“What Is Your Brown Number?” (2015) by Vinnie Ann Bose

A humorous depiction of the Indian obsession with fair skin and their prejudices regarding skin colour.

Ongoing Theme: Shared Humanity

We understand ‘shared humanity’ as a value system wherein we look at others not just as individuals or members of various groups, but as human beings. It is easier said than done.

In this week’s film, we enter a world not far removed from our present-day realities, and yet it feels surreal. It is a world where skin colour is the sole factor of one’s identity. It is a world where there is a number assigned to all shades of skin colours, and these numbers are branded on everyone’s faces. A world that has come up with a method to the madness of ‘fairness skin’.

The film begins with a family waiting outside the delivery room. A poster on the wall warns that ‘revealing the Brown Number before birth is a punishable offence’. As soon as the baby’s birth is announced, the family is eager to know where the baby stands on the Brown Number card. In a short span of time, we meet other characters with varied Brown Numbers and watch different stereotypes about dark and light skin play out. It seems clear that the colour of skin affects every part of life. It determines one’s position in society and future prospects.

Though executed in a light vein, the short vignettes are disturbingly close to the truth and will tend to have a lingering effect on the viewer. Ending the film with a statistic about the fairness product industry in India drives the point home. It is dark humour done well, no pun intended.