Misogyny in Indian movies and the problem with ‘Mass entertainers’

The recently released Dhruva Sarja movie Pogaru is a hit in Karnataka as the Action Prince’s fans rushed to the theatre to watch their hero’s ‘energetic performance’ after nearly four years. Dhruva Sarja gave in a lot of efforts for this movie. He had to transform himself completely to play the ‘devilish’ protagonist of the film, Shiva. The movie created a lot of controversy within the Brahmin community as they thought some scenes were ‘offensive towards them.’ The director had to come forward and cut 14 scenes from the movie, and Dhruva had to ask for forgiveness from the Brahmin community, and said that he did so ‘because he plays a demon-like character in the film’ and he would ensure that the ‘masses are always happy.’ But that’s not all that is wrong with the movie.

The first song of the movie called Karabuu,which was released in April, 2020, also faced a lot of criticism due to its glorification of male misogyny. The song showed the protagonist of the movie going about harassing the heroine, even threatening her to be in a relationship with him. But, as is common with the Indian audience, due to the music, the song topped the charts for days, and people forgot the lyrics of the song and started enjoying the music. The song has more than 215 million views on YouTube, and people are really enjoying their ‘hero’s masculinity’ and welcoming him back through this song.

“Nobody orders me, nobody questions me; I touch and consider it owned.”

If these are the lines from a ‘romantic mass entertainer’ movie, which Pogaru is being marketed as, then it shows how toxic the sense of romanticism in cinema is. This is nothing new; toxicity has been marketed as ‘romantic masala entertainers’ since generations. The directors use misogyny to show how ‘macho’ the hero is, and use slurs against women for comedy. Indian cinema has been following the same formula since the 80s and the 90s, and after looking at some of the recent ‘mass movies’, one can say that nothing has changed even now.

‘Mass movies’ are basically movies which cater to a larger number of common audiences, who watch movies just for the sake of entertainment. Most of the people who come to watch these movies idolize the ‘hero’ and many-a-times try to behave like him. Some of the recent main stream ‘mass entertainers’ are: Coolie No. 1, Laxmmi, and Sadak 2. All three of them were problematic in one aspect or another, and gave out wrong message to the audience. Stalking has been almost normalized in all these movies, and as if it was not enough, there comes a so-called ‘romantic song’ in the background when the hero stalks the heroine. Some of the most famous ‘romantic songs’ are about stalking. Take for example, the title song of the movie Ranjhanna. Composed by AR Rahman and sung by Jaswinder Singh, it gives a ‘romantic’ angle and doesn’t make the audience feel like that the ‘hero’ is stalking the girl. So, the basic problem with mass movies is that the audience takes away all the wrong things from the movie, and worst of all, applies it in real life. Their logic is that, if my ‘idol’ can do it, why can’t I do the same?

This may sound strange coming from someone who strongly defended the movie Kabir Singh. The basic difference between Kabir Singh and Pogaru or other ‘masala pot boilers’ for that instance, is that, Kabir Singh doesn’t glorify the protagonist at any time. It was more of a dark romance kind of movie than a ‘mass masala’ movie. The whole point of that movie was that how not to be like the protagonist, Kabir Singh. But many audiences idolized the character, and took it in the negative way. This brings the big question to the forefront, “Are Indian audience ready for dark movies?” The answer is no. As long as one tries to be like the protagonist, however bad the protagonist maybe, India is not ready for dark movies.

The fact about ‘mass entertainers’ is that the directors and the script writers knowingly design some scenes which they know will bring in some audience. One of the most common tactics that the producers apply in bringing in audience to the theatres is sleazy dance numbers and songs objectifying women, literally comparing them with objects, with some really good beats, which one cannot ignore, and will grove to. They use fat-shaming, racism, sexism, as jokes in the movies, and surprisingly, or expectedly, the audience roll on the floor laughing when they hear such jokes.

Only the movie makers are not to be blamed for this misogyny and the weak portrayal of women in the movies. The audience are to be blamed for liking and making these types of movies a hit. Take for example, two movies of Varun Dhawan: October and Judwa 2. October was a unique movie, highly praised by the critics for its storyline, as well as for the brilliant acting by Varun. But it was a box office disaster and ended up garnering ₹ 33 Crores in the box office, which was less than the budget of the movie. On the other hand, Judwaa 2 was a slapstick mass entertainer, no brainer ‘comedy movie’, which was a remake of the film of the same name by Salman Khan in the late 90s. It was a major box office hit, collecting a whopping ₹227 Crores in the box office. At the end of the day, the success of a movie is counted not only by the reviews it receives, but mainly by the money that it collects. So, what will Varun do? Will he ever go out of the way to take risk and do a movie like October, or will he do a movie like Judwaa 2 and Coolie No. 1, which the ‘mass likes’? Of course, he will go with the second option.

The movie actors, at least the big stars, should realize their potential to influence the audience through the role that they play, and should be socially responsible. If at all they play roles like Shiva, which Dhruva claims is a ‘devil’, they should try not to glorify the character, or justify its actions, as the heroine in the movie says, ‘he has a golden heart.’ It sends out the wrong message, and should be called out as. It is really surprising that how people took offence for some scene relating to the Brahmins, and completely missed or forgot about how misogyny is portrayed in the movie. If at all they make such movies, they should have a disclaimer right at the beginning like the ‘No Smoking’ one, which would say that these characters are dark, and shouldn’t be imitated in real life. Or better, the movie makers should wait for the right time to make dark movies, and if at all they make dark movies, they should portray the characters as such, and shouldn’t let the audience have any sympathy for the character. The least of all, ‘mass entertainers’ need to have some ‘mass responsibilities’.