5 Thoughts That Popped Into My Head While Watching Ayushmann Khurrana’s ‘Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui’ Trailer
So we have another Ayushmann Khurrana movie that is going to be released on December 10 titled Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui. It is directed by Abhishek Kapoor. The trailer was released on November 8 and has already garnered 7,45,994 views. The trailer features Ayushmann Khurrana and Vaani Kapoor. The trailer gives a very generic vibe of typical Bollywood romantic-comedy with typical music and transitions in the background. I went to the comment section to see what the people were talking about in regards to the trailer. I saw three types on commenters: the ones that think Ayushmann looks hot, the ones that think Vaani looks hot and random quotes that no one asked for. So seeing a clear lack of insight about the trailer, I have decided to put out the 5 thoughts I had while watching the trailer of Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui:
1. Almost more than 50% of the trailer is a thirst trap for Ayushmann Khurrana’s physique. Ayushmann plays the role of fitness trainer Manvinder Munjal in Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui. True to the character’s vocation, Khurrana has put effort into building a strong physique and he is quite the eye-candy throughout the trailer if I do say so myself.
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2. From what my untrained ears could decipher, the dialect that Ayushmann uses within the movie is pretty close to how the locals tend to speak. Efforts seem to have been put into rising above the typical Punjabi boisterous stereotype and his character seems to be a refreshing change on how Punjabis speak and act.
3. Now, Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui portrays Vaani’s character (Maanvi Brar) as a trans woman. However, going by the trailer, this is revealed to Ayushmann’s character after they have already had sex and seemingly built a relationship. This does not sit right with me as I am of the opinion that in any type of relationship, especially a sexual and romantic one, everyone involved should be transparent and know what they are getting into. Maanvi withheld this information from Manvinder which was lowkey deceptive.
4. I genuinely like the portrayal of a trans woman as the heroine of a mainstream Bollywood movie. However, from what I am aware, Vaani Kapoor is a cisgender woman. Why they chose to represent the trans community without actually having at least one trans actor is beyond me. And to give the role of a trans character to a cis woman is even more tone-deaf, in my opinion. Moreover, considering that Akshay Kumar’s Laxmmi Bomb received similar criticism, it is kind of ignorant for Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui to repeat the same mistake.
5. Trigger warning to anyone from the community watching Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui or even the trailer. After the reveal that Maanvi is a trans woman, Manvinder starts referring to her as a man paired with a background of upbeat music trying to make the scene almost comical in nature which can be seen in the trailer. As much as I am not comfortable with this information being withheld from him, Manvinder referring to Maanvi as a male made me uncomfortable and highlighted the insensitivity towards the community within the movie.
Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui does seem like a very typical Ayushmann Khurrana movie. The actor is often praised for picking movies with unconventional plots and out of the box stories. I do agree that in an era of cookie-cutter and unoriginal content in Bollywood, Ayushmann movies are like a breath of fresh air. But I believe that that’s where the novelty ends. While he tends to talk openly about stuff other movies don’t, the representation sometimes comes off as performative as there is clearly a lack of in-depth research done on said subject. This can be seen in the trailer of Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui which shows a trans female lead, falls short in every other aspect of representation. The “representation” is limited to Maanvi being the token trans character, with no real care put into her representation being done properly, making the whole point of the movie fall flat. I can only hope that with the release of more trailers and the movie itself, my mind will change about Maanvi’s portrayal in the Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui.
