Toilet Ek Prem Katha is entertaining, raises some important issues about sanitation & gender equality and does a good job in addressing them, and cements Akshay Kumar as the most important Bollywood star we have today. Having said that, what could’ve been a landmark film is marred by an extremely long runtime (still okay), blatant political sucking up (sigh but okay) and a huge thumbs up to stalking (so not okay!!).
But let me start by saying that I’m glad the film raises some pertinent issues:
a) Our “culture” is being toyed with by its self-proclaimed guardians and it’s high times we stop them
b) Beyond a point we can’t blame the government or anyone else for our issues: we need to first step up and stand up for ourselves and cause change within ourselves.
c) Men in our country have a huge ego and there is no harm in apologising when we are wrong; in fact, the way we will have healthy relationships is if men stop acting like superheroes and behave human.
And let me reiterate: I have immense respect for Akshay Kumar for picking the kind of scripts he has been over the past couple of years. I’m so glad that he’s now using his stardom to say something than just get more money for himself. And he acts so well in this! He’s always been on point with comedy but so good to see his dramatic chops. Bhumi is the backbone of the film and stands out in every scene, and Divyendu Sharma and the rest of the cast is hilarious and on point.
Now coming to the issue: In the film, a 37-year-old (in the film) hero wins the heart of a 20-something film by stalking her, harassing her, taking her pictures without consent, and even using her images to market his shop! And how does the girl react? By getting angry at first but then, after the guy explains to her that this is “romance”, agreeing to marry him!!! What. The. Fuck.
Given how often the film declares its feminism, it’s shocking no one found it wrong to show the hero harassing a girl in the name of “love”. This film is destined to cross a 100 Crores and do plenty of good (as it must) so then this kind of messaging is completely irresponsible. And it’s unbelievable that although, very evidently, some intelligent people worked on this film, how did they feel this was okay!? How did this pass through the entire studio without one person pointing out that THIS is a HUGE problem in this country and we CAN’T normalise this!!
I’m just disappointed that in today’s day and age social mass entertainers (who self-confessedly have the agenda of bringing about change) are not really paying any attention to what they are saying in the rest of the film outside of their main agenda. This is the third film in the span of a few months that’s had this problem. I had earlier had similar problems with Dangal too: It was such an inspiring film on the side of feminism but in which the father forced his dreams on his children and mistreated them (he even throws his 9 year old daughter in the river!). The messaging was literally at odds with 3 Idiots where Aamir said – parents should chill and let their children dream. Badrinath Ki Dulhania did this too: it had a social message about dowry and whatnot, but the jilted lover kidnaps his girlfriend and there’s this extremely jarring scene where a guy is almost raped and his friends find it funny. What?!
Bollywood can’t get away by saying “but it’s just a film” and the characters in this film “just behave this way”. They can behave this way if your film is NOT meant to be a social entertainer. If it’s a dark film or a satire, then sure, go ahead and show whatever you want. But you can’t have your country’s biggest stars normalise regressive behaviour, especially since your film is all about “soch”.
I really do hope filmmakers and studios and even our stars understand that in social mass entertainers it’s incredibly important that the messaging is responsible OVERALL. Because these are films that will be talked about and certainly films that will have an impact on the minds of people. So then for them to take away one great message but one regressive, irresponsible message, is so unfortunate. And the only way to address such a problem is to first admit there is one.
Follow the blog on your left and like The Tanejamainhoon Page on FB: /tanejamainhoonpage
Follow Nikhil Taneja on FB: /tanejamainhoon, on Twitter:
@tanejamainhoon, on Instagram:@tanejamainhoon,
on Youtube: /tanejamainhoon
Liked/disliked the piece? Leave your comments below!
Picture courtesy: Google. None of the pictures are owned by the author all rights belong to the original owner(s) and photographer(s).
© Copyright belongs to the author, Nikhil Taneja. The article may not be reproduced without permission. A link to the URL, instead, would be appreciated.
The Tanejamainhoon Page 