The Indian movie “Girlfriend†directed by Karan Razdan, produced by Paramjeet Baweja, and starring: Aashish Chowdhry, Isha Koppikar, and Amrita Arora, has caused outrageous protests and extremely negative criticizing as it’s considered to be the first movie of its kind in the history of Bollywood. The movie tells the story of two ladies who have been friends since childhood. As they grew up they became obsessed with each other, and even when a guy tries to approach one of them, the other lady does everything she can to stop that relationship from growing and to have her “sweetheart†only for herself.
Not only does the movie discuss an issue that is considered new and unwelcome in the Hindu culture: “lesbianismâ€, but it also shows hot and very intimate sexual scenes between the two ladies, which is also a taboo to most people -if not all- in India.
There have been protests in Varanasi, Mumbai, Bhubaneswar by Hindu rightwing activists, who say the film’s theme of alternate sexuality is against Indian culture. Even gay rights activists too have opposed “Girlfriend”, saying it is a warped, unrealistic take on lesbianism. Whereas the actress Isha Koppikar believes “Girlfriend†is a very real film, based on real situations”.
About the explicit love making sequence with Amrita Arora, Isha comments:”Frankly, when it came up I did feel uncomfortable about it. But I left the decision entirely to the director. You’ll have to ask him about the groans and moans.”
When it comes to me personally, I join the protesters, not only because I am not convinced that gay people are right and normal , but also because I am against any movie with explicit sexual behavior, whether it was straight or gay, because such movies either use sexual relationships to attract more viewers, i.e. a typical commercial kind of movie, or –in the case of “girlfriendâ€- to go where no body has gone before to prove courage, and the will to challenge social norms and traditions. Another reason could be just for the fun of making sexual oriented movies. Whether one of these reasons or any other I haven’t thought of, I believe showing such scenes and representing sexuality in that way is so wrong. It kills the privacy of such warm relationships, and makes them for sale and watching and not for bonding. It also misguide teenagers and takes advantage of their unstable, immature and sensitive feelings and desires, which are already on fire. Not to forget its awful disadvantage on the gatherings of families. It has become very hard for parents to go to the movies with their kids and vice versa. They have to go separately to avoid the embarrassment of such shameless movies.
I haven’t watched “Girlfriend†, so my opinion might not be based on solid background, yet from the website of the movie, I could tell what I read on the net about it being very “explicit†seems to be very true. As usual, some would go like: if you don’t like it, don’t watch it! And this is true, and I agree, because I’m mature enough, and I can tell what’s good and bad for me. But when are we going to stop thinking of ourselves and try for once to take into consideration those young people who can hardly tell what’s right from wrong, and who are easily influenced by such movies?! They wont ask their parents for company to a hot lesbian movie, which means the supervision of someone more mature who looks at things and their effects on the long run, would not be present, leaving these boiling piles of emotions and desires to be victims of cheap materialistic entertainment.
Anyway, our time is unfortunately full of such mistakes that will cost, or better say: which is already costing humanity more than it could take…
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Source: DeutscheWelle