This Kabir is not a Saint.

The latest box-office success 'Kabir Singh' has garnered its fair share of appreciation and love from the audience apart from racking in a formidable hundred crores in a matter of five days. This is more a matter of concern than joy, and the response it has received from audiences - men women alike is frankly disturbing.'Kabir Singh' shows a college senior 'picking up' a junior girl by claiming her as 'his bandi', like property, as if boys have the right to objectify girls and pick them up like potatoes and onions. The audience laughed and cheered the protagonist on when he forced a girl to stripe on knife point and chased his house help furiously down the flight of stairs when she accidentally broke a glass. At the end of the film, we are made to sympathise with his 'trauma and heart break', substance abuse and his aggressive behaviour. Audiences have justified this behaviour by labeling it as personal choice but they forget that this choice also eventually forms a collective that determines future choices and life chances of people who's agency gets erased in the process of this choice making. My concern is when is behaviour is replicated in real life (and it is very often) are the people around me are ok with it? Ok with accepting abuse as a form of showing love? Unflinching at the aggression and the complete selfishness that accompanies this toxic brand of masculinity?

For those who are in the ' it is only a film' team - art mirrors life which in turns mirror's art. The impact and reach of media, especially cinema should not be underestimated by any means. We cannot refute that Indian Cinema has contributed the normalization of abuse in intimate relationships, romanticising it and glorifying it.

To the Honorable Chairperson of the certification board I can only say that the censorship and shelfing of religiously and politically sensitive movies are plentiful under your watchful eyes. What were the conditions under which you deemed a film that undermines the existence and agency of almost half of your country's population appropriate for the silver screen. Your lack of foresight regarding its token of approval to already existing toxic masculinity, power hierarchy and abuse is evident. Or perhaps you wish to preserve this structure since your privilege does not put you at the receiving end of such unacceptable behaviour.