Bollywood Revisit : Raanjhanaa

 

Raanjhanaa, produced by Eros International and directed by Anand. L. Rai released in the year 2013. The film almost instantly won our hearts with its screenplay, Music, storyline and characters. The story carried out beautifully in the Indian town of Benaras captures well, the lives of people living there. The protagonists, Kundan (Dhanush) and Zoya (Sonam K Ahuja) are portrayed with accuracy and beauty. Adding to the overall perfect portrayal were the supporting characters played by Swara Bhaskar, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Kumud Mishra, Abhay Deol and others. We cannot refuse to agree to the fact that we fell in love at first sight with Akram aka Jaspreet Singh played by Abhay Deol. Abhay Deol's perfect portrayal of a political science JNU student had us vouch for him the moment his character was introduced. 

The story revolves around a Hindu boy Kundan, head over heels for a Muslim girl Zoya. He falls for her the very moment he sees her reading a 'namaz' when they were still children. Skipping to the part when Zoya finally agrees to meet him, she finds out that Kundan lied to her about his religion to pursue her. Slapping him at the bank of the river Zoya leaves him only to face him the next day in a rickshaw, where he threatens her to slit his wrist. Succumbing to his madness Zoya hugs him only for her father (Kumud Mishra) to find out and is sent to her aunt's place as a disciplinary punishment. 

A few years later Zoya returns to her hometown with her JNU friend Rashmi (Shilpi Marwaha). Kundan still heads over heels for her, attempts to pursue her again only to find out that Zoya is in love with a JNU political science student Akram Zaidi (Abhay Deol). She reaches out to Kundan for help in convincing her father about her marriage to Akram. The scene where Zoya tells Kundan about her lover revealed a lot about Kundan as a character when he rams his scooter along with Zoya and himself in the river. Through that scene, we were yet again introduced to his mad desire to woo this girl. 

Now, Skipping to the main part, the day when Zoya was supposed to get married to Akram Zaidi and Kundan to his sidekick Bindiya (Swara Bhaskar). Kundan and Murari (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) find out through a newspaper,s headline that Akram Zaidi, Zoya's fiancee was a Hindu and indeed his real identity was Jaspreet Singh. Kundan almost immediately crashes into Zoya's wedding with the intention to expose Akram. The sequence of events leads to Akram's death and Zoya slitting her wrist. 

 Now, just as a protagonist is expected to do, Kundan repents for Jaspreet's (aka Akram) death. He comes to JNU, New Delhi and becomes a remote member of his political party. Zoya turns bitter when she sees Kundan, the man responsible for her lover's death gain clout and appreciation amongst the party members and gets him killed in an election rally with the help of on-screen chief minister. Kundan ends his on-screen life with a monologue that drove the audience nuts. 

Over the years people have loathed Zoya's character but now is the time to revisit, why? 

We see that during the entire course of the movie, Kundan is obsessed with Zoya. He stalks her, follows her, is okay when she slapped him more than ten times and eventually lies to her about his religion in an attempt to woo her and on her refusal, cuts his wrist forcing her to succumb to his love. She is sent away from her family because of his mad desire. 

Years later when she returns, he still expects her to fall in love with him and when told by Zoya about her JNU love interest, Akram, Kundan rams his scooter with Zoya on it in the river. In the next scene, we find Murari rushing Kundan to the hospital because he slit his wrist, again.  

We also find him and Murari using Bindiya to frame a doctor, to whom Zoya was supposed to get married into sexual harassment. They click photographs while instructing Bindiya to pose seductively to portray that the doctor, who was carrying out a regular check-up was sexually harassing her. 

This scene normalised framing innocent men for sexual harassment aka Pseudo Feminism. 

The main scene that directs the second half of the movie, Zoya and Akram's wedding. Kundan crashes into their wedding exposing Zoya's lie about Akram's religion resulting in havoc. Also forgetting about his own wedding to Bindiya which was just a decision out of rebound. Sorry, Bindiya.

However, it was normal for Kundan to lie to Zoya about his religion in the name of love. Hypocrisy.

Kundan repents and gets killed in a conspiracy cooked by Zoya with the help of the Chief Minister and becomes a hero with his legendary monologue. 

Now was the time to revisit this movie released in 2013 and realise who the real villain was. Sorry to break it to you but it was Kundan, not Zoya. What Zoya did was wrong and cannot be justified but what Kundan, through the entire course of the story has done, is not justifiable either. Everything that he did as an attempt to woo Zoya was wrong on many levels. Being the reason for the murder of an innocent man is unforgivable. 

It is time for Bollywood and the audience to stop romanticising stalking and following that eventually leads to love because this is not normal and an erroneous hope to win their love by slitting wrists. In short, any kind of toxic behaviour should neither be promoted nor accepted. And if a film does, then it is on the audience to learn from it.