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MUMBAI: Hindi films might have evolved over the years becoming more modern in its approach, but somewhere certain storylines seem to be repeated. For instance during the 1950s and 70’s filmmakers cashed in on the issues revolving around the villages and the villagers. Since it was believed that a larger population of India lived in villages, stories centered around villages would naturally be assumed to have a mass appeal.
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If films of those eras are played today, we would see them reeking of patriarchy and sexist behavior but there are also films in the current lot that also highlight the same uncomfortable elements. We are talking about the 2022 Rushab Shetty hit Kantara that has unbelievable similarities to the 1971 film Mera Gaon Mera Desh.
While many called out Kantara for celebrating Indian culture, what we fail to see are the sexist actions of the protagonist. Going back 51 years, Mera Gaon Mera Desh had a shockingly similar scene, where the lead Ajit, played by Dharmendra peeped at women bathing and it was portrayed to be a joke while in Kantara the similar thing is portrayed to be a romantic angle. Both films fail to address but rather ignore the creepy and perverted actions of the protagonist.
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When Anuj from Mera Gaon Mera Desh confronts Ajit for watching women bathe hiding behind a tree, the latter fearfully asks her not to tell her family, even though he knows it is wrong what he did. Similarly, in Kantara, Shiva tells Leela not to mention to anyone that he has touched her inappropriately. It is more than evident that the makers have failed to make the audience realize that these kinds of action are not heroic.
The 1971 film was one of the biggest hits of the year and launched the careers of Vinod Khanna who played the villain Jabbar Singh who killed people just for the heck of it and Kantara had a similar villain played by Kishore’s Murlidhar who played the role of a forest officer.
Even though Kantara shows the regressive side of a Hindi Film hero, we call the film culturally rooted. Kantara stars Rishab Shetty who is also the lead actor of the film.
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Credit-Indianexpress
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