Rowdy Bawdy and Terrible!

I made the mistake of going to see Rowdy Rathod believing, idiot that I am, that "Don't Angry me" was an indication of the film being a spoof -fun- action type James Bond/Jackie Chang kind of cinema. Well what I was subjected to was a tawdry trashy film that transported me back to the worst examples of popular cinema of the seventies! Everything about the film screamed retrogressive and cheap! With Sonakshi Sinha looking like a yesteryear Reena Roy rather paradoxically,  right down to swinging hips and over mascaraed false eyelashes; plus pouting village belle stereo-typed virgin girl who is both dumb and wide eyed in big bad city; made me want to instantly throw up my chewy popcorn and flat coke! Worse still was the senseless violence that went on unendingly through the film till one felt completely jarred and violated by it all. 

The film should have not been given a U certificate. I was aghast to see the theatre full of children ranging from infants to nine and ten year olds. The result was that many toddlers and primary aged children were crying from the vicious depictions of villainous men and gory scenes of mutilation and revenge. I was reminded of the Godhra atrocities and wondered how "entertainment" can be visualised through carnage!

The idea of good versus evil becomes warped when we believe that stringing up human beings after slitting their throats is emblematic of virtue, and is somehow morally correct. The reactions of the adults in the audience was perhaps more chilling for me than the debacle of the movie itself. A delight that was almost palpable amongst most of the onlookers was horribly unnerving. One felt as though there was some secret identification occurring to act out such portrayed feats of heroism which takes law and order into ones own hands, and that valorizes brutality and dehumanised behaviour as a societal circumstance of acceptable choice. If this is the sensibility of the film fraternity whether from the south or otherwise, I am appalled and horribly ashamed.

Cinema must certainly incorporate reflections of life and society that may very well be intolerable and often unpalatable; and which definitely  needs to be examined and depicted.  However let us not confuse serious cinema with that which trivialises, sensationalises and denigrates the norms of calibre and standards of excellence and intelligence, all in the name of charanna  ki entertainment!

Actors like Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha do a great disservice to themselves if this is the legacy they desire to leave  as their imprint within the film industry.