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To see Farhan's character in Toofan romance a woman half his age and using the sacrifice of her character to find his mojo and redeem himself is too much!
To see Farhan’s character in Toofan romance a woman half his age and using the sacrifice of her character to find his mojo and redeem himself is too much!
Dear Farhan Akhtar,
I for one am of the firm belief that the season of open letters is totally done! You see, no one really reads them (excepting the author suffering from a ‘profundity overloaded’!)
Yet here I am writing one.
You see, way back in palaeolithic times when you debuted with ‘Dil Chahta Hai’, you had this freshly minted graduate hooked. I followed your creations with a religious zeal, till a storm aka #Toofan came along.
I’m not going to waste words talking about this Bollywoodean Trope filled Slugfest. Too many have written too many words already.
But two nuggets stand out.
I want to start with the first nugget. You remember Sonali Kulkarni? She was one of the three heroines of ‘Dil Chahta Hai’. Yes, the same lady with whom Saif Ali Khan walked into the sunset. In #Toofan she is the mother of your love interest. Of course, you never meet her in the flick because she is bumped off before she can grey. Two decades later you are still the lead serenading the lasses. Nitpicking? Ok, I give that to you!
The second nugget is mind-boggling, to say the least!
In which parallel universe does a qualified doctor with a killer smile settle for sorting the dreams of a wannabe boxer from the ghetto? That too after two meetings?
Ok, tempered by life, I might be cynical and oblivious to mechanisms of a chemical reaction called love. Love happens right? Doesn’t see class, caste, creed. That too I shall cede to you.
But to have the smart, educated lass who throws you out initially for your professional Bhaigiri then fall hook line and sinker for you, in the next scene, because you decide to lead a life of respect by punching across is difficult to stomach. Though the cheery doc doesn’t doubt her decision one bit for she has spotted a golden heart under that shiny shirt of yours!
Her life’s mantra now is to make you a champion and she calibrates her own dreams accordingly. Rather she has none.
The discussions you both have is all about YOU! We never know what drives her, what is her road map ahead. But we know the purpose of her character! To add sheen to you!
In reality, though, I hear the young ladies think differently. Having a personal goal/career is given. For them vibing with their partner is paramount and mutual respect for each other’s time and efforts is essential.
When did art imitate life, huh?
I speak as a selfish mom of PYT. To see a daughter, for whom I fought the world, give up on her goals, and make mentoring of her meandering mate her sole priority would be breaking. It would also reflect poorly on my parenting skills. I wouldn’t have raised her right then, would I?
Also, what if, Farhan, in your flick, the little miss sunshine were to be hospitalized with a few cracks here and there instead of dying? Wouldn’t that have been enough for you to get cracking? After each victorious bout of yours, she gets better miraculously – one crack healed per fight.
I’m bouncing ideas vainly here. Na, that wouldn’t be a Bollywood fare!.
The wastrel from bylanes, wasting away only to be redeemed by a PYT with enough cheerful syrup oozing through every single pore is bad enough.
To have this half his age damsel bumped off to bring out his inner MOJO and purpose in life is grating.
Sure it looks and feels aspirational but wouldn’t the reality bite?
Yours truly waiting in eternal anticipation Ek Dukyaari Ma
Anupama Jain is the author of * ‘When Padma Bani Paula', listed as 'One of the 5 best books of 2018 - Fiction', by readwriteinspire.com. It is a breezy novel about second chances of life and read more...
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My house-help asked excitedly, “I am going for wedding. Can you let me wear your red & black saree? To be honest I was stumped for a moment; I didn’t know what to say but I still said yes.
I lent a gorgeous saree to my house-help for a wedding in her family. Soon I stated getting questions if I would wear that saree again or if I was okay to be seen wearing the same saree my house-help was wearing?
We are all so conditioned to give our used clothes to our house-helps but are we okay to wear the clothes they were wearing?
A few days ago she came excitedly to me, “I am going for a family wedding. I want to wear your red & black saree, Ill wash and give it to you after the function. Please can you let me wear it?”
Beauty is a very clever, very evil capitalist tool. It traps those who have it into hanging on to it for dear life and those who don't into mutilating, torturing themselves to achieve the unachievable.
I recently wrote a piece about MP Shashi Tharoor’s tweet in which he had shared a pic with six women parliamentarians tagging them and saying “Who says the Lok Sabha isn’t an attractive place to work?”
There was a rash of comments on the post shared on Instagram, which ranged from “chill, it’s just a compliment” and “stop overthinking compliments”, to (worried) men lamenting about “these feminazi”.
Here’s my answer to all those comments.
She asked me what I'd cooked for my husband. That's when I remembered how my mother would answer these questions and my eyes brimmed with tears.
She asked me what I’d cooked for my husband. That’s when I remembered how my mother would answer these questions and my eyes filled with tears.
Recently, I read a post on Women’s Web titled, ‘I Knew Nothing Of Feminism Till I Watched Paroma Made By Aparna Sen.‘ And I was intrigued by the post so I decided to watch the movie. Released in June 1985, it is more than three decades old. In these thirty years, we have all witnessed a number of dynamic changes in India. Today it is emerging as one of the largest economies that is gaining diplomatic clout. We are leaping into a digital future while also advancing in space research, medicine and technology.
I am really proud of India, pick any of the Big Four, the Fortune Five or a global MNC, you will find at least one Indian there. And I am sure, that, as a society, no one had faced any major challenges in adapting to the digital age. Neither have I heard of anyone boycotting their families for switching from a landline to mobiles.
Even if he was a 'superstar', it's a wonder that Rajesh Khanna in his 30s got away with marrying a 16 year old Dimple. It was child marriage, even if she was 'in love' with him!
Even if he was a ‘superstar’, it’s a wonder that Rajesh Khanna in his 30s got away with marrying a 16 year old Dimple. It was child marriage, even if she was ‘in love’ with him!
How many of you know that Dimple Kapadia was just 16 years old when she married Rajesh Khanna ‘the superstar’ and that he was 31 years old at the time?
If you have parents who were Hindi movie fans back in the 1970s, please do me a favor and go and ask them if they knew this fact and what they thought about it back then, what they think about it now, and please report back here.