How Movies Normalise Things

Last night hubby and I watched Ranbir & Anil Kapoor's Animal.

It's the typical Indian movie fare: about the eldest son of the richest man in India who goes out of his way to protect his father (and his sisters), fighting hundreds of men with his bare hands & deployed the biggest gattling gun ever made (in India, no less).

Cut to the scene when he received a heart from a donor & fell in love (or lust) with the donor's fiancee, and eventually got involved in bedroom antics with her. IRONICALLY he had berated his cousins for employing escort services during their months away from their wives YET he keeps this woman in a secret location for his trysts. WTF. He acted holier than thou but is the devil himself. I suppose there'll be follow up scenes later on where he justified that his (new) heart beats for the fiancee, it is not his fault that it did because the heart did not belong to him but to her, the heart wants what it wants bla bla blaaaa... but I did not wait to see all that shit.

Hubby got upset because I accidentally turned off the TV. I just wanted to fast forward to the next scene but inherently turned the TV off (maybe my finger pressed the button that my heart wanted to press?) & said it was a stupid thing to be upset. 

Looks like I still get triggered with such scenes of extramarital affairs and infidelity. Men will be men, many claim its their right to exert power/ control over the wife and for Muslims, to marry more than 1. So be it. This morning I told hubby if ever he gets into such position, just give me a 30-day notice and I will be out of his life. We'll take it like an employment contract. EVERYBODY is dispensable. If things don't work out with hubby I will not remarry an Asian. Ever. Too many of our men are wired in chauvinism. If not him, it is his father or friend or worst, mothers and sisters. I just can't win. I had a friend whose father in law asked her husband to marry another woman because she cannot bear him a child. So blatantly was that said. To her face. Saying that she flipped was an understatement.

So with movies like Animal, it just doesn't help. Same with movies that glorify hedonism, or crime, or bad behaviour in general. Bringing the issues to the forefront is good, it makes people think. However glamorising them and saying that it's okay is JUST NOT COOL.