Trolling Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for kissing her daughter is symptomatic of the prudery that grips Indians

Little did Aishwarya Rai Bachchan know that one innocent kiss on her daughter’s lips would land her in a soup…that is if you are one of those who takes social media seriously. If not then you can happily laugh at these pitiable attempts to pull down celebrities in their moment of spontaneous joy. What beats me is the sheer malignancy of the hypocritical element in our societal structure. You ridicule those whom you can never reach, and you find new ways of getting at them to grab their attention. Celebrities are hooted for clothes that they wear, or rather what they don’t wear. Actresses are called shameless for wearing clothes that do not fit conservative definitions. Now the same is being done to celebrities for their social behaviour. Since when has kissing your child become unacceptable behaviour? Is it the lip factor that bothers the moralists? But isn’t that entirely a matter of personal choice? If the mother and the child, or for that matter any parents and the child, are comfortable with a lip kiss, how is it your business? Why are you making it your business? Liplocks continue to be a big deal in our country. The jury is still out on the length of Aamir Khan’s kiss in Dharmesh Darshan’s Raja Hindustani. There are many myths regarding this marathon kiss in Darshan’s blockbuster. Firstly, it was widely believed that Karisma Kapoor didn’t want to do the liplock. But Aamir was all for it. Because the film demanded it, of course. What did you think? That Aamir likes to kiss his heroines? Nah! It is just the call of duty.

It is a sheer chance that role after role has ‘demanded’ a kiss from Aamir with his co-star in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, Dil Hai Ki Manta Nahin, Dil, etc etc. The list is long and endless. The point is, an actor like Aamir makes a big deal about kissing his heroines. Unless actors stop talking about it, the public will continue to make a big deal of the kiss. Incidentally Aamir’s colleagues Salman and Shah Rukh do not kiss on screen as a policy, although SRK did make an exception in Yash Chopra’s Jab Tak Hai Jaan. If a romantic on screen kiss can generate so much debate for decades, a filial peck in real life is treated with no less sardonicism. Long back, when Mahesh Bhatt had kissed his daughter Pooja on the lips, all hell had broken loose. Mahesh faced even worse criticism for the kiss, since it was a male parent kissing a daughter. They called him a pervert. They are calling Aishwarya shameless only. She should be grateful. Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .