I Didn’t Like Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2, And Not Because I’M A Feminist

A woman writes why she did not like “Pyaar Ka Punchnaama 2” and no, it’s not because she is a feminist, the problem lies in the film itself.

I know that even though I may sound right, every man who has seen ‘Pyar Ka Punchnama 2’ and empathizes with it, will definitely hush my thoughts away with a well-misunderstood ‘kyunki woh ladki hai’. Haan, main ladki hu. But, that is not the reason I think that PKP2 is at best an average one-time-watch movie. And, even though I’m a girl, that is not a reason that I won’t appreciate cool cinema that comes once in a while in a year of stereotypical romances and meaningless car chases. And, the first part Pyar Ka Punchnama was exactly that.

PKP1 was funny, different, and most of all relatable. Every Bollywood naach-gaana-drama movie has at some point exploited the fantasies of Mango People. So, we saw boys and girls barely out of school exchanging love vows, or getting married even when there was nothing common between them, or guys stalking a girl and singing creepy lecherous songs while she, for some insane reason, danced shaking everything she had.

I could totally see the movie characters as people I meet every day. The characters were real, not good or bad, just real.

I could totally see the movie characters as people I meet every day. The characters were real, not good or bad, just real. They had their flaws and quirks. The movie was never an attack on anyone, not at all on feminism. Everyone is allowed to have an opinion and if a guy is actually suffering in a relationship, I don’t see why he won’t want to curse women. I’ve seen women do it all the time. Of course, neither gender is filled with narcissist idiots, but it’s the male end that is normally pointed at. The movie definitely empathized with men in bad relationships and while men are usually the dominant partners in relationships, it’s not a myth that men never suffer in relationships.

One can see the parabolic nature of relationships of the three protagonists, the part when they were happy and when they were not comfortable with the relationship at all. And, if they did suffer, then it’s not murder to want to come out of that kind of poisonous relationships. Not everyone can get a sunshine ending. And, that is exactly the reason the movie can never be thought of as generalizing how EVERY relationship is.

And, everything that PKP1 had, PKP2 lacks in. You know the relationship is going downhill from the very start. You know that there is no chance of survival. And, that is what actually bugs me, the guys more or less saw it in the beginning that something was wrong with the girls, or, if we were to refer the feminism that Bollywood actresses often misinterpret and make it sound like it were some sort of men-bashing-bra-burning-lesbian-cult, I would say that the guys realized they couldn’t deal with the girls who shouldn’t have changed themselves for sake of love.

Point is, men are capable of realizing and if they don’t, they usually get a hunch, that a certain woman is not compatible with them, then why they continue to be in that relationship when they are not that comfortable. Is the fear of loneliness (read not getting sex) so much greater than the fear of heartbreak, that the guy is ready to bear with it all. I mean there is not even the first good happy part, usually called the honeymoon period, of the relationship in the movie. Even Taylor Swift had that in Blank Space, and she totally nailed the crazy girlfriend thing, on a completely unrelated topic which I can’t help but point out, or maybe it is related.

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And, the rant which had the guys cheering and waving their T-shirts around in the theatres. No doubt the rant is funny, instead of being heart-breaking sad, which I am not sure is the response the makers were hoping for, as the movie is supposed to be about how men get oppressed. Or even the makers are mocking the characters, which is the reason the scene turns out to be funny. But, certainly I wouldn’t hold this movie in a bright light if I were fighting for men’s issues.

And, yes, I do agree that you have to work to make a relationship work, but I would do so under a general assumption that you must be feeling happy in that relationship, otherwise why you would invest your heart and soul in it.

And, yes, I do agree that you have to work to make a relationship work, but I would do so under a general assumption that you must be feeling happy in that relationship, otherwise why you would invest your heart and soul in it. But, that is the thing you never see these men happy in their respective relationship, except for a few tardy songs which don’t do anything for the story but of course the naach-gaana-drama must go on, and that makes me wonder what the attraction was. For some reason, I don’t think it was sex. But, since we are talking about men, we can never know. And, I’m not saying this because I’m generalizing men as creatures who don’t think anything apart from sex, but because I’m a woman and seriously I can’t empathize with guys who scream beware but don’t get rid of the problem.
Another thing you would notice but wouldn’t care about is that of them had any real conversation before they ‘decided’ to fall in love with each other. Because that’s how Bollywood works. Wham, bam, I’m-in-love with- you-even-though-I-don’t –think-there-is-anything-common-between-us –and-since-we-won’t-have-anything-to talk-about-we’ll-make-out-a-lot.

If I were to go by the literal meaning of word Punchnama (it’s postmortem BTW), I don’t think there was any pyaar in the first place. Which was totally the point of the first movie, but this one is all about women-are-bitches. PKP, both parts, are about relationships where men suffer, there is nothing anti-feminist in there. However, to interpret that all women are made out of molds of Kusum, Chiku and Supriya, it would be stupidity on a completely new dimension.

No doubt, women are usually the end that gets to bear the brunt of the relationship. The male ego, numerous stereotypes and all the good-girl-bakwaas. And, while I say this, the movie memes are doing the rounds all over with men joking around that the movie shows everything and saying the reason his girlfriend fights with him for wearing the same soiled underwear for a week is ‘ki who ladki hai’.

Cover image via Facebook

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