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Allu Arjun and Rashmika Mandanna in a scene from Pushpa 2: The Rule
As Allu Arjun reprises his role as Pushparaj in the film today, everyone is discussing the recent release of Pushpa 2: The Rule and its enormous success. Two million tickets have already been sold through booking, which is a historic start. What exactly are we in for, though?
Misogyny, toxic masculinity, and the casting of women actors as eye candy who are unable to defend themselves and require a man's protection are the easy answers. Unfortunately, if reports are accurate, people enjoy watching it. Even before its premiere today, the film has already made over Rs 70 crore from domestic sales and over Rs 30 crore from pre-sales and overseas sales!
Diving deeper into its ingrained toxic masculinity
Pushpa is a film that fits within the tradition of South Indian cinema, where heroes are often elevated to godlike status, a tendency that can contribute to the idolization of toxic masculinity. While not an academic, one could draw from film theorist Laura Mulvey's paper Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema to understand that in these types of films, the hero plays an active role. The hero is responsible for driving the plot forward and managing the balance of power, with one gender often dominating the other in this power dynamic.
We witness this in Pushpa as well, where the man emerges from his everyday character to become a messiah for people, while the woman actor is only a trophy wife. Only toxic masculinity, the idea of superiority, and making disparaging remarks to prove that he is the one who is in charge of everything, including a woman's dignity, are characteristics of heroism.
Consider the scene in Pushpa: The Rise where Rashmika Mandanna portrays Srivalli, who is portrayed as obedient and whose honour can only be preserved by Pushpa. However, the hero has the power to do anything he pleases, even going beyond Srivalli's bounds.
In a scene from the first sequel, Srivalli is angry with Pushpa and he tries to make amends with her while they are spending intimate time together in a car. He inappropriately touches her, though, and when she calls it out, the actor adopts a humorous persona and makes a variety of excuses. The audience is given a clue that it is humorous and acceptable for it to occur when the background music also shifts to a humorous tone. Without acknowledging that something went wrong, the scene simply continues.
This occurs because the scene's only objective is to sexualize the woman and draw the audience's attention to her body, and the hero has already demonstrated that he has control over her body. A woman's role in such a film is passive since she only serves to draw in viewers and is not actively involved in the plot's progression. The idea that a female actor is only her body is demonstrated by this specific scene from the first sequel.
Sexualisation and Stereotyping of women - A trend in The Pushpa franchise
Even though "Oo Antava" is an item song with catchy beats, Pushpa: The Rise received a lot of praise for its progressive lyrics. However, the song's lyrics contradict the music video, which is my issue with it. The performer appears to take pleasure in the video's normalization of harassment, despite the lyrics' discussion of men's sexist behaviour.
Additionally, the movie crosses all the "red flag" and problematic behaviour boxes and has no boundaries for profanity or inappropriate discussion of women's body parts. Parminda Jacobs and other film theorists concur that women are largely ignored in South Indian cinema, to the point where they are treated like sex objects.
Bollywood has also been affected by this. Such dubbed films are increasingly appearing in Bollywood. One excellent example that no one should overlook is Kabir Singh, the Bollywood adaptation of Sandeep Reddy Vanga's Telugu film Arjun Reddy. Shahid Kapoor's character Kabir Singh was the epitome of a toxic, "strong" man who advocated violence as a "very manly" form of love. The film's director stated in an interview, "I don't see the emotion there if you can't slap if you can't touch your woman wherever you want if you can't kiss."
The frequently employed cliché of sexual violence threats against women. The cliché of a woman in distress and a hero who overcomes all obstacles has been used so frequently in movies that it has become stale. Despite Mahishasuramardini's subtext.
It is disappointing to see a director like Sukumar stretch this. The storyline is predictable in the first part because it is easy to guess who this damsel in distress might be. Even though Pushpa 2: The Rule is quite long, it leaves a lot of questions unanswered and ends abruptly and dullly, setting the stage for Pushpa - The Rampage, the third instalment.
Views expressed by the author are their own.