[SPOILERS] Kabir Singh: When redemption gets misinterpreted or intentionally labeled as glorification
I have watched director Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s filmography in reverse order of release. I first saw Animal, and enthralled, I was eager to check out his first Hindi film, Kabir Singh. Yes, THE Kabir Singh, which annoyed feminists and many modern women who threw out character certificates at everyone who enjoyed and supported the film.
So what if there were uncomfortable moments? Such characters exist in real life, and you can’t change that. Cinema is art, and art is meant to elicit emotion, and that can be negative. The amount of pointless hate this one film and its director have received over the years just makes me want to ask a bunch of questions which I already have the answers to, but I will do it anyway because I can.
This film is called Kabir Singh, not Preeti Sikka or Kabir and Preeti ki Love Story style bs, right?
It is a man’s story of his journey to redemption. In fact, I approached the film less as a love story and more as a psychological drama about a broken man’s rise and fall. Sure, Kabir does nothing overtly heroic in the first half, and even crosses the antihero territory before the intermission. He is arrogant, rude, violent and very, very angry: and that is why the film is so engaging even at a nearly 3-hour length.
I don’t think about activism when I’m supposed to watch some good acting. I have only one rule — the film should engage me. And Kabir Singh did that without any regular masala elements.
Unlike Animal, an action-drama, Kabir Singh doesn’t have a high dose of action or gore. The little singing which is there, is actually very realistic and beautiful without taking you out of the narrative. In fact, it’s very technically rich for a romantic drama. The camerawork, the metaphors, the sound editing and literally every technical aspect in this film is top notch.
The interval sequence has two really interesting examples: when Kabir injects himself, the volume of the song in the background slowly increases, indicating the drug (more like a tragic poison) has entered his body. When he pisses his pants while lying unconscious and the camera turns upside down, it means his life has turned upside down and he has no control over it. Then the title card flashes and we see a color mixing into the bright red text, implying the poison is in. Brilliant filmmaking.
It’s not like we are witnessing the story of a heartbroken lover boy for the first time; Bollywood already specializes in this and has churned out thousands of such films over the decades. Then what is it that makes Kabir Singh special?
Its no-filter approach to characters.
Kabir Rajdheer Singh is not your average politically correct romantic boy who thinks a hundred times before speaking. To be honest, I never hated his character the way the film’s haters did; I just felt he was too arrogant at times, and in the second half, I couldn’t help but pity him.
Yes, all that alcohol, cigarettes and drugs are harming him above anyone else. This is in fact a story about a broken man and the self-harm he subjects himself to. Kabir is hurting himself the most, and somehow we have to think about the visual grammar of misogyny glorification here? Absolute bs. Kabir doesn’t look cool doing any of those things. In fact, the more I see him smoke or drink, the more I feel motivated to stay away from these things which I’ve never even tried in my life.
The only things I’d actually want are his really cool sunglasses and maybe his Royal Enfield bike.
The acting in this film is so perfect that there’s hardly any flaw to pinpoint. Shahid Kapoor embodies Kabir so brilliantly that he has actually made many people hate him genuinely. It’s just that people got so stuck-up on that one slap that their inner feminist got activated, forgetting that this is a fictional film, not some snuff torture porn made by harming real people. It’s a government-approved film streaming legally on one of India’s biggest streaming platforms. Don’t feel ashamed of enjoying and recommending this film, especially if you are a cinephile.
Don’t let any feminist or arrogant women misguide you into viewing this film with their lens. It was never meant to be viewed like that. Just like I won’t bother with their cheesy female-focused rom-coms, they need to stay out of this film as well. This is something a man can relate to and understand the most.
Take Shiva for example. Kabir’s best buddy, he at times enables his behavior but this is an accurate depiction of men who are best friends in real life. I’ve myself seen many guys helping their best friends cheat in exams, even if they knew enabling bad behavior was also bad. They just related to their friend’s problem and didn’t want him to face it. That’s why it’s hard to get mad at Shiva for passing Kabir a cigarette even when the demand felt unwarranted.
It’s not like Preeti is some doormat either. She is portrayed as a quiet girl who finds her freedom and voice through Kabir’s outspoken and rebellious attitude. They are both equally crazy. She slaps him and everyone chuckles and treats it like the usual fights-between-couples-are-normal but not when Kabir does the same. Then it somehow becomes the most misogynistic film on the planet. Lol.
This is Kabir’s journey from a bad to good boy. He gives up smoking and drinking at the end. He refuses to live with the burden of lying, and even willingly sacrifices his career. Moreover when Preeti in college tells him the lecture was about upper thorax since Kabir had been giving her practical via drawings, he simply walks out. He doesn’t force her. In fact, the opening scene where a cheating woman pushes him and denies him the sex he was craving, he gets angry and points the knife at her in a fit of rage, but soon feels this is wrong anyway and leaves quietly.
But yeah, in today’s date, even talking about getting even with women is seen as actually trying to get even with them. We had a Tere Naam years before Kabir Singh with a somewhat similar topic. Yet it’s Kabir who fell prey to the feminist hogwash.
The response to this film proves that a lot of women and particularly feminists hate the idea of a man finding redemption, and that no one wants to fix a broken man. Neither in the movies, nor in the real life.
Let me cite an unusual example here: Endeavor from My Hero Academia is portrayed as a toxic and abusive dad who uses his family’s powers for his needs, but later repents it and comes close to dying several times in his quest for atonement. Sure, it doesn’t change what he has done but the fact that he wants to fix things shows the light is not gone. And that’s why I want him to win.
Of course, a lot of people hated that he was getting redeemed.
Same goes here. A lot of people have problem with Kabir getting redeemed at the end and wrongly label it as glorification. It’s even sadder to see established actors and other people make this judgment and shoehorn their usual feminism-is-needed bull over a fictional film catering to the male demographic. Yes, not everything has to appeal to everyone, and Vanga’s filmography is a sign of that.
Sadly, Indian viewers are too used to seeing cheesy love stories with the usual green-flag-fantasy which many women use to judge real men with.
I mean seriously, there are several reels telling men to not be like Kabir Singh, which is understandable, but instead to be like some other romantic film hero whose only traits highlighted in the reels are how he’s of use to the women.
Why should we learn anything at all from cinema?
As someone who wants to make movies, I have learned a lot from Vanga’s two films alone... about filmmaking. Yes, I’m definitely going to check out the original Arjun Reddy but Kabir Singh has just shown me this man is able to make dramas of any kind with perfection.
Vanga doesn’t owe anyone an explanation, and neither do his characters. He doesn’t spoon-feed, and that is what makes him unique. This is not a usual love story where the happy ending happens because it’s supposed to be that way. Kabir Singh would work even if it ended at the 150 minute mark, but what follows is a truly masterful final act and Vanga proves his meticulous skills at crafting character drama.
Finally, this film proves happy endings are earned, not written for everyone. The same Kabir who was being cocky before the intermission is a changed man in the climax. I couldn’t help but feel this poor man deserved to win. He’s not evil, just flawed — like many of us men who want that one woman to be with us.
Except that somehow makes us misogynists and the shining examples of toxic masculinity, an ultra-garbage feminist hate speech term.
There’s a reason this film became a super blockbuster according to Box Office India, even though the concept isn’t anything new. The execution is where the film shines, and makes me want to say what Vanga wished more people who just blindly hated the film in the name of feminism said instead:
I really loved the craft!