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Dear Kangana and Rangoli, you invoke the nation to hit your critics. But you're missing what India is all about!

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Nairita Mukherjee
Nairita MukherjeeJul 09, 2019 | 19:05

Dear Kangana and Rangoli, you invoke the nation to hit your critics. But you're missing what India is all about!

Kangana Ranaut, Rangoli Chandel, Judgmentall Hai Kya, Ekta Kapoor, Kangana fights with journalist, Rangoli Twitter rant, antinational, Manikarnika

Dear Kangana and Rangoli,

I trust this finds you in good health. I trust this is a time when you feel the need to express yourself — unabashedly, even rudely — and take a stand against all those who speak ever so slightly against you. I also trust this is the perfect moment to remind you that while you have the right to exercise your freedom of speech, so do we.

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For the country you’re so proud of gives us that right.

And when you try to curb our freedom, it is you who, to my mind, is being ‘anti-national.’

When you hail an entertainment daily as ‘deshdrohi’ for publishing an article about the media fraternity seeking an apology from Kangana Ranaut for her appalling behaviour towards a journalist during a recent press meet, you are only evoking laughter in us.

And in the same breath, throwing whatever credibility you had out of the window.

You are legitimising our view, making us realise that Kangana is, in fact, guilty of arrogance, but perhaps too arrogant to admit it.

You are egging us — the “bikau, nange, deshdrohi, desh ke dalal, libtard” mediawale — as you so fondly address us, to totally overlook both you and your sister.

Who will that benefit?

When a fellow journalist calls for a ban, you respond with spiteful words. You turn the conversation into a 'Hindi vs English' battle, of linguistic — and moral — supremacy.

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No, Hindi or English is not a marker of class. I could respond to you in Bangla — and, trust me, I’d express myself so well, you wouldn’t even know what to call that so-called 'meethi churi'. But for me, and many like me, it's not the language you speak that shows how you think. It is what you say. And how you address others.

A bad film doesn’t strip a performer of his or her skill. Kangana’s career is riddled with hits and misses — yet we, the media, always saw her as a strong actor. Trolling us on Twitter also doesn’t strip an actor of his or her craft. But it does remind us of the importance of humility. Something you lack.

Have grace, dear ladies. If not for your sake, for the sake of those associated with your films in different capacities. And I do not only mean your producer, Ekta Kapoor, or co-star Rajkummar Rao, but those innumerable technicians who work day and night to make you the heartthrob, the success, the dazzler you are so proud to be. They are not part of this linguistic hegemony or nationalist drama you thought you called out by saying, “Haan hum dehati hain, achcha hua tumhari tarah angrez nahin hain.” But they will lose out when your reign wobbles.

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Or has it already?

Is that why you’re bickering, trying to clutch onto controversies?

Method acting is great, Kangana, but do allow a character to leave you when the movie is over.

We are not the British — and you’re not riding into battle against us. Stop flailing about. Move on.

Last updated: July 09, 2019 | 20:00
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