Kabir Singh: A highly misunderstood piece of great cinema
Why do people tell stories? Are some stories better than others? Who decides which story is ‘worth’ telling?
I’m one of those who got ‘affected’ by the noise that surrounded the release of the ‘commercially-successful-but-critically-unaccepted’ film - Kabir Singh. Despite not believing in most of the ‘articles/opinions’ that came out, I let the film pass from right in front of me, without realizing what a great piece of cinema I was letting go. The opinions had got me enough to feel it’s ALRIGHT if I don’t watch this one.
It wasn’t.
Iconically played by Shahid Kapoor, the role of Kabir Singh is that of an ambitious surgeon who wears two gloves while performing a surgery, but has only one lens to look at the world from — his own. His anger isn’t a ‘rebel-without-a-cause’ types, but has a goal in itself — to ruin himself.
His presence in college is either regarded with a distant fear or reverence, nothing in between. That’s exactly what hooked me — he isn’t an in-the-middle sort of a guy! And why should he be? For him, to live, to love, and to die are his basic necessities and everything else is just reactions to them. He’s the topper who walks like he owns the college and the girl who has got him like a magnet to iron. And here, she’s the iron. However, it’s ironic to see how VERY misunderstood is Kiara’s role (details later).
Here is a man who isn’t scared of making mistakes in a society that doesn’t have space for imperfect people. He isn’t afraid of being judged or talked about, as he is on a journey. A journey that eventually leads him to a bliss one can only dream of. He lives life not for the sake of it, but to reach a place where he’s arms in arms with the woman he loves, alongside a beach, where everything is pristine white and there’s no room for darkness.
He has no regard for people who do things only ‘to show’ to the world. Hence, he cannot accept his family paying off a lawyer to get him out of a sticky situation, but CAN accept his medical license being suspended for five years. He doesn’t accept things that aren’t true that easily. In fact, he is willing to suffer to get to his own truth, rather than accept someone else’s truth, which many of us do, to live a ‘socially accepted’ life.
Kiara Advani, where do I even begin. What guts! To say yes to a role like this, which is so prone to being misinterpreted in a society that has started wearing labels like ‘feminism’ with an angry-sort-of a pride. A girl from a very very conservative family, she finds hope in Kabir. She knows he is one person who isn’t afraid of society, given his rebellious image. She finds it liberating. No, she finds it ‘real.’
Her silence conveys more than what’s written. Coming from a home that shuts their women, she has let the silence transform her into a woman who is capable of handling 9 months of pregnancy without family’s support and without the man whose child she’s bearing. She doesn’t accept what she doesn’t respect or believe in either. Here’s a match made in heaven and even Sima Taparia couldn’t have done a better job. Who says her character isn’t fleshed out or is weak? Are we so blinded by labels that we ignore what’s presented before us and take refuge in arguments that are smart-sounding?
Some people have said he didn’t deserve a happy ending. In my eyes, he’s THE one who truly deserved a happy ending. Kabir Singh is the story of a man so deeply consumed by himself, that even love couldn’t save him till he broke himself, for love to enter. And that’s the extent to which he goes, for LOVE. It’s also the story of a girl who is courageous enough to know this wreck-of-a-guy for who he truly is. Then, why don’t they deserve a happy ending?
We cannot just use labels like ‘misogynist’, ‘woman-abuser’, ‘alcoholic’ etc., to get away with our deep-rooted biases and judgments. We cannot look away from a story that’s telling us to look inside and find love for people who aren’t matching our biases. There is a reason why this film struck a chord with the people, the ‘masses’. And that’s because there are such people, such Kabirs, such Preetis, who suffer, who don’t want mediocrity, who are repressed in their homes but have a spirit of iron to get what they want. A life that’s full of happy endings and love. And we are no God to deny them that!
Not everyone has the courage of a Kabir or a Preeti to demand a happy ending. But the commercial success of this film shows how much we seek that courage, that hope.
Forever indebted to the director for telling his story with full conviction, love, and courage in a world that lives in fear.
