Love and Coronavirus - Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan

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As February passes like a soft breeze and we enter the simmering heat of March, it makes me wonder about love and Coronavirus. “Choone se nahi pheltha hai,” comes read a jocular post. Another reminded us how we, Indians, must not be scared of this virus: we can remove a tennis ball from a gutter, tap it and play with it. We can wash our hands off it yet it will be around much like love that we put on our guard around it and behave like it's coronavirus. Worse is love between people of the same sex. The most recent example for this is the film: Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, starring Ayushman Khurana and Jatinder Kumar directed by Aanand L. Rai. Albeit it’s a commercial hit, the film has made gay love a forced agenda. It portrayed how parents react in the most obscene and impractical way: they resort to avoiding the people involved to false attempts in suicide to questioning their own parenting to violent methods. Finally, they emotionally breakdown.



The premise of the movie is simple: two men, from different backgrounds, fall in love. While Jatinder’s father is a scientist and belongs to a well-to-do family in Allahabad, Ayushman’s family is not in the picture, literally! When Jatinder’s father (the famous Gajraj Rao), catches them in the act, he is flummoxed and reacts in the most stupid way (he opens a hose pipe to cleanse Jatinder!). Neena Gupta, as the mother, seems to be sensible in few parts. Ayushman tries to woo Jatinder's father and mother but fails. After a few humourous scenes and a silly and unpalatable subplot (Goggles, Jatinder’s fiancé), the lovers decide to stand with each other (almost towards the end). While I enjoy Ayushman’s films and his brave step to take on love in its various avatars, this film is mostly a comic take on the issue of same-sex love, which is often avoided with an N95 mask called tradition and morality and family honour. But they forget, only because it is ignored, the chances of revival are not minimal. Embrace love and the virus in all its forms.

Image source: Jagran.com

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