Newly Released Heropanti 2 & Upcoming Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 Will Possibly Rival Each Other For This Crazy Reason!

After trying very hard to avoid the trailer of Heropanti 2 (2022), I finally ended up watching it because of how good Bollywood is at marketing and promoting male-centric films.

It broke my heart to see that despite the criticism that Indian films have been receiving for treating women like mere beautifying props, Heropanti 2 does the exact same thing in a boastfully shameless manner. In fact, it goes a step further and creates a melodramatic and senseless caricature for a woman out of Tara Sutaria.

Sutaria’s character seems to be head over heels in love with Tiger Shroff’s character in the trailer. She has only two dialogues, “Love and Sex could’ve happened between us, but you ran away,” and “When I had asked you to pull your pants down, you were acting shy (‘Pakeezah’) and when she asked for the same, you suddenly became ‘Dirty Picture’.”

Women still only props?

This goes on to prove how Bollywood still considers women to be nothing but metrosexual-men-chasers who can only dress up and dance with machismos when they take a break from fighting comical villains (at this point, even Nawazuddin Siddiqui seems to be a joke).

Also, what’s with the filmmakers trying hard to make Suratia sound both desperate and dumb? Is that all a woman can be?

While Heropanti 2 does this openly, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 remains slightly more subtle about the same.

Despite there being talented women like Tabu and Kiara Advani in the film who have proven their caliber time and again, Kartik Aaryan who has only given mediocre performances so far remains the center of attention in the film. While Tabu is introduced in the trailer only to make random announcements about a spirit named ‘Manjoolika’, Advani is only shown to be someone who flirts, jokes, and dances with Aaryan.

Kartik Aaryan has become a bit much now

Of course, Advani isn’t entirely dehumanised in the film, but is still treated as much less than Aaryan which should be concerning for all of us.

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It must also be noted that Kartik Aaryan, once again, plays the role of an irresponsible casanova who can get away with almost anything in India. His act of fooling a woman in order to receive a physical embrace from her is treated as a comical element. Alongside that, the title song ‘Hare Ram’ of the first film of the franchise has been recreated to make him appear more heroic.

This brings us to the question about why Bollywood films still feel the need to glorify male characters so much?

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