Watch Kalki Koechlin ‘Slam’ the Media in a Powerful Video

Actor, writer and womens’ rights activist Kalki Koechlin takes to slam poetry in a satirical new video to point out the media’s chase for insensitive headlines that sell with no regard to content. In collaboration with women’s lifestyle YouTube channel Blush, Koechlin creates a rhythmical analysis of the media through her self-written poem titled “The Printing Machine.”  The poem accuses Indian society’s hunger for scandal that pushes the media into delivering eye-grabbing headlines.

Music producer Ankur Shrivastava uses sound clips that echo typewriters, telephones and keyboards to form the beat, while Koechlin’s transitions between mocking, angry and fearful. A line that stands out is“ ‘Chree’ goes the busy printing machine till heads pile up in our hands, printed crisp and clean on our newspaper stands and blend smoothly into our morning routine,” emphasizing how news pieces about rape and murder become routine reads with a morning cup of coffee, shock and awe becoming selling tactics. “Child rape by politician” according to the poem is one such headline which Koechlin follows with “kaching, kaching” to signify the sales the media stand to gain from reporting the incident.

Koechlin also tears into the media’s portrayal of women and the messages they are sending women about their bodies. Juxtaposed with projected images of magazine covers and newspaper headlines on Koechlin’s body, the video brings out issues in the media’s portrayal of violence against women, religion, politics, societal acceptance and more.