Sad how Tanu Weds Manu Returns too reduces women to eye candy

There is absolutely no surprise in the fact that Tanu Weds Manu Returns (TWMR) is doing so well and has raced beyond Rs 100 crores in revenue. And the success is not just owing to the strong performance given by "queen" Kangana Ranaut. But also because the film reinforces the overarching narrative of hackneyed misogyny that Indian cinema thrives on, and one that we the audience, are ever so comfortable with. It informs us, amusingly, of course, that men are nice, caring, and reliable while women are unpredictable, unreasonable and puzzlingly turn into harridans post marriage. This narrative then leads us in the film, amusingly of course, to the cruel victory of the sexy siren Tanu over "plain Jane" Datto, confirming the triumph of chauvinism. Ha ha ha.

Kangana Ranaut might be a great actress, and yes, she has played both characters, of Tanu and Datto, superbly. But the film is no trendsetter. It still does not wake you up to the changing norms in Indian marriages, where men are (hopefully) looking beyond the stereotype of marrying, and sticking to, that awfully superficial pretty girl.

Conditioned as we are, we still laugh at the plight of the poor men who are caught up in a mad, bad, sad marriage syndrome, and undergo stoically, all the trials and tribulations laid at their doorstep. Tanu of course, is ghastly enough to have her husband sectioned in the United Kingdom (UK). Let me also stress that while the scene was put there for a laugh, it is far, far more removed from any reality. As someone who had to actually visit one of these mental health hospitals in London to help release someone who had been unfairly put there by their family, the situation is far from simple. And there is a very long procedure before anyone is either sectioned, or released from these centres. Mental health has often being stigmatised, and it is regretful that even a country (in this case, the UK) which has a far superior, though sometimes case-blind, system of mental health has been shown to be arbitrary.

But my real outrage is over the ghastly fashion in which the film-makers treat the one decent human in the film, Datto, in the end. She is the quintessential tomboy character, involved in her sports and her athletics. By allowing Madhavan to dump her at the last minute, despite all that she had done for him, the makers made the film unwatchable and mean.

Another low point was the long-drawn-out, unnecessary, and quite demeaning section, when Tanu stalks her husband in the run up to his proposed second marriage to Datto, till he succumbs. She even does a Meena Kumari number a la Pakeezah, and I almost expected her to dance through the broken glass on the ground with bleeding feet. All to win back her man of course. Ha ha ha.

I am not at all surprised, therefore, that the film has become a box office hit. It is no different from the Salman-Shah Rukh starrers, where women must look like eye candy, and must work hard through song and dance to convince their "mard" that their svelte bodies and perfectly made up faces belong to their man. All the real Indian "mards" must love watching these Kanganas, Katrinas, Kareenas writhe and beg and plead.

For once, the directors of TWMR had a chance to really break out of the traditional mould. They could have taken a reality check on women's aspirations and a changing India. But they chose not to.

For me, therefore, this is not a subversive film, or even a "funny" film. It is a nasty piece of work, using humour to pass on a stale message.