Bollywood Movies I "Almost" Loved

In the last few years, there have been some amazing Bollywood movies that have been made. The stories being told are challenging the status quo, breaking barriers, opening dialogues, and bringing in the much needed merging of mainstream and parallel cinema.

However, as the quality of these movies increases, so does my expectation from them. If a film presents itself as 'woke', then I almost expect this...wokeness to permeate across barriers. I don't know if that's an unfair expectation, but I did feel it was worth calling out. 

So, I decided to write about a few films, that in my opinion, were 'almost' woke. The purpose is not to put down these films (all of which, I really like), but to just bring to attention that while trying to speak for a particular segment of society, sometimes it's easy to inadvertently put another group down, and that's something to watch out for.

1. Dil Dhadakne Do

Okay, so I know this movie elicits mixed reactions. But I really liked the film (barring the whole jumping off the ship ending). It showed a hypocrisy of Indian society that I could relate with all too well, and the underlying 'Log Kya Kahenge' phenomenon that has destroyed countless lives. It has some of my all-time favourite movie scenes (Farhan Akhtar's monologue on feminism, the look on Anil Kapoor's face as the anguished father torn between societal expectations and wanting to protect his child, and the final family showdown). 

But while the movie did so well in trying to question stereotypes and social expectations, there was one scene where it really fell short. It's right after Priyanka Chopra's character tells Rahul Bose that she wants a divorce. The very next scene shows his character at his mother's door, in tears. 

On its own, these scene doesn't sound bad. But watch it in an Indian theatre, and what you get from the crowd is laughter. Laughter at this man who is 'crying like a girl'. Maybe the problem was with the audience, but I have to give some of that responsibility to the makers, who could have portrayed the scene differently, and not caricaturized a man who's distraught and genuinely upset. If we're giving lectures on feminism, maybe let's extend the courtesy across all genders?

2. Chak De India

Being one of the early ones in the sports films genre, Chak De India managed to pave a way for sports dramas that were commercial successes as it got the audience cheering for the underdog team. It brought into focus not just hockey, a sport that's been largely overlooked in India, but also women's hockey, which probably many of us didn't even realize was a thing. Added on to that was the character of Shah Rukh Khan, a much more relatable character than all his stereotypical arm raising ones. With all these elements, the film definitely managed to deliver on the emotions and the excitement, while pointing out the discrimination faced by women in sports. 

But in the midst of uplifting women and trying to emphasize equality between the sexes, it also managed to include one scene that made me extremely uncomfortable. When the women are fighting off the men in the restaurant, the character of Shah Rukh Khan pins a man to the wall, berating him for trying to attack from the back. He then says, "Woh kya hai na, hamari hockey mein chakke nahin hote" [You see, we don't have eunuchs in hockey]. 

I cringe every time I see that scene. Sure, he wanted to insult the man, and maybe that was warranted, but why promote the insult of an entire community of trans people already facing so much discrimination and ostracization in society? Especially in a film that trying to raise awareness of discrimination on the basis of gender.

3. Fashion

Again, this was a movie that was both commercially and critically successful, with an amazing performance by Priyanka Chopra and the supporting cast. Her struggle, rise, subsequent fall and the attempt to rise again as a fashion model was shown with great mix of rawness and allure. It showed a female protagonist, fairly rare in commercial Bollywood cinema at the time, and portrayed all her shades unabashedly: her best and her worst.

But again, there was one scene that I felt was unwarranted. When Chopra's character begins to crash, we get flashes of her fall towards rock bottom: alcoholism, drugs, parties and mindless sex. In fact, the incident that makes her realize just how messed up she'd gotten is when she wakes up in a strange room, without clothes, lying next to a black man she doesn't know. Horrified, she leaves and begins to unravel.

On its own, the scene itself is fine. But the part that irks me is - why is it that the only scene in the movie where there's a black man, is one that's used to symbolize degradation and horror? Would it not have conveyed the point if he was any other random guy? Do we not have enough racism in this world without having to subtly throw it in here? For a film trying to break boundaries with gender stereotypes, why fall prey to such racist pettiness?

******

So there's the top 3 in my list that stand out. Again, these movies stand out to me not because they have these moments of discrimination across different spectra. Let's be fair - Bollywood movies are filled with them. These movies stood out to me because they attempted to be better, and the attempts were rather good, if not for these scenes.