'Kabir Singh will change after kids'. But Sandeep Reddy Vanga will never change
Kabir Singh and Preeti slap each other, bawl like babies, hug and swear to never leave each other again. The titles roll and the audience leaves the theatre, either feeling uncomfortable at this destructive love story or completely wowed by its sheer rawness.
Kabir Singh, the film, doesn’t give you a peek into what Kabir and Preeti’s lives would look like beyond that point. It is a 'happy ending', which means they will get married. Perhaps Kabir will go into medical research, now that his license is revoked. Preeti, on the other hand, might just go on to become a successful doctor herself. They have a child together, and they’re raising the baby together in a suburban home in Mumbai.
All this is but a figment of our imagination — where we like to picture the characters, that have clearly touched us so deeply, go about their lives.
There’s no actual need for it, but it gives their story completion in our heads — knowing that their lives go on as beautifully behind the screen as they did on screen makes us happy.
So we dream.
When Anupama Chopra asked Sanjay Reddy Vanga if Kabir and Preeti have their happily-ever-after, she perhaps had something like the above in mind. After all, no one can exactly say how the lives of fictional characters will pan out. It’s all wishful thinking. But Sandeep gave us an unexpected twist even in that — just like he did in his definition of true love. You know the one where “if you cannot slap your woman, touch your woman whenever you want”, it’s not really true love.
Do Kabir’s anger management issues get better, asked Anupama at the 26-minute, 50-second mark in the video, with Sandeep nodding. Anupama probes further, adding, “And he’ll not be as angry as he was?”
“Yeah. Probably after kids, people change...” smiles Sandeep at 27-minute, 06-seconds.
Unfortunately, we’ve met people like these — who believe thrusting responsibility onto someone’s shoulders make them more 'responsible'. This is why men who are jobless and are practically whiling away their time are still considered 'eligible bachelors' because “shaadi aur bachche ho jayenge toh sudhar jayega (marriage and kids will make him a better man)!” This is why they can still demand a heavy dowry — and beat up their wives when they don’t get what they expected.
Oh, wait, violence is an expression of love.
Scratch that.
The problem is that never happens. People don’t change so drastically as to become a person as if from the opposite end of the personality spectrum. And when there is no notable change, guess who bears the brunt?
The woman.
Who clearly failed to guide this perfectly good man on the right track.
No, we need not have reiterated Sandeep Reddy Vanga's regressive and misogynistic outlook and his entrenched resistance to accepting this regression and misogyny.
But the irony was too tempting to let go of without addressing it — Kabir Singh might change, Sandeep Reddy Vanga never will.
Also read: I'm your captive, and I love it: Stockholm Syndrome and how 'Kabir Singh' is promoting it