Finally saw the song, ‘Besharam Rang’, because (1) I wanted to know what the brouhaha was about, and (2) it is impossible to avoid seeing that thing if one isn’t literally blind on today’s Indian social media.
Now, while I fully support the creator’s right to make crap, whatever colour he wants it in, the actors to wear (or not) whatever they want, and every artist to do whatever it is they are doing in that sequence, this is testing my liberal credentials as I find myself (at least in action, if not in principle) in agreement with the RW trolls who are unable to unsee it: Kya chootiyapaa hai!
This is a song???? That’s dance???? Saaraa paisa kyaa abs banaane mein kharcha kar diya? Music, choreography, poetry, costumes, cinematography, editing ke liye kuchh nahi bachaayaa kya re? What a bloody eye (and ear) sore!
Knowing, of course, my track record of never being able to know the pulse of the Indian audience, I can rest assured that this song will be a massive hit in due course, forcing me to listen to it everywhere soon.
As an aside, I discovered while researching for this post that “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” was actually Voltaire’s biographer, Evelyn Beatrice Hall, paraphrasing him, and not the 18th-century philosopher himself.
P.S.: I love SRK as a human, a family man, and an entertainer & performer. I am not so sure about his acting skills.
P.P.S.: I do NOT mean to position myself as an arbiter of taste nor wish to dictate what art anyone should make or participate in. All I wish to state by this post is that I found that particular song and its picturisation hideous and cringey. But that said, I do not wish to impose my taste on anyone, nor ban nor boycott anyone’s art because I find it distasteful personally. Indeed, and other far smarter than I have said this enough times: free speech is the freedom to say things that are not palatable or agreeable to the majority, or are opposed to the official position of the establishment. All else is simply propaganda.
