The barbaric and inhuman assault of a 23 year old paramedic in the national capital has given rise to a volley of protests and comments on why we and our social set up tends to look down upon women as the weaker sex and treat them with utter disdain. Reasons varying from a patriarchal mindset to the traditional upbringing of women and so on and so forth have been propounded for this shameful tendency, but, a major contributory factor namely the Hindi film industry seems to have gotten away relatively scot free..........
The Hindi film industry has always conformed to stereotype and by and large portrayed it's heroines as simpering, inconsequential airheads who always prefer to do the heroes bidding after an initial period of defiance and reluctance; as if the 'typical' Hindi film heroine never has a mind of her own and always follows in the wake of her male counterpart.........
This tendency is in fact partly if not wholly responsible for giving rise to, fostering and nurturing thoroughly retrograde and masochistic male attitudes that have come to accept the fact that the female is will always continue to be the so called weaker species who will continue to be dominated by the supposedly 'superior' male without as much as a by your please.........
As is their wont most feminists seem to be missing the woods for the trees, a few of them show a remarkable propensity towards exclusively focussing their attention on the "commodification" of women in the Hindi film industry's "item numbers" or then sex-laden dances performed with gay abandon by such notables like Isha Koppikar, Mallika Shehrawat, Vidya Balan, Chitrangada Singh, and last but not the least, Kareena Kapoor to name just a few..........
While others highlight the immense popularity of rape scenes that were a staple in the films churned out by the hundreds in the eighties and nineties, so frequent and numerous were the rape scenes that on screen villains like Ranjeet and Shakti Kapoor came to be regarded as some sort of serial rapists and specialists in this vile act.......
Yet, the so called item numbers and assembly line rape scenes are not the main or real problem, as cabaret dancers, item girls and snarling villains are everything else but role models for the present and succeeding generations to come; the main cause for these arrogant and medieval mindsets is the grotesque manner in which film heroes have for the last half century or even more pestered, stalked, pursued heroines and literally forced on them their unwelcome and unwarranted attention.........
The actions of the heroes on screen only ended up sending out the signal that this was the right and only manner in which to woo a young woman and sweep of her feet; no meant yes and the initial reluctance and inhibitions on the part of the heroines were just yet another manifestation of female vanity that would always crumble in the face of male "vitality", "suaveness" and "charm"..........
One distinctly remembers a song from the nineties have lyrics to the effect that "pat ti hain ladkiyan, patane waala chahiye" or some such thing; this is just one example of a legion of songs that glorify harassment and stalking. I for one would in fact venture as far as saying that songs such as Khambe jaisi khadi hain, khud ko kya samajhti hain, ladki badi hain kamaal ki and many such other notables gave rise to the present day phenomenon euphemistically termed as "eve teasing".............
Superstar of the millennium Shri Amitabh Bachchan contributed to this reprehensible tendency in no small measure with a gem (?) like the utterly sexist and derogatory "Jumma Chumma De De" from the 1992/93 blockbuster "Hum". The song had Mr. Bachchan and his hundred or a hundred and fifty merry followere assiduously pursuing a busty Kimi Katkar for an elusive kiss; one distinctly remembers the heroine being thoroughly drenched with a hose pipe and eventually succumbing to the wiles of her male pursuer granting him his CHUMMA and smearing his lips with her deep hued lip stick; and we still continue to wonder why the typical Indian male continues with this age old mindset??????
What was the message that this and such other songs or scenes from recent blockbusters like Rockstar are trying to send out: that the female will always give in if you harass and pursue her for long enough; no matter how many times she says no, the ultimate answer will always be a yes if Hindi film makers who have unravelled the innermost secrets of the female psyche are to be believed..........
Alas, I for one do not see films in any other Indian language but am creditably informed by my friends and such other sources that such scenes are even more crude, vulgar and graphic in films in other languages and one enlightened soul even went to the extent of telling me that such harassment was a thing of the past and did not happen in big budget Hindi films any more, then pray what were the grotesque and even comic antics of Nasseruddin Shah in the "Dirty Picture" all about or Varun Dhawan's protestations of undiluted and undying love for Alia Bhatt in Karan Johar's "Student of the Year" while hanging on to the arms and tresses of ten score other girls as a manifestation of his macho charm and vitality..........
Let a person of the pedigree of a Farhan Akhtar who has grown up in and spent his entire life in the film industry have the final say on this contentious issue, " there are films in which romantic wooing has been replaced by a kind of harassment of the heroine. The heroes of these films could be considered as stalkers in a significant majority of civil societies.".........
More often than not, such heroes (if one can call them that) are role models and aspirational figures for their legions of followers, wouldn't most if not all his fans be coerced into believing that is normal behaviour which is indulged in by the hero and so widely acceptable, on the other hand the heroine in question is also a role model for her legions of fawning fans, so now add two and two together and you end up with the highly suggestive and reprehensible signals that such songs and visuals send out to many a gullible mind ever willing to accept the same as the gospel truth..........
