There exist films that aren’t worth watching even for the second time and then there is Main Hoon Na. It’s one of those I-grew-up-watching-this films. Nonetheless, we have our fair share of complaints with it. And the one that tops the list is Sanjana’s (Amrita Rao) ‘makeover’.
Though we agree she looked breathtakingly gorgeous in the post-makeover look too, what’s problematic is that it was specially done to charm the guy who dresses like a clown himself.
Time and again Bollywood has blatantly reminded us that women need to ‘look’ or as in this case, ‘become’ attractive for men to take them seriously. Otherwise, you are simply a ‘jhalli’.
Can Bollywood ever retire from reinforcing that in order to look attractive, girls must give up on chic crop tops, coloured headgears, kohled eyes and resort to donning sanskaari clothes?
Although Major Ram (Shahrukh Khan) was our major crush, he was also a certified hypocrite. Just after he reassures ‘tum jaisi bhi ho, khoobsurat ho,’ he takes her to Miss Chandani (Sushmita Sen) to turn Sanjana into her ‘with make-up’.
Dear Main Hoon Na, turning a badass chick into a sundar-sushil-sanskariladki is not how you define beauty. Having said that, there isn’t really any way beauty can ever be defined, let alone in any of your films.