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Super Subbu is more Panchayat than Sex Education

During Subbu's training, the instructor simply asks the trainees to shout ‘sex education’ as loudly as they can, and the training is over. That, ironically, feels like the reality of sex education in India.

India got its Sex Education in the form of the Netflix series Super Subbu, but it has little to do with educating people about sex. The premise is similar to Panchayat or Gram Chikitsalay, except Super Subbu keeps mentioning sex every now and then. Here, Subramaniam, played by Sandeep Kishan, is forced by circumstances to take up a government job as a sex education officer in a village where people don’t even believe in consent. The series explores Subbu’s life in the village and the stereotypes surrounding not sex, but safe sex and family planning. The problem is that it mistakes mentioning these issues for actually engaging with them.

The first episode begins with Subbu’s backstory. The day he hits puberty, his father, played by Murali Sharma, starts imposing restrictions on him to prevent him from committing the “sin”. He is banned from talking to girls, making girlfriends, sleeping alone in his room, and when he is caught doing what he’s not supposed to, his father even takes him to a baba, who ties a bell around his wrist so that it rings whenever he performs the act. 

While Subbu only wants to understand himself, explore love, and live a normal life, his father is........

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