Tag: entertainment

Renowned screenwriter and director Khalilur Rehman Qamar has come under fire for saying that “women should rape men if they want equality”, while netizens call him out over misogyny, which they say, has always been key to his characters and stories.

“A few weeks ago, a feminist group had a conversation with me regarding equality. I asked them if they’ve ever heard about a gang of men kidnapping a woman? They assured me they have. I asked them then why don’t women do the same?” Qamar, whose recent offering “Mere Pass Tum Ho” revolves around a woman who’s willing to overlook her affectionate husband for a man who’s richer, said in a recent interview.

“If you wish to strive for equality then kidnap men as well. Rob a bus, gang rape a man, so that I can understand what you [women] mean by equality.”

Defending his ideas and “philosophy” around how he sees society, Qamar said that “Mere Pass Tum Ho” was “the story of several men, not just one”.

“I have come across multiple married couples who go through the same ordeal. I’ve observed when a married woman cheats, she doesn’t feel ashamed at all. The reason behind her not feeling guilty is because she has been backed by another man. When an unmarried woman cheats, she feels guilty.”

Khalil ur Rehman Qamar is a proper misogynist. He claims that when a woman cheats she’s very confident.

What world does he live in? In the subcontinent where women are killed in the name of mere suspicion over character, he has the audacity to believe this.

Ridic.

— Mahwash Ajaz (@mahwashajaz_) October 30, 2019

“But when a married man betrays his wife, he feels guilty. He feels embarrassed.” Qamar then also asserted that women should not criticise “Mere Pass Tum Ho” because women themselves have ridiculed men.

“I’m only narrating this story in your [women’s] favour. Like it or not, I don’t call every woman a woman. To me, the only beautiful trait a woman can possess is her loyalty and her modesty. If a woman isn’t loyal then she is not a woman. Register an FIR against me for if you don’t subscribe to my point of view but I won’t budge.”

He was shady since the begining. A stereotypical desi man. Even punjab nahi jaungi was full of misogynistic scenes and dialogues. Idk why people appreciated him so much.

— ibad // (@isyedibad) October 30, 2019

“Get someone to try me under #MeToo, I won’t care about that either. But I won’t be able to call every woman a woman. That simply isn’t true for me,” he said.

“A man leaves all his honour, his self-esteem with his wife when he goes out to earn a living. And I curse those women who violate that trust. That was the concept behind Mere Pass Tum Ho and so I’m fighting for the ‘good women’. It would be unfair to these [good] women to be classified along with those who aren’t loyal.”

He then mockingly said that men have hijacked women’s rights so cleverly that women don’t really understand what their actual rights are. “Rather than figuring out your own rights, you’re only asking your part from men’s rights. That’s never going to happen!” he said. “The most one of these feminist groups can do is chant slogans against me, tweet a few thousand tweets but that’s it! Women can’t do anything else.”

The fact that the film shows Mehwish Hayat falling for Humayun when he says “main itni zameen aapko dunga.. Wo desakta hai kya?” is enough to understand the writer’s mindset

— Syed Zain Raza (@SydZainRaza) October 31, 2019

Qamar believed that if women were to challenge men, the whole society will collapse.

“I was once in conversation with Sultana Siddiqui, and she asked me, ‘Khalil, why don’t you write anything against men?’ I asked her what should I write about men? Should I abuse him? I would, but then what? She said, ‘What do you mean? Even men remarry and indulge in extramarital affairs. Why do you choose to be so selective?’ I just had one question in response, ‘But with whom? A woman, right?’”

According to Qamar, if a woman learns to say no to men, then men won’t be tempted to have an extramarital affair.

When the host finally intervened and made a point about how loyalty should be exercise by both the man and the woman, Qamar replied, “You have to understand this philosophy. A wife is worried about what? Another woman. That other woman isn’t a man. So riddle me this: you are destroying a man and you’re the one who’s complaining about it as well.”

He concluded by saying, “A man cannot say no. He just can’t. A good woman can.”

I can’t help worrying about Shah Rukh’s health. Can a damaged spine send wrong signals to the brain?

Ever since I suffered a back injury a few years ago, I have been deeply interested in the functioning of the spinal cord. Especially, of celebrities I admire.

Shah Rukh Khan, the Badshah of Bollywood, headlines my list. For years, I have been closely following details of his knee, shoulder and back injuries and his pain management technique(s). I admire his ability to endure excruciating pain with a chuckle.

I have seen pictures of him walking away wearing his characteristic dimpled smile after surgical procedures as I sat around worried about being rendered spineless, at least literally if not metaphorically.

My hero, going strong on the other side of 50, has continued to stun me with real-life lessons on how to survive successfully with pain in the spine. Just a few years ago, he won a million more fans, and me all over, when he articulated his angst against the growing intolerance in India. “…religious intolerance and not being secular… is the worst kind of crime that you can do as a patriot,” he was quoted as saying by the media back then.

This Shashi Tharoor of Bollywood has cast a spell on almost everyone with his insights on such soul-stirring issues and more. However, his latest lesson – batting for a totally spine-free existence – has left me stumped.

Earlier this week, a much haggard version of Shah Rukh was seen taking a selfie with the prime minister (PM) of India, Narendra Modi, to commemorate the 150^th anniversary of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, at an event called #ChangeWithin.

The resultant candid shot, Shah Rukh smiling ear-to-ear, along with another famous Khan of Bollywood, Aamir Khan, was telling of the early onset of degenerative and, perhaps, irreversible changes in Shah Rukh’s spine.

Eloquence has been Khan’s constant companion right from the days when he had an impeccable spine. “Thank u @narendramodi for hosting us & having such an open discussion on #ChangeWithin & the role artistes can play in spreading awareness of the msgs of The Mahatma. Also, the idea of a University of Cinema is extremely opportune!” he later tweeted.

That’s the #ChangeWithin, if you like.

And, now I can’t help worrying about Shah Rukh’s health. Who would have thought that the many expensive surgical interventions would not have helped his nerves behave better? I know that messages are sent from the brain through the spinal cord to the different parts of the body, but I am left wondering if the reverse is true too? Can a damaged spine send wrong signals to the brain? Or do brain cells, at the tail end of their life, only send signals to parts of the body that are able to decode words that are spelling variants of the word money?  

Which brings me to the curious case of the other Khan of Bollywood I admire – Aamir. The man who has long exemplified Mahatma Gandhi’s three monkeys – hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil. His larger-than-life image, thanks to his choice of films and his association with social issues (spoke out against the Gujarat genocide of 2002), was bolstered by his flagship television show a few years ago “Satyameva Jayate” (Truth Shall Prevail).

Aamir raised issues that are usually brushed under the carpet and exposed India’s hypocrisy. He talked about LGBT rights and honour killings, and there was an hour-long episode on elections and corruption. That Aamir posed with the PM barely hours before Maharashtra state was to go to polls may be a coincidence, but what wasn’t was that he was also smiling through an increasingly intolerant India he expressed shock at a few years ago. An India where lynching of minorities is no longer news.

In a film called “Ghajini”, Aamir plays a tycoon suffering from acute short-term memory loss and he does everything possible to preserve that memory. In real-life, Aamir, the tycoon, seems to be suffering from long-term memory loss. A messed up nervous system?

This brings me to the third Khan of Bollywood – who rules hearts, owns roads and also a clothing line called Being Human. I was never a fan of Salman. I always dismissed him as an overgrown kid whose nervous system liked sending wrong messages to his body all the time — kill wildlife, run over pedestrians, punch women.

However, in this vicious circle of pain called Khans, I would vote for a familiar pain near the spine. Let’s call it Salmanitis.