Shahid Kapoor's-Kiara Advani's blockbuster film Kabir Singh had the house clearly divided. While some showered love and appreciation towards the Sandeep Reddy Vanga directorial, some went on to slam it for its misogynistic content and the extent of violence shown. The film which went on to become Shahid's career's highest-grossing film had controversies enveloped since the beginning. A remake of the Telugu superhit Arjun Reddy starring Vijay Deverakonda and Shalini Pandey in the central role, Kabir Singh was slammed not just by the audience but by several celebrities. While the film and the controversy still remains fresh in the minds of the audience and industry, actress Parvathy Thiruvothu also shared her opinion on the same during a round-table interview with an entertainment portal. During the interview, the talented star compared Kabir Singh-Arjun Reddy with Joker and took a dig at Sandeep's slapping comment. Calling the films 'violent', the Uyare actress explained the problematic aspects of them.
“Arjun Reddy and Kabir Singh had the visual grammar of glorification, Joker did not. At no point did I look at the character Joaquin Phoenix played and think ‘Arre yaar, I totally agree with you. You must kill everyone’. We can watch a tragedy and leave it there, without feeling inspired to follow it. Whereas if you’re telling there is no passion in a relationship without slapping each other and I see the comments on YouTube where people are resonating and engaging with that, there is also, you can see, engaging with that in a massive, mob-like manner. Where you’re inciting violence, that’s kind of murky,” Parvathy told.
Narrating a personal experience of watching a highly misogynistic and abusive film in the theatre, Parvathy said when the audience in the theatre claps for such films, it is glorification. “When a man is being misogynistic and abusive and you show that in a way that incites applause in the audience, then that’s glorification. At the same time, if you make the audience think about whether he’s done the right thing or not, then you’re collaborating with the audience. There there is cinema, there is a dialogue. But the other one is almost spoonfeeding you that this is okay. I remember sitting through such a film in theatre as a teenager and squirming, but at the same time, everyone else is clapping. I was very confused. ‘Is it normal? Is it okay?’ And then it reflected in my personal life too,” Parvathy added.
In response to this, Vijay, who starred in the titular role in Arjun Reddy and was a part of the discussion replied by saying, "I think the world is fucked. By making a better film, can I save it? I just see it going downhill. I can’t make films for everybody’s personal lives. The director is making what he truly believes in and I bought it completely and I thought it was very balanced and I did it."
(Source: Film Companion)
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