Kabir Singh Archives

What Ayushmann Khurrana’s Dream Girl Gets Right About Modern Masculinity

In many ways, Dream Girl feels like an antidote to the brashness of Kabir Singh. It is a film that confronts the vexations of modern-day masculinity. It briefly imagines men who listen, who empathise with vulnerability, and who must learn to relate to each other in ways that have long been socially assigned to women.

Kamayani Sharma July 16, 2016

Pop Culture

Why Labanya from “Shesher Kobita” is the Most Empowering Rabindranath Tagore Heroine

Few characters have the kind of sway over Rabindranath Tagore’s followers as Labanya – arguably, his most complex and nuanced character – from Shesher Kobita (Last Poem). More than nine decades later, Labanya remains as relevant as she was when she first stormed into popular consciousness.

Chandrima Pal June 18, 2016

Bollywood

Why Kabir Singh is Proof of How Movies Get Away with Trivialising Women

Every woman watching Kabir Singh isn't just watching a film. They're inevitably imagining a scenario where they are stripped of their agency, only to have a man cross the boundaries of what qualifies as love and what it is never anything but violence. The trouble is, the box-office is applauding.

Poulomi Das June 11, 2016

Bollywood

What Kabir Singh Can Learn about Violent Men From Kumbalangi Nights

After the release of Kabir Singh, everyone had one question on their minds: Could movies really depict toxic masculinity without glorifying it? The answer lies in Kumbalangi Nights, a Malayalam film where toxic masculinity isn’t the hero, but is its villain.

Pranay Dewani May 21, 2016

Bollywood

Kabir Singh Review: In the Arjun Reddy Remake, Rage is a Man’s Birthright and Violence His Badge of Honour

Disguised as a love story, Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Kabir Singh justifies what Indian men have been trying to normalise since time immemorial: That anger is a man’s birthright. That rage is necessary for a man to exert his dominance over a woman and the world needs to accept it.

Poulomi Das May 13, 2016

People

The Menaka Guruswamy-Arundhati Katju Romance is the Love Story We Need in 2019

In July, ten months after helping to strike down Section 377, lawyers Dr Menaka Guruswamy and Arundhati Katju shed new light on why the historic legal victory was also a personal one for them. They boldly came out as the lesbian power couple who carried the LGBTQIA+ rights movement on their shoulders.

Kahini Iyer April 25, 2016

Bollywood

The Half-Yearly Report Card: Ranking the 10 Worst Female Characters in Bollywood

It’s 2019 and yet in some of the year’s biggest scripts, actresses continued to play second fiddle. Save for Gully Boy’s Safeena, most of them were devoid of a personality. In one of the highest grossers of the year, Kabir Singh, Preeti exists only to get exploited, and in Kesari, we still don’t know if Parineeti Chopra is a ghost or a memory.

Poulomi Das March 31, 2016