Kabir Singh _ Full Movie (4K) _ Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani _ Sandeep Reddy Vanga

The character Kabir Singh, or Arjun Reddy for that matter, is basically an updated Devdas, a loser in love, with additional anger management issues, who hits the bottle at the drop of the hat. There’s even a Chunni babu in his life in the form of bestie Shiva who keeps coming to his rescue and appears to have no life whatsoever of his own. In fact not a single character in the apology of a script — from his college principal to the family to the hospital staff — seems to have any raison d’etre other than pandering needlessly to a man, who, instead of any sympathy or indulgence for his “troubled” mind needs some serious treatment and therapy to control the inherent noxiousness he is spreading in the world around him. The entire arc of the film is to somehow make his negativity attractive, explain it away as “unconventional” and have him find redemption despite his unforgivable ways. Well, he is a genius at everything after all, even at performing surgeries when he is sloshed and coked out.

Having watched and balked at Arjun Reddy for its celebration of a misogynistic, infantile bully of a hero, Kabir Singh felt like a doubly suffocating experience. One that makes you feel violated. Devdas at least had the headstrong Paro and graceful Chandramukhi, two beholden women alright but with personalities of their own, to bring some sense of balance to the man-woman game. Here the woman is denied any agency whatsoever. She is a property, marked and owned by the man. She will meekly follow him wherever he takes her, eyes always down, is masochistic in allowing herself to bear with his violent ways. While the soulful ditty in the background plays “tujhpe hi to mera haq hai (I have the right on you)”. He is the protector and the saviour.