India Post News Service
To celebrate the start of 2018, Pad Man has launched a new short film aimed at starting a new year’ revolution – to say no to nicotine and say yes to sanitary pads.
In the minute-long film released on January 1st, Pad Man Lakshmikant (played by Akshay Kumar) approaches a man named Nandu smoking a cigarette, who is waiting outside a hospital. When asked why he is waiting so nervously outside the hospital, Nandu responds women’s problems.
In a subtle but powerful moment, Pad Man asks Nandu about the price of his cigarettes, before pointing out that for the same 10 rupees he could have bought a sanitary pad for his wife, saying: “With the money you spend on cigarettes you can save two lives – yours and your wife’s.”
Akshay Kumar shared the video on Twitter, with the caption “Heroes make resolutions but Superheroes start revolutions!” encouraging fans of the film to start the new year healthier for both themselves as well as the women in their lives.
With so many women in India lacking access to sanitary methods of dealing with menstruation, women like Nandu’s wife can fall victim to easily preventable diseases. With men still unaware of the importance of menstrual hygiene or how they can support their wives, the message from the Pad Man is simple and clear: spend money on sanitary pads, not nicotine.
Pad Man is based on Arunachalam Muruganantham’s real life international journey from an outcast exiled from society for his endeavours to delve into such a taboo subject, to becoming a super-hero of India’s modern history, as he followed his dream to revolutionise menstrual hygiene in India. As the short film shows, not all superheroes wear capes; the Pad Man’s message to smokers is in keeping with the spirit of Arunachalam’s original mission to help his wife.
