History will not look kindly at 'Raanjhanaa': Abhay Deol criticizes his film for its regressive message

By Rashita Sahni

on August 20, 2020

Abhay Deol, in an Instagram post, has shared that his 2013 film Raanjhanaa had a regressive message and somehow glorified sexual harassment. He shared a note by a viewer who slammed the film for its storyline that glorified one-sided love. Directed by Aanand L Rai, Raanjhanaa revolved around Sonam Kapoor’s character Zoya, who falls for her college mate Jasjeet from Delhi (Abhay Deol), but was also pursued by a boy from a different religion Kundan (Dhanush), in her hometown of Varanasi. When Zoya rejected Kundan’s proposal for marriage and went ahead to marry the boy of her choice by lying about his religion, Kundan crashed her wedding party and informed her parents about her lie. This led to the cold-blooded murder of Sonam’s would-be groom and brought a painful end to their love story.

Now, sharing a post, Abhay wrote, "Such clear and valid insight from @oldschoolrebel9 regarding the film Raanjhana. History will not look kindly at this film for its regressive message. It’s been a theme in Bollywood for decades, where a boy can (and should), pursue a girl until she relents. Only in cinema does she do that willfully. In reality we have seen time and again that it leads to sexual violence of some sort. Glorifying it on screen only leads to blaming the victim, as @oldschoolrebel9 explains it so brilliantly. Please do take time out to read her observations in the pics above. #shedoesnotlikeyou #growup #gloryfyingsexualharrasment"

View this post on Instagram

Such clear and valid insight from @oldschoolrebel9 regarding the film Raanjhana. History will not look kindly at this film for its regressive message. It’s been a theme in Bollywood for decades, where a boy can (and should), pursue a girl until she relents. Only in cinema does she do that willfully. In reality we have seen time and again that it leads to sexual violence of some sort. Glorifying it on screen only leads to blaming the victim, as @oldschoolrebel9 explains it so brilliantly. Please do take time out to read her observations in the pics above. #shedoesnotlikeyou #growup #gloryfyingsexualharrasment

A post shared by Abhay Deol (@abhaydeol) on Aug 18, 2020 at 8:24pm PDT

A viewer expressed her anger at one particular scene in which a wounded Jasjeet sits besides Kundan and the two blame the girl they were in love with for all that went wrong with both of them. She wrote, “This scene does feel real though. Men who love the same woman, either fight over her or bond over their mutual betrayal. We have all heard and maybe even said things like ‘Her love made him a devdas’. There are so many people who face heartbreak and don’t turn self destructive. If you reject someone, why or how do you become responsible for the way they deal with that rejection? How a person deals with a heartbreak speaks less of the person who couldn’t love them back or even how deeply they felt for that person and more about what that heartbroken individual is made up of.”

Several users supported the user's and Abhay's point of view regarding the film in the comments section.

(Source: Instagram)