2004-06-28

Movie Review: Girlfriend

The lesbian-themed film Girlfriend has been besieged by protests. I condemn this. Shouldn’t we encourage Isha Koppikar to expose more… ,or rather, express more? Hmmm… Freedom of expression in this country remains in shackles!

According to reports, the director of the film has tried to blame lesbian interests of character's played by Isha Kopikar and what’s-her-name to childhood sexual abuse. Do people who come to see the film care? They just want see some hot lesbian action! Indian directors seem to suffer from a strange malady. If in a film the heroine plays a cabaret dancer, then director will tell you that that she is doing it only to make enough money for her husband’s expensive medical operation. If the hero is engaged in ganja smuggling, it is because he is also financing an orphanage on the side. In the film Gentleman, the director fully exploits the physical charms of the actress Sanghavi for most of the film. Later, to remove his guilt, he gets the hero to tell Sanghavi that her activities were incompatible with Indian culture. Interestingly, Madhubala who plays the model Indian culture girl outdoes Sanghavi when she exposes her blouse in what I think is the Indian equivalent of a topless scene. Boy, how pathetic are we?

One might be to ignore the ridiculous ways of Indian cinema if it were not for its enormous influence on our society. Take the issue of rape. Instead of being treated as a form of physical assault, a lot of unnecessary emotional baggage is added to it. If the hero is the rapist, then the victim has no option but to marry the hero. If the rapist happens to be a villain, then the victim has no option but to commit suicide. All this makes life very difficult to rape victims in real life. They cannot just marry the rapist nor can they end their lives. Because of the way that rape has been treated by our cinema, real-life victims find it very hard to forget their past and get on with their lives.

It is because of things like this that I don’t watch Indian movies. They are an assault on one’s sensibilities. I feel that only total idiots can watch them. Malayalam films used to be an exception though; but not anymore. The enormous sucess that a few Tamil films received in Kerala, at the expense of big-banner Malayalam films, has caused a sea change in Malayalam cinema. Today, there is no difference between Tamil cinema and Malayalam cinema. Malayalam films ape Tamil films in every aspect. Mediocrity is the common theme. The originality and the relevance that Malayalam films used to have had been lost, possibly forever.

UPDATE: The film was later shown on cable. As a big woman with small breasts, Isha Koppikar fits the lesbian stereotype well but they had sex with their clothes on. According to Bill Clinton standards, which I wholeheartedly share, SHE DID NOT HAVE SEX WITH THAT WOMAN. This film should be banned for misleading people. I guess the protests were simply a publicity stunt. On the same day, I saw the 1992 film Single White Female starring Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh on HBO. The Girlfriend storyline has been lifted from SWF. By the way, Bridget Fonda is a killer… She has killer looks.

I also want to apologize to my favorite actresses – Mamta Kulkarni, Raveena Tandon, Sonali Bendre, and Pooja Batra. I am yet to see a single movie of any of theirs. Yet, I went ahead and saw Girlfriend and Fire. I was misled by the lesbian theme. Also, because I always watch three or four channels simultaneously, I could not have seen the entire movie. Anyway, I have made a decision not to see any more Hindi films. I will be sticking to Hollywood. They know how to entertain people.