With drastic change in the Indian Culture over the years, there has been sudden change in lifestyle of an Indian woman as well. Gone are the days when a girl's purpose of life was to get married and settle down with kids. Come 21st century, a female in the modernized India is aspiring and build her career path, Unfortunately, the rural India is still lingering under the shadows of hypocrisy and live within limited choices of life.The World Before Her tells a contradicting story of 2 people - rustic and violent Prachi Trivedi who go to any extent to protect her religion and sweet and simple Ruhi Singh who breaks the barrier of common society thinking by participating in Miss India pageant.Directed by Nisha Pahuja, The World Before Her is ground-reality and hair-raising 90 minutes drama which give you goosebumps. Pahuja has very well presented two parts of India - one who follows the old age customs whose empowerment, oppression and dignity is being utilized for political motives and the other part where parents are encouraging their child to pursue their dreams. It is perfectly blended with hard- hitting drama of different mindsets and depressing state of Insia. Screenplay does falter in the end. Editing is crispy. Hats-off to Art direction and cinematography. Background score gels well with the mood of the film.Thought-provoking story of women in India, choose - Beauty Camp or Boot camp. Good 3/5

The binary structure of this documentary, showing the contrast between a Hindu nationalist camp for girls (Old India) and a boot camp for the 2012 Miss India finalists (Modern India), allows for insight into the motivations,contradictions, and aspirations of young Indian women seeking to forge their identity,live up to expectations, and make a success of themselves, in a country with a deep and ancient culture facing rapid but uneven modernization and westernization.Both paths are shown to have their pitfalls. The girls being indoctrinated to defend Old Mother India are taught discipline, modesty, and a certain fierce self-empowerment. But they are also taught violence, hatred of Muslims and Christians,devaluation of education for women, and strict limitation of their lives to the role of wife and mother. The beauty contestants believe they can achieve all that they want, and if successful, will have fame, fortune and influence, but are also victims of objectification, sexism, and unrealistic beauty standards. Most of us already realize that a woman can be simultaneously empowered and denigrated by a beauty contest, and listening to the individual stories of these very articulate young women reinforces that; but their stories, including that of a past Miss India winner, also bring home the fact that a particular woman could view such contests as completely empowering, based on her particular background, life story and goals - how the pageants helps her to move away from what she wants to shed and towards what she wants to accomplish.Unfortunately, some reviewers of this documentary have taken it to represent the situation of all the women of India, when it was in fact specifically intended to reveal two extremes - the ends of the spectrum and not the vast middle ground of the millions of women in between. I note that one reviewer even said that she no longer wishes to visit India after viewing the documentary! That is always the danger of highlighting any negative or extreme aspect of a culture. Very often it becomes synonymous in the viewer/reader's mind as representing the entirety of that culture.

This movie talks about how there are two Indias,the rural India with conservative values and urban Indian with modern values,the documentary shows how parallel life runs ,depending on what kind of family you are born into.According to me both sides have good things & flaws,like for example,the traditional camps talk about patriotism and empowering women in their own way but also also about how women shouldn't have careers while the beauty pageant camp looks all modern and liberal but is again sexist and uses things like Botox & skin whitening which i think is shameful.But of course there is a third kind of Indian women ,women like me ,who were bought up to believe that you can do anything that a man can do,education & knowledge is power,that you should have your own income so that you can have financial stability,be independent,there are more women like me in India,I am a practicing Hindu,a Gandhian like most Indians,we believe in karma,tolerance & non violence.So this documentary gives you one view of India,it is not a comprehensive guide to India.

I watched this movie to pass the time, fully expecting to answer email and play a few games while it was on in the background. However, I was soon so absorbed by the contrast in characters and their world views that I had turned off the computer. This review may contain spoilers.There are two 'camps' contrasted in the film: One for future beauty- queens, complete with fashion advisers, make-up artists, publicists, photographers, etc. that prepare contestants for the Miss India contest; and one for girls with 'traditional Hindu values' to prepare them for life... as mothers and terrorists, apparently. The personalities encountered are engaging and quickly move beyond the stereotype; one learns about the young women's families, backgrounds, ambitions, dreams, and fears, whether they be the beauty or the beast... OK, "beast" is a harsh description of the homely camp counselor who thrives on the fear she instills in her charges, and who doesn't want to become a wife and mother, thus defying the very traditions she espouses, but wants to further the cause of traditional Hindu culture by making sure other females will; but she is no beauty, not inside nor out.Watching her view the Miss India contest on television, with her abusive father (he branded her for lying as a child and cheerfully admits to beating her often), I saw an envious woman, wishing she could compete with the westernized culture. If she were born beautiful, which culture would she choose?But then you listen to the beauty-queen contestant, whose mother saved her life, when her father wanted her killed for being a female baby - and nothing is simple anymore. A culture where female life is valued only for the production of male offspring, and as a domestic servant, versus a culture where a female is only worth something when she is beautiful; neither is desirable. I have been fascinated by India since childhood, and a trip there was on my 'bucket list'. After viewing this film, I have removed this item.