Let's all pay heed to Farhan Akhtar's brave and insightful words because he knows both what he is saying and doing and hence needs to be taken with the utmost seriousness.............
The Hindi film industry has always conformed to stereotype and by and large portrayed it's heroines as simpering, inconsequential airheads who always prefer to do the heroes bidding after an initial period of defiance and reluctance; as if the 'typical' Hindi film heroine never has a mind of her own and always follows in the wake of her male counterpart.........
This tendency is in fact partly if not wholly responsible for giving rise to, fostering and nurturing thoroughly retrograde and masochistic male attitudes that have come to accept the fact that the female is will always continue to be the so called weaker species who will continue to be dominated by the supposedly 'superior' male without as much as a by your please.........
As is their wont most feminists seem to be missing the woods for the trees, a few of them show a remarkable propensity towards exclusively focussing their attention on the "commodification" of women in the Hindi film industry's "item numbers" or then sex-laden dances performed with gay abandon by such notables like Isha Koppikar, Mallika Shehrawat, Vidya Balan, Chitrangada Singh, and last but not the least, Kareena Kapoor to name just a few..........
While others highlight the immense popularity of rape scenes that were a staple in the films churned out by the hundreds in the eighties and nineties, so frequent and numerous were the rape scenes that on screen villains like Ranjeet and Shakti Kapoor came to be regarded as some sort of serial rapists and specialists in this vile act.......
Yet, the so called item numbers and assembly line rape scenes are not the main or real problem, as cabaret dancers, item girls and snarling villains are everything else but role models for the present and succeeding generations to come; the main cause for these arrogant and medieval mindsets is the grotesque manner in which film heroes have for the last half century or even more pestered, stalked, pursued heroines and literally forced on them their unwelcome and unwarranted attention.........
The actions of the heroes on screen only ended up sending out the signal that this was the right and only manner in which to woo a young woman and sweep of her feet; no meant yes and the initial reluctance and inhibitions on the part of the heroines were just yet another manifestation of female vanity that would always crumble in the face of male "vitality", "suaveness" and "charm"..........
One distinctly remembers a song from the nineties have lyrics to the effect that "pat ti hain ladkiyan, patane waala chahiye" or some such thing; this is just one example of a legion of songs that glorify harassment and stalking. I for one would in fact venture as far as saying that songs such as Khambe jaisi khadi hain, khud ko kya samajhti hain, ladki badi hain kamaal ki and many such other notables gave rise to the present day phenomenon euphemistically termed as "eve teasing".............
Superstar of the millennium Shri Amitabh Bachchan contributed to this reprehensible tendency in no small measure with a gem (?) like the utterly sexist and derogatory "Jumma Chumma De De" from the 1992/93 blockbuster "Hum". The song had Mr. Bachchan and his hundred or a hundred and fifty merry followere assiduously pursuing a busty Kimi Katkar for an elusive kiss; one distinctly remembers the heroine being thoroughly drenched with a hose pipe and eventually succumbing to the wiles of her male pursuer granting him his CHUMMA and smearing his lips with her deep hued lip stick; and we still continue to wonder why the typical Indian male continues with this age old mindset??????
What was the message that this and such other songs or scenes from recent blockbusters like Rockstar are trying to send out: that the female will always give in if you harass and pursue her for long enough; no matter how many times she says no, the ultimate answer will always be a yes if Hindi film makers who have unravelled the innermost secrets of the female psyche are to be believed..........
Alas, I for one do not see films in any other Indian language but am creditably informed by my friends and such other sources that such scenes are even more crude, vulgar and graphic in films in other languages and one enlightened soul even went to the extent of telling me that such harassment was a thing of the past and did not happen in big budget Hindi films any more, then pray what were the grotesque and even comic antics of Nasseruddin Shah in the "Dirty Picture" all about or Varun Dhawan's protestations of undiluted and undying love for Alia Bhatt in Karan Johar's "Student of the Year" while hanging on to the arms and tresses of ten score other girls as a manifestation of his macho charm and vitality..........
Let a person of the pedigree of a Farhan Akhtar who has grown up in and spent his entire life in the film industry have the final say on this contentious issue, " there are films in which romantic wooing has been replaced by a kind of harassment of the heroine. The heroes of these films could be considered as stalkers in a significant majority of civil societies.".........
More often than not, such heroes (if one can call them that) are role models and aspirational figures for their legions of followers, wouldn't most if not all his fans be coerced into believing that is normal behaviour which is indulged in by the hero and so widely acceptable, on the other hand the heroine in question is also a role model for her legions of fawning fans, so now add two and two together and you end up with the highly suggestive and reprehensible signals that such songs and visuals send out to many a gullible mind ever willing to accept the same as the gospel truth..........
Let's all pay heed to Farhan Akhtar's brave and insightful words because he knows both what he is saying and doing and hence needs to be taken with the utmost seriousness.............
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