Are You The Victim Of Kabir Singh’s “Toxic Masculinity”? Here’s A Message For You To Read With Love

Ever since Kabir Singh has hit the cinemas, the title of the movie has become a synonym to “Toxic Masculinity”. Social media is abuzz with the word since May 21 and the reason is one and only.

Even I had reservations for the character of Kabir Singh when I first saw the trailer of the upcoming film. It was not something that I would love to see on a big screen or would admire as a friend. But, so what? If I don’t like someone, it doesn’t mean that the person shouldn’t exist. The same rule goes for cinema.

It’s a real cinema when it depicts the true picture of a society or a character through a story. And my problem with the negative campaign around Kabir Singh starts from here only. The character of Kabir Singh is flawed. It has issues of anger management, it’s misogynist (well, he has elements of a misogynist but has his heart at the right place). And here’s why I think Kabir Singh as a character doesn’t deserve the kind of negativity, it’s getting.

Those who have seen the film critically to find out the issues with it must have noted, Kabir’s behaviour in the following situations.

a) When college professor rebukes him in front of the class, he has a way to respond which can’t be considered indecent or unlikable.

b) The scene where he runs behind his maid, he is actually attempting to scare her and not beat her. The scene has been highly misinterpreted because Kabir was anyway capable to chase and confront her if he wanted to. It was just he didn’t want to do that and only intended to scare her.

c) Whenever he takes Preeti along with him, he never tries to take any benefit. Even when he is mentoring her in his hostel room, he behaves in a very decent way until his partner is interested to take the things to the next level.

Also a man with “high toxic masculinity trait” would’ve loved to boast about the private moments he and his partner shared. He doesn’t do it instead tries to keep the things subtle.

d) The scene where Preeti slaps him. If Kabir was a character totally out of his mind and with no respect for the women then he would’ve not tolerated it. Instead, he takes it in an extremely positive way and immediately apologise.

e) Kabir is also patient enough when he is insulted by Preeti’s dad for the first time. Even though the way he justifies kissing her at her home openly can’t be justified, the way he doesn’t lose his temper shows he is not bad at heart.