Neelima Azeem Comes To Kabir Singh’s Defense Because Doting Mother, But Kya Faltu Logic Hai

My mother has always been extremely protective and possessive about me and my brother. As has every mother for that matter, because that is how they’re wired after all, right? To always have their children’s backs. Except, the concept of right and wrong often ends up in grey areas when mothers is involved. Or at least that is what we think has been the case with Neelima Azeem when she came to the fore to defend son Shahid Kapoor’s role in the movie Kabir Singh.

The movie that has literally opened up Pandora’s box about the very sexist portrayal of the disturbed character of Kabir Singh. Collection-wise, the movie is doing well and is showing no signs of slowing down at the box office. And with the kind of criticism that the film is gathering, still not enough in our honest opinion, Shahid Kapoor’s mother chose to speak about it. How we wish she hadn’t though.

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In an interview with  Mid-Day, she spoke about how the movie was an ‘intelligent remake’ and said, “Actors have the freedom to play morally controversial characters because they make for meaty roles. Tomorrow, if you play a psychopathic serial killer, will everybody watching the movie become one? Dilip (Kumar) saab and Rajesh Khanna played grey roles in Amar and Red Rose. Are you suggesting that every grey role be scrapped? In Hollywood, actors have won Oscars for characters like these. If we can’t make such movies, then we will have to scrap films like Marlon Brando’s A Streetcar Named Desire, Godfather and Heath Ledger’s Joker (The Dark Knight). One needs to understand that it is a story and not a lecture on morality.”

Now the problem with that is that in all of those iconic villainous roles, the filmmakers made it a point to show exactly the kind of fruit their actions bore them. It was almost always followed by their ways being contested by another character, as opposed to Kabir Singh, where he is rewarded with getting the girl in the end.

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Neelima, then furthered her point by arguing that, “It is a hard-hitting film, and shows the protagonist’s arc — he changes from the (brash) student at the university to the one who returns home after his grandmother’s demise. He suffers because of his attitude. The film is not glorifying the character. Instead, it warns you against becoming like Kabir Singh.” Except, when? Forget explicit, the movie on the whole did not even have an implicit warning that would suggest that Kabir’s behaviour was far from acceptable.

And that fact was established right in the opening scene, when we can see Kabir Singh holding a knife to a woman, demanding she strip. And addressing the same, Neelima said, “He is about to (rape her) in the dark. As soon as the light comes on, he realises (his folly) and throws the knife away. It’s symbolic in that sense.”

What a load of rubbish.

Basically, we’re sticking to our words for calling out the movie for its sexism and toxicity, and feel that it largely missed out on its responsibility of delivering the right kind of message. And while we get that she is a mother and would want to defend her son, she needn’t have to defend a character that goes against everything our mothers warned us about.