‘Go, go, test yourself for every STD’: Watch this film telling you what schools (still) don’t teach
No prudishness, please. And forget the stigma.
For several generations in India, sex education, especially when it comes to the possibility of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STD) was “out of syllabus”. So comedian Abish Mathew has created an animation film to breach the gap.
In this segment of his variety comedy show Son of Abish, Mathew sends an important – if obvious – message: there should be no stigma to being tested for STD, and society can lump it if it doesn’t like it. The format is like that of an education video for children, but the contents are vital for adults too.
Conceptualised by Abish and his team of writers, the 2D animation is by visual artist Mihir Lele. Even though some parts of the song were “hardcore”, as Lele describes it, the idea and intent of the sketch immediately pulled him towards the project.
“The challenge was to make it dynamic and colourful, otherwise people might tune off,” he explained. “The sketch is a different take on how sexual information is put out, and so we treated the video differently. If you look closely, the ‘STD characters’ look similar to the actual virus but also fit well in the overall visual language.”
You can watch the full episode below.