{"id":262,"date":"2016-04-22T16:39:19","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T16:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=262"},"modified":"2016-04-22T16:39:19","modified_gmt":"2016-04-22T16:39:19","slug":"the-sultan-will-have-the-last-laugh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=262","title":{"rendered":"The Sultan Will Have the Last Laugh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

T<\/span>he last time Salman Khan was in the news for the right reasons was, never. The sultan of controversies has not failed us yet again. This time he has outdone himself by comparing his post-shoot fatigue to rape \u2013 to be more precise, to a \u201craped woman\u201d who could \u201cbarely walk straight\u201d.\n\nThe remark was followed by titters in a room full of journos, who went on to crucify him for it. The remark was also followed by Salman quickly realising his mistake and withdrawing the statement to the same room of journos, who conveniently forgot about that part.\n\nI\u2019m a big fan of humour going to places where it\u2019s going to piss someone off; one look at my Twitter feed will convince you of that. But Bhai\u2019s case is different. (Bhai\u2019s case is always different, isn\u2019t it?)\n\nWe\u2019re living in a country where filmmakers face the heat for showing young people addicted to drugs. We live in a country where the words sex and breasts are censored on television screens. The loose logic is: Drugs\/sex dikhaoge, toh log drugs\/sex karenge. This is the same reason rape scenes are frowned upon. Shekhar Kapur\u2019s\u00a0<\/p>Bandit Queen,\u00a0<\/em>based on the life of Phoolan Devi, was banned for being \u201coffensive\u201d, \u201cvulgar\u201d and \u201cindecent\u201d.\n\nIn countries like England or America, where almost everyone has received a few years of basic education, the argument, \u201cRape dikhaoge movie me toh rape hoga\u201d, doesn\u2019t hold water. This is mostly because people know the difference between a joke and actual rape. They know that if a song has the word rape in it, it doesn\u2019t mean that the song is encouraging it. The likes of\u00a0Anthony Jeselnik<\/a>, Greg Giraldo, and even the beloved\u00a0George Carlin<\/a>,\u00a0have been cracking rape jokes since we were busy getting computers in India.\n\nBut in India, where a woman is raped every 30 minutes<\/a>, making a rape joke is out of line. We haven\u2019t got the reputation of being the rape capital of the world for no reason. Here a rape joke is not just a joke, it comes with consequence. In any society where the underprivileged outnumber people of privilege, the choice of words should be taken care of, especially when the words come from a politician or person of influence, like a Bollywood actor. But then,\u00a0Salman’s sense of responsibility toward our society equals the number of fucks given by God to our prayers.\n\nStill, should we lynch Salman for it?\n

Salman’s sense of responsibility toward our society equals the number of fucks given by God to our prayers.<\/blockquote>\nHaven\u2019t you ever heard students panicking before incomplete college assignments saying, \u201cAaj toh rape honewala hai?\u201d Or fans saying after a cricket game, \u201cIndia raped Pakistan\u201d and laughing about it. We have\u00a0politicians<\/a>\u00a0comparing elections to rape. Just type \u201crape\u201d in the Twitter search bar, read the tweets and you\u2019ll know what I\u2019m talking about. Salman Khan’s statement, when put in context, is as simple as this. That, I feel, is where the flaw lies.\n\nUsing a word is never wrong; neither is making an analogy. At most, it can be in bad taste, but it can never be an asking-for-an-apology kind of mistake. People have been making shitty analogies since time immemorial.\u00a0Politicians<\/a>\u00a0say shit like \u201cUplifting Dalits is like taking pigs out of a sewer\u201d and get away with it. In my opinion, this is even more dangerous, because it exposes their mentality toward the lower caste, which further reflects their upbringing in a classist society. But should they go to jail for this? I think not. They should be sent to school instead.\n\nI say this because I believe that statements could never hurt anyone. Freedom of speech should be absolute. Making an analogy is his wish, ignoring it completely is yours. Moreover, the guy has gotten away with stuff much worse than this. He has been accused of killing people, for fuck\u2019s sake. So the brouhaha over his statements and asking him to apologise is as ridiculous as asking Hilter to\u00a0first say sorry about an insensitive comment on Jews.\n\nLast night on Times Now, Arnab The Ever Enlightened, pushed his panelists to outrage. We had voices screeching about how working out releases happy endorphins in the body and therefore, by equating working out to rape, Salman is suggesting that victims enjoy rape.\u00a0The leap was magnificent, but nobody pointed out that it made two errors: The first in the logic and second in suggesting that Salman had deeper levels.\n\nIf Salman was watching the debate, he must\u2019ve been cackling.\u00a0This 50-year-old man-child who has been defended by his daddy and brother must be having a field day watching everyone lose their shit, congratulating himself for making it to yet another national debate before a movie release.\n\nIn these times of instant outrage, saying asinine things is a great way to get publicity. SuSwamy has made a career out of it. Donald Trump may get a presidency out of it. So what\u2019s wrong if Salman wants to get a hit movie out of it? I\u2019ve heard the word \u201cSultan\u201d about a million times since yesterday. If I were the producer of the film, I\u2019d be laughing my way to the bank this morning. The Salman circus is a long and protracted one and at the end of each act there\u2019s usually a\u00a0\u20b9100 crore tag. Hold on to your seats and just enjoy the show.\n\nEditor\u2019s note: The views expressed here are the writer\u2019s own.<\/em>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In these times of outrage, saying asinine things is the way to publicity. Donald Trump may get a presidency out of it. So what\u2019s wrong if Sallu wants to get a hit out of it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[62,63,64,65,66,67,459,460,461,462,71,72],"class_list":["post-262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov","tag-arre","tag-arre-digital-platform","tag-arre-originals","tag-arre-reads","tag-arre-text-articles","tag-arre-website","tag-bhai","tag-sallu","tag-salman","tag-salman-khan","tag-web-series","tag-web-shows"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Sultan Will Have the Last Laugh<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In these times of outrage, saying asinine things is the way to publicity. Donald Trump may get a presidency out of it. 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