Is the recent Bollywood release “Kabir Singh’s” glorification of toxic masculinity, abusive relationships, misogyny, and the lead character’s ‘anger issues’ justified?
Some people have been actively criticizing the Hindi remake of the popular Telugu film: “Arjun Reddy”. Shahid Kapoor-starrer “Kabir Singh” hit the Hindi cinema theatres last Friday. The film romanticizes an angry man and glorifies his love story. His troubles dealing with rejection, his disturbing violent behaviour—which seems to celebrate toxic masculinity, forms the plot of this film.
The film’s a depiction of a man taking pride in seeking ownership over a woman’s life, indulging in fights, practising medicine, and taking drugs at the same time—is problematic and not sitting well with some of the audience.
It’s still managing to woo a wider set of audience, with many looking at this romantic saga as an emotional tale of heartbreak; a heartbroken lover’s quest to win his love back. He uses this as an excuse to destroy everything that comes in his way. How do you justify that? What do you think? Is the audience supposed to get encouraged by this character?
As a consumer of this art form, it is important for us to have an opinion and raise our voice. So what’s your call on this? I personally think such posts are misleading our society, so I would suggest we must not let them hack our minds. Movies are for entertainment purposes and they are in this section for a reason. The audience should understand that it’s just an art form, and the actors are playing a character just for our entertainment.
So do not encourage these posts and let them overpower your opinion. This criticism is coming from a few people who are obsessed with ‘women empowerment’, but they seem to have forgotten the real meaning of this term. Why would “Kabir Singh” be treated as a film that people would use as a manual to deal with rejection in love? Is it not similar to making “3 Idiots” a mandatory career counselling movie for engineering aspirants and “Singham” for the civil services aspirants?
While it’s completely normal to have an opinion, it will be better if we choose not to have an opinion on everything! Especially with a notion that we somehow know better and hence, should guide the rest. We should have some faith in the grown adults who choose to watch this film. We should not thrust our views on them, thinking they will take life lessons from the film and are unlikely to invalidate problematic behaviours that are not normal and are bound to destroy you. It’s up to the audience—how they take the film and what they stuff their minds with.
The actors invest themselves deeply into a character or in another way, live that characters, but it’s only for the reel life. If movies are supposed to encourage the audience to behave in a certain way, then I think many actors would be entirely responsible for all the ill-happenings in our society.
Form your own opinions, but most importantly, choose them wisely. Comment if I am right or wrong! Everyone’s opinion is welcomed here!
Thank you