Malayalam actor Parvathy, who just came out of an eight-month hibernation, got into a room with some of the country’s most bankable stars for an actor’s roundtable by Film Companion. One of the participants was Arjun Reddy star, Vijay Deverakonda.
Not that it needs to be pointed out but this year’s blockbuster hit, Kabir Singh, which divided critics and audience alike because of it’s warped gender politics, was an adaptation of Arjun Reddy.
Well known for calling a spade… a spade, Parvathy really couldn’t help herself but touch upon Arjun Reddy/Kabir Singh‘s improper messaging. A heated conversation has persisted around the film’s, after the original spawned remakes in Hindi and Tamil.
The Take Off actor articulated the difference between depicting politically-incorrect behaviour, and glorifying it. And she did this by comparing Arjun Reddy with Joker, another film that created a social media furore, where many suggested it was glorifying violence/incels.
Wow Parvathy #SuperAdda pic.twitter.com/KQw1JIyrWY
— #IyerChaharDube (@anu_sherigar) November 25, 2019
In the full conversation, Parvathy went ahead to speak about how uncomfortable she was about these films that endorsed violence. Earlier, taking part in the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), Parvathy had spoken out against superstar Mammootty for openly endorsing misogyny and for not taking enough responsibility for it. Deverakonda initially seemed a little lost for words, and then went on to say that it was unreasonable for an actor to be true to his story, by weighing it carefully on the scales of everyone’s political correctness.
Deverakonda is not completely wrong, and his opinion that a director has to be true to his own instincts, is a fair argument. However, he becomes defensive when asked whether cinema is a powerful agent in determining the audience’s behaviour. According to Deverakonda and Bajpayee, it’s too much responsibility vested in films and actors to be mindful of that. Which is an incorrect thing to say – considering how fan clubs (especially down South) are obsessive, abusive and blindly follow everything actors do. It’s incomprehensible that a star’s actions in the film, have NO effect on the audience.
Okay ya’all Parvathy is definitely rocking it here but DID SHE JUST SAY “THAT’S A BIPOLAR BEHAVIOUR?!” – Sorry i couldn’t continue watching it post that. https://t.co/zGK0VNa7jm
— Divya Kandukuri (@anticastecat) November 26, 2019
It must also be said, that a tweet pointed out how Parvathy uses ‘bipolar’ to describe Arjun Reddy‘s behaviour, and how that only further demonises people with mental illness. Maybe it shouldn’t have been used so lightly.
