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Recently Alia Bhatt made her music video debut with the Prada song by Lamborghini fame ‘The Doorbeen’. The song is catchy but the lyrics try to establish women as ‘gold diggers’.
There is no denying the fact that movies, television, and songs do effect our mentality and even shape our decisions. The prime example is girls getting ‘eve-teased’ with songs like ‘laal duppate wali, kaddu katega’ and whatnot. But we groove to these songs happily because they are catchy.
One such recent example is the Prada song by Lamborghini fame The Doorbeen, featuring Alia Bhatt.
The song that was released on 13th August 2019 already has 19M views on YouTube. It is all over the internet for its peppy tune, the beautiful Alia Bhatt, and even the dance. Everyone is talking about it. Now what’s problematic here is that no one is talking about the lyrics.
In Prada, Alia has a line ‘aaj kar lai tu vaada pehla leke de Prada nai taan duro duro takda rahi main hor koyi labh loon tu ja’
This roughly translates to “Promise to get me a Prada bag (a luxury brand famous for its bags) or else stay away from me, and I’ll just find someone else for myself.”
Like seriously? Because we all need Pradas and that’s why we get into relationships, right? I mean we don’t know how to buy Prada bags and other expensive stuff on our own, because obviously, we don’t have a sense self-worth right?
The song doesn’t stop here; the male lyrics are: ‘Karti meri jeb tu khaali, God damn list teri badhti hi jaandi Kar reham thodi kar meri fikar Aivein chhoti chhoti gallan pichhe ladeya na kar’
Which translates to “Oh Girl! Your expenses are increasing day by day. Your demands are increasing day by day. I have to bear the cost of everything. Please spare me from your expenses, and don’t fight on such small issues.”
Because obviously women can’t buy anything on their own. Materialistic things are what they fight for in relationships. Because we all know that women don’t know how to love; they just run after money right?
I mean, when will looking at women as ‘materialistic people who run after money’ stop? Why do we have women asking for things in so many songs?
If you are wondering if labelling women as ‘gold diggers’ in songs is something new then you are mistaken.
Amitabh Bachchan’s movie Sharaabi has a song ‘Mujhe Nau Lakha Manga De Na Oo Saiyaan Diwane’. It’s the same thing like ‘Prada’, just that over there the lady was asking for a ‘Naulakha Haar’ and now the lady is asking for a Prada bag. Society has become modern, but the ideologies are still the same!!
Songs like Chittiyaan Kalaiyaan from the movie Roy, Naah by Hardy Sandhu and Paisa Paisa Karti hai from De Dana Dan are no different. All these songs have women shown as materialistic, and will only love or feel for someone if they get expensive gifts.
The question I’d like to ask is, “Why is a woman, who is self-sufficient in every manner, shown compelled to ask a man to get her something in exchange for her feelings and affection?”
Apart from that, all these songs star big names like Jacqueline Fernandez, Nora Fatehi, Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt. I have personally loved Alia for her strong women performances in Highway, Udta Punjab, Dear Zindagi and Raazi. But her recent choices of ‘Prada’ and ‘Hook-up Song’ have made me feel a little disappointed.
Songs like this one are still coming into the market, topping the charts, and have all of us groove to them. It makes me question, what are we teaching our kids in name of ‘pop culture’?
Image source: promos
I read, I write, I dream and search for the silver lining in my life. Being a student of mass communication with literature and political science I love writing about things that bother me. Follow read more...
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