It wasn’t very long ago when our nation or at least a
section of our society was seemingly infuriated by some comments on intolerance
made by Mr. Aamir Khan, the Bollywood superstar. Posts doing the rounds on
social media appealed to one and all to boycott any upcoming movies starring
Mr. Khan and people were even predicting his yet to be released movie ‘Dangal’ would
face the wrath of angry population. Well, contrary to all those predictions
‘Dangal’ not only managed to do well, it also turned out to be the highest
grosser in the history of Indian cinema.
What went wrong?
Why an intolerant nation, influenced by full blow of fascism
suddenly turned so accepting, kind hearted and communal?
Well, I don’t have answers to such questions, but what I
observed and what I am about to reveal is way more contradicting than the
argument posed above.
In the realm of cinematic art form, Dangal might be considered
as a masterpiece, but looking at it as a film promoting the social cause of
women empowerment would certainly be delusional. The film depicts the journey
of a high headed man looking forward to get his unrealized dream of getting a
Gold medal for the country in wrestling fulfilled through his offspring. This
single point agenda of his life makes his craving to have a boy child stronger.
Unfortunately enough, his wife keeps on giving births to girls one after the
other, distressing the man with each birth.
The one paragraph above alone describes the immense
hypocrisy that this film carries throughout, unless we, as a society, really
find it Ok to burden our innocent kids with the baggage of our own unfulfilled
goals and desires, let alone the explicitly depicted craving to have a boy
child.
Later on after his daughters bash up some local boys, the
man realises that his daughters could have the potential of becoming
professional wrestlers if they are properly trained. A slight silver lining in
the cloud propels the man’s enthusiasm to start his endeavours towards
realising his dream, which he at one point had given up, however his enthusiasm
would result in depriving his daughters of their deserved childhood pampering
has been portrayed as some futile thought which no one should give a damn about
because the next few minutes of the screenplay render some harsh and brutal
impositions on children in the funniest of ways.
Again, as a cinema, all this should be fine because it is
funny and entertaining but is this something we would want our kids to go
through?
Now, the girls resist to their core to avoid the strict exercise
schedule, but the cunning man plans all their trivial attempts to fail. The
transition shows the man to go from a man wanting to have a boy child to a man
fighting the society to advocate girls’ rights, Noble right? But why doesn’t
the man transitions from being a goal driven apathetic father to someone more
concerned and empathetic?
The reluctant girls were nearly on the verge of turning
rebellious when the moment of epiphany strikes them at their friend’s wedding
where they realise that in the region they reside it is almost customary for
parents to get their daughters married at a tender age, and if amidst such
social conditions these girls are getting an opportunity to do something then
they must not complain, rather they must consider themselves fortunate enough
and start worshipping the one person they considered their archenemy. Noble?
The scene cuts and the seed of sincerity seem to have
planted in the girls for they now start sharing the same dream with their
father.
Among other contradictions, the movie also kind of promotes
the idea that wrestlers can’t do without meat. It isn’t Ok for the girls to
have occasional ‘Pani Puri’ but the chicken must be cooked in fried onions full
of oil because it gives the required proteins for God’s sake.
The other half of the movie is also full of controversial
cinematic liberties that the makers took such as showing the National Coach in
a very poor taste. Mixing up a bit of ‘Chak De’ flavour to show the strategy
making session of the father, who for some reason knows better than National
Coach and his gut instincts works for the best 100% of the time.
I enjoyed the movie a lot, and found it entertaining and my
intension behind this post is not to discourage anyone who hasn’t seen the
movie yet, I am only writing as to highlight the hypocritical contradictions
shown in the movie which I would best regard as a work of fiction rather as
something to draw any inspiration from.
