Friday, March 09, 2007

Worse than I thought

I talked about this Indian movie I had rented a couple of posts ago, called The Side Effects of Love. Yesterday I finally got around to watching it.
My word, it was worse than I thought. I had assumed from the cover that it might have a man beaten up in the name of love and things of that sort, but overall, Indian movies aren't misandrist to the point that English movies are, be they from Hollywood or not.

The entire movie was full of phrases seemingly lifted from Andrea Dworkin's memoirs, including a sister of the protagonist who talks like a raging lesbian but has a man around to pay for the bills.

The movie revolves around this guy who met a girl at a wedding where she was running away while he was in Delhi. The starting scene is a fight in which she terrorizes him until he says I love you, nay, shes is not happy until he proves to him how much he loves her, all while he is trying to watch a match.

So anyway, this pair met at her wedding, she runs away when he gives her money to escape, and then they meet a few months later, when she is working in Bombay. So they meet, and now three years later, she wants to get married to him.

Man, there is so much palpable man hating in there, I can't describe it. It felt like I was watching a Hollywood movie, only the actors were not as dark or as pale as Hollywood actors, and the plot was marginally worse.

Everything in the movie revolved around how men are stupid, men are dumb, men are dirty, yadda yadda yadda.
There was the classic scene where the sister of the hero (sic) picks up a dirty sock and goes on a tirade about how men are not rational, how they can never seem to put their socks along their shoes, oh man I'm telling you I wanted to reach in and twist her throat right there, and then rape her corpse for good measure. She was that hateful of a character.

Then there's the scene where the hero and his heroine are having an argument and a small scoreboard appears on the screen, and predictably, she pulls out the trump card and his score vanishes, leaving her the winner.

I don't know whether this sort of misandry has been there all along but hidden, or what in the fuck is happening to people to make them hate men so much all of a sudden.

3 comments:

  1. In Indian/Bollywood films, there is a hero, a heroine, their families, a bit of comedy courtesy hero's friend, lots of tears and songs and dances, a villain and a happy ending.

    This film didn't do well in India (since it did not follow above formula)

    Plus all the actors in the film are B-listers who have yet to be part of a big-budget film or to give a hit movie.

    Infact the lead actress is infamous for her obscene clothes(In Bollywood there cannot be nudity. Most of the audience is conservative), number of kisses per film and for scandalous interviews.

    (from India)

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  2. Thanks for the comment, anon. I don't have a problem with nudity and such, but I do have a big problem with misandry.

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  3. Well men are illogical and stupid if they see "misandry" in a totally stupid Bollywood film which did not even do too well.

    And "I wanted to reach in and twist her throat right there, and then rape her corpse for good measure. She was that hateful of a character.
    " proves that men like you are menaces to society as well.

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