I love Salman Khan's movies; the problem is something else: a feminist speaks

Editor’s note: The Gujarat High Court will pronounce its verdict in a PIL against Salman Khan for “lowering the dignity of women” through his now infamous rape remark, on 13 July, Wednesday. The petitioner Aaditya Raval told the court that Salman’s comment on ‘feeling like a raped woman’ was a “violation of women’s right to live with dignity”.

For the longest time I kept quiet. I decided against the idea of adding more to the never ending avalanche of opinions regarding Salman Khan’s rape remark, which I thought was so overdone. His remark seemed trivial to me because I was so preoccupied with detecting inherent sexism and misogyny in few other avatars of God — the saviour of human kind, Narendra Modi for example or fighting sexism within my own family.

I was particularly calm and convinced that I don’t have anything more to add after reading what Kavita Krishnan said on the matter. She observed that inherent sexism/rape jokes should be condemned by each one of us every day at every social or family gathering every time they occur.

I tried doing so few days ago in my own family and was brutally shown a virtual middle finger. Last week at a friend’s place, while discussing the condition of a smart phone a mutual male friend said, “Tumne to iska rape kar diya na (You have raped it).” None of my other friends laughed at it, but they didn’t condemn it either. I myself pretended to not hear it because I am not on talking terms with this person for over 10 years now, so wanted to avoid confrontation. Later when I discussed the matter over a group chat (of which this guy is not a part), all my friends agreed that society should not silently tolerate such remark. Well, then why didn’t you speak up at the spot?

It is time we start setting our priorities right in our daily dose of outrage. Outrage against Salman Khan but no outrage against Modi when he said some of the worst things about women in his Gold scheme launch last year, why? Why was there no outrage against the ‘balatkar pe balatkar’ joke in 3 Idiots? Or when Akshay Kumar mouthed the dialogue “Tawaif ki lutti izzat bachana aur tees maar khan ko qaid karna dono bekaar hai” (to save the hounour of a prostitute being raped and to try to arrest Tees Maar Khan, both are useless)? Why no outrage agaisnt Kapil Sharma’s sexist jokes night after night?

Making Salman Khan a target is rather too easy, he has a history of it, he almost asks for it. Every Tom, Dick and Harry therefore is now fuming over Salman Khan and fancy identifying themselves as some great patron of feminism. But over half of them missed the plot when they assumed that this problem is about Salman Khan. One of them goes, Salman Khan you are bad, because your movies are bad, T-shirt is bad, NGO is bad, you can’t act, can’t dance, can’t speak. You have no talent, why are you successful, why your fans love you is beyond me, God only bless them. Another suggests smart people should boycott Salman Khan films because he is a talentless spoilt brat who reached where he is because of his connections.

Thank you very much you patrons, who got feminism horribly wrong, now listen to what this feminist has to say. Feminism argues that professional excellence is no proof that you understand and are sensitive towards gender issues. You may be a brilliant scientist or artist or film maker or actor, you can still be a sexist pig. And when you are, we feminist would call you that, without necessarily trashing your work just because now we hate you.

Salman Khan is a movie star and he is damn good at it. He is delicious to look at the same way that a steak and kidney pie is delicious. For over 30 years he has entertained millions of us with his work. That intense man from Khamoshi, that handsome heartthrob from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, that hilarious twit from Andaz Apna Apna or Judwa or Partner, that sweet ordinary man from Bajrangi Bhaijan, that unfailing lover from Tere Naam and that eternal friend-cum-lover from _Maine Pyaar Kiya…_I can go on. His bizarre dance moves, his fashion sense, his smile, his eyes, his body, everything is worth admiration and consumption. Do not patronise the fans by saying we do not know what we are consuming.

Salman Khan should be condemned not because his films are bad or he is a talent-less prick, rather he should be condemned in spite of his great body of work and a successful career contributing to the Mumbai film industry. Professional excellence does not mitigate violence and abuse and vice versa. Trashing somebody’s professional work without any nuance because of something he said or did in his personal life only suggests that professional excellence by default means one cannot possibly do no harm. Men with great professional excellence like RK Pachauri, Roman Polanski, Woody Allen, Tarun Tejpal have clearly shown us that is not the case.

It is important that we learn to distinguish Salman Khan’s professional and personal fields, acknowledge the professional success (if not excellence) and condemn the personal.

Alternatively, maybe we should start trashing the work of Woody Allen. Oh and add Gulzar to that list. And Pandit Ravi Shankar.