related issues. He soon realises that minting money by solving non-existent problems has become quite the trade. After extensive research, he finally meets Dr Vardhi, a certified sexologist. He notices how the doctor knows the impact of sex on our mental health, and how we are ashamed to even talk about it.
With a stroke of luck, one day, the doctor ended up going to a conference that he was not supposed to attend. As it turns out, the speech happened to match the scenario of a real problem at that conference, and the doctor’s videos gained popularity. Raghu’s business started to thrive, and he succeeded in giving his wife the life that she deserved. The happiness was short-lived though because soon, Raghu’s in-laws gained knowledge of his business and began to shame him for doing such work.
They told him how he was doing nothing but destroying his family name. They try to entrap him by getting him to work with one of their chief spiritual gurus, to get the idea of the deal out of him. But, thanks to his recently acquired business acumen, he knows all the tricks and refuses to work according to them.
But, unfortunately, this success did not bring an end to his problems. Soon, his child was suspended, his business begins to tank, and he is dragged into the criminal investigations of the murder of a Chinese minister. At the court proceedings, he is asked about the ingredients of his soup, and if his soup could cure all sex-related problems. As the viewer waits to be answered on the question, Dr Vardhi soon reveals that there was nothing mixed in the soup. He discloses how the only cure to this situation is to be stress-free and talk openly about any problem related to one’s sex organs.
If people continue to be ashamed to talk about it, they will continue to suffer. There are cases where people choose to separate because they don’t speak openly about their needs. Married couples begin to use extra-marital affairs and prostitution to satisfy themselves. But, the fact remains that if there is no pressure in doing intercourse, then there won’t be any stress either.
Although the movie came up with a nuanced concept, its audience was, unfortunately, not too widespread. And frankly, I am not surprised with the result either. During our schooling, our biology teacher used to skip the chapter of reproduction due to shame. So, most of our generation is illiterate in sex education. And some people want to know to explore such topics but hide this urge from the fear of getting shamed in society.
If we don’t want the next generation to suffer the same way that we had, we must have sex education classes in every school. And parents and friends must be comforting enough to talk about sex, depression, mental health, and molestation as we talk about other body organs and processes. I would even go on a limb here and claim that it is okay to talk about sex out in the open because it broadens your mind, and it doesn’t misguide us.