The typical Indian ‘Damsel’

By: Shreyanshi Jha and Akshita Singh

“In the mirror of cinema it was us, some shouting for a different perspective and some for others. Lolita and Priti were just not characters to just let them pass by. It was for us to stop take a halt and think about it.” 

We must not disagree on the argument that movies are the reflection of the society. Movies represent the stereotypes that the society has made throughout the years and decades and Indian cinema is no exception. It has represented women as it has seen her over the decades. In this article we’re going to compare and link Lolita of Parineeta and Priti of Kabir Singh.

‘Priti’ of Kabir Singh and ‘Lolita’ of Parineeta

Both these girls in the picture have been depicted as the ‘ideal’ or ‘pure’ girl. Both are sweet, selfless, loving, caring, beautiful, intelligent, helpless and accepted a slap from the love of their lives without uttering a single word. They both expected others to understand them. Now many will ask it was just a slap, what’s the issue? Let me tell you friends privilege has taken up all your mind and equality for you is now a source of chaos.

Let’s just connect both the stories, Love story of Shekhar and Lolita seems a colonial background one perhaps before the independence. Shekhar (Saif Ali Khan) and Lolita (Vidya Balan) became friends when Lolita comes to live with her relatives after her parent’s death in a fatal accident. Shekhar gave his locker’s keys to Lolita and says, “Tumhe jitne paise chahiye ho yaha se le lena, Kabhi puchna nhi na batana, Kisi aur ke saamne haath mat failana” (whatever amount of money you want to have, you can take it from here, you need not to ask anybody about anything). They both fell in love with each other unknowingly. Shekhar gave her keys of his locker but what he held up tight and couldn’t afford to give was his trust. 

Despite their friendship he doubts Lolita due to his insecurities regarding Girish (Sanjay Dutt). There’s no doubt that Shekhar loved Lolita but his ambience made him believe that Lolita is setting a trap and just using all the men around her to escape her economic uncertainties. 

Shekhar was a young angry men, possessive for Lolita. But wait Shekhar’s portrayal is what we have seen over the years and what the patriarchal society has generalized. See the fate many girls also embrace possessiveness with love. That ‘slap moment’ may sound normal to many . Let’s for a moment leave the ‘Parineeta’ story here and link it with ‘Kabir Singh’. 

Kabir Singh is the love story of current times. Love story that revolves around the DU Campuses and hostels. Some people might have lot of objections on the portrayal of Kabir Singh (Shahid Kapoor) and some would be having on Priti (Kiara Advani) and lot of people must have enjoyed the movie. This movie despite the colours of love shows several distasteful and confusing things which are unrespectable and sometimes puzzling. So, Kabir Singh is a violent to be doctor who is exceptionally well in his academics but in order to tackle situations gracefully (peacefully) he behaves like an aggressor and a doctor must accept calmness as one of their trait. People enjoyed his violent behavior with whistles. He falls in love with Priti, a silent, lovely looking and cute girl, it was kind of love at first sight. Priti who seems to be a girl who has cleared her medical entrance with a top rank reacts nothing when she’s been kissed by Kabir at the same time when boys of other college throws colour on her in an inappropriate manner she along with Kabir retaliates. 

Up to the representation of Priti, she’s the most ideal girl for many boys(not all). She’s silent, pious to her boyfriend, selfless, intelligent (only in academics), and doesn’t retaliate when she’s been abused or slapped. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_Hqqv4hmop/?igshid=1ozszwf13qh8t

Let’s connect both the stories now, both the girls responds nothing in response when it comes to retaliate against the slap. The story after the slap is quite similar in both the movies. Lolita doesn’t explains herself to Shekhar possibly she couldn’t bear that Shekhar the love of her life has said such words and slapped her whereas Priti after slap comes to Kabir’s house to make everything clear but Kabir was extremely high and they couldn’t meet as a result Priti’s parents marry her with a husband of their choice. I remember a Hindi Bollywood song at this moment, “Tujhe yaaad na meri aayi Kisi se ab kya kehna”. Both of the girls prove once, if the man of your life loses trust on you your life becomes hell. Lolita like a devout lover waits for Shekhar to come and stop her from going to abroad and Priti even after becoming pregnant waits with her firm believe that one day Kabir will come searching her and he’ll apologize and everything would be like a typical Bollywood ‘happy ending’. And exactly the same happens, I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean perhaps that true love always wins, if you once have loved someone with soul and heart your love will not stab you and will come to you but all these things seems misleading to us. 

For a moment, The Kabir Singh ending could seem happy but it leaves audience with a suspicion whether they would be happy for the rest of their lives. Parineeta’s ending leaves audience with a question, ‘could Lolita ever be able to forgive Shekhar and his father of whatever they said to her?’ Possibly, yes, both of the stories have the same message at the end; however you as a woman have suffered you must forgive people when they come to you to normalize things. 

The characters are beautiful in their nature; they had all the feminine traits except the retaliation. They must have retaliated when they were hurt by those who were supposed to support them. Love is not meant to confine one but to liberate the soul from all sorts of confinements. Lolita and Priti throughout their lives hankered for ‘love’ and found it in Shekhar and Kabir respectively. Every love story is amazing till it turns violent, violence in any terms should be unrespectable whether boy or girl one must retaliate when he/she faces such thing. Love is not meant to hurt someone and after some time come and make everything clear. This image cannot represent love.

At last “Imprisonment in love is not actually love. Love has to be like the calm flow of sea and not surging sea. If it doesn’t releases you from your insecurities in spite of it trap you more in your insecurities than just come out of it.”