"A Playful Romance."
This is the disgusting, blame shifting response of a man who created a film in which the female lead's breasts and navel get more screentime than her face. A movie where a woman gets sexually assaulted in the dark by the "Hero". And then, when she's visibly traumatised and in need of help, she gets told that she can't report it to the police because her being seen as defiled would negatively affect her father's political career. This is a movie where the hero essentially says that his love language is molestation. This is a movie where the victim eventually falls in love with the assailant, in a disgusting reprisal of the "marry your rapist/assailant in order to restore your dignity" trope, because Indians think that the one who got assaulted is the one who is dirty and worthless.
Not the one who committed the crime.
I've been told by people that there's no greater proof of bad karma carrying on into a new life, than being born as an Indian woman. On most days, I disregard that statement. On other days, I wonder what I did to deserve to be punished.
This might seem to be an overreaction to a movie, but it's not about the movie.
It's about the fact that the director made the movie the way that he did, and was enabled, empowered and secure enough to do so.
It's about the fact that the lead actor, who holds all the power in this project, did nothing to protect the dignity of his co actor and continued to sing praises about the director throughout.
It's about the fact that this movie was made by a director and actor and production team of men, who all chose to hire someone accused of raping a child - a case that is currently sub judice - as the choreographer, and proudly claim that this person is a wonderful human being.
It's about the fact that the actress was forced to promote this movie under the threat of contractual obligation, despite the fact that she wanted to step away due to the offensive and degrading nature of the final cut of the movie.
It's about the fact that the CBFC deemed this movie appropriate for all ages, and the director and lead actor said it was a "family entertainer," asking people to bring their children to the theatre.
This is about the fact that when the sexual assault was playing out on screen, men in the audience were cheering.
This is an RRR/Rambheem blog, and this post is not directly related to that movie. However, there's a chance, however miniscule, that the small contribution I make to this fandom through my gifs and posts and writing, might lead someone to further explore Ram Charan's filmography. So I had to say something.
Please don't watch Peddi.
Please.
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