J Paul Johnson
A pink belt may not be one of the standard ranks recognized in traditional karate hierarchies, but in the new documentary by the same name—Pink Belt, recently screened at the 2024 Chicago South Asian Film Festival—it becomes a symbol of self-defense and a source or inspiration. Centered on the advocacy and training of karate champion Aparna Rajawat, Pink Belt offers up an inspiring character study as Rajawat attempts to break the Guinness World Record for most women trained in a single self-defense lesson. The record may be something of a gimmick, but its larger goal is to bring attention to Rajawat’s cause—teaching girls the art of self-defense and a belief in self-determination. And along the way, we are introduced to both those aligned with her cause and several of the victims whose plight, sadly, has necessitated it.
To start there, more than a few moments in Pink Belt are sobering. Rajawat is just one of many victims with a story to tell. When she was young she was beaten by her brothers for daring, like they, to fly kites—that, in her culture and her family, was a privilege to be enjoyed only by boys. Later in life, she was a victim of sexual abuse. So too, it seems, is nearly every young girl or woman in the film, so prevalent is the problem in India. Among the victims are a group of survivors of acid attacks, each of whom has been permanently disfigured. It’s a form of gendered violence in which the assailants are nearly always male, the victims nearly always female, and it’s sadly on the rise.
Rajawat has dedicated her life to helping all victims of abuse. She had to learn self-determination and self-defense out of necessity as a young girl to fend off her brothers’ attacks. In a culture where boys were treated like kings and girls like their servants, she cut her hair short and and pretended to be a boy herself and take the karate lessons girls were typically denied. An astute student, she was able to maintain her ruse until she won a championship and her father saw her photo in the newspaper. For a time, he mandated she drop her lessons and return to more gender-appropriate pastimes. Eventually, he relented—and Rajawat ultimately became India’s national champion in martial arts.
Only later in life, working as an international tour guide in London and doing cross-cultural research on social systems and belief structures, did Rajawat begin to understand the pervasiveness of domestic violence, both across cultures and especially within her native India’s traditional patriarchy. It was a discovery that led her to her life’s mission: to use her knowledge of karate to teach and inspire women how to defend themselves and how to become fully actualized human beings the equal of any in their society. She founded the Pink Belt Mission to do so, helping thousands of women since its launch in 2016, and as the film Pink Belt begins in 2020, she has undertaken a new challenge: to break the record for the largest single self-defense class in the world. It’s an accomplishment, if it can be earned, that won’t come easily.
Writer-director John McCrite deftly situates the world record attempt as the film’s overarching narrative while following Rajawat to India to meet her friends, family—especially her three sisters—and students. Rajawat is an accomplished and engaging public speaker, the kind who can both charm and inspire her audiences, and so a good deal of Pink Belt is narrated by Rajawat herself as she reflect on her past, with McCrite using archival photos and a few subtle re-enactments along the way. Rajawat’s sporting accomplishments, as commendable as they are, aren’t the kind that were captured on national television, and so the documentary relies to no small extent on its subjects’ skills as a raconteur.
As the date of the world-record attempt nears, the challenges of filming Pink Belt must have been as complex as the class itself, attended by thousands (the prior record was approximately 2.000 attendees) of young Agra women who must be fully present and participating for the lesson’s duration. There are several crises, including the lack of a proper amplification system, that give one cause to wonder if the attempt won’t end in total disaster. But by then, from the rest of Pink Belt, Aparna Rajawat has already proved herself a force of nature who cannot be denied. She can’t be told not to fly a kite, not to practice a sport, not to speak out in defense of the defenseless.
Rajawat’s story is simply too inspiring, too important, for her to be denied. And Pink Belt sees it through to its culmination as she seeks the world record that will promote her cause: to give every young girl the opportunity to grow into a strong, confident, self-respecting, and safe adulthood. It’s one she’s forged for herself and shared with thousands. And thousands. And thousands.
