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Busting gender stereotypes with Kaalkoot
Updated On: 01 August, 2023 07:35 AM IST | Mumbai | Letty Mariam Abraham
With Vijay Varma playing an unassertive cop in Kaalkoot, director Saxena and sexuality educator Vatsalya discuss how the show challenges gender roles and toxic masculinity
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Vijay Varma and Suzanna Mukherjee in Kaalkoot
In a scene in Kaalkoot, we see Vijay Varma’s character, cop Ravi Shankar Tripathi, climbing a wobbly ladder, tentatively and hesitantly. His fear is only heightened by his boss, who hollers at him from below. Moments later, a junior cop climbs up the ladder swiftly, while Ravi is mocked for his inability to perform the task. The humiliation is repeated in another instance when he is unable to stand up to his boss in a game of badminton. Through these little snippets, Kaalkoot presents a meek, hesitant and quiet-mannered protagonist. And fortunately, a new gaze through which to look at a ‘hero’.
“When Kabir Singh [2019] released, it was lambasted for romanticising toxic male behaviour. But there was another film, Bareilly Ki Barfi [2017], which wanted the audience to laugh at Rajkummar Rao’s character for not being ‘masculine’ enough. Now, if that is the kind of clown you create, then Kabir Singh is the kind of hero you will get. What we have tried to do in our show in the initial bits—when he looks unassertive, unambitious, and lost—is that we empathised with him,” begins writer-director Sumit Saxena.
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