Karan Johar’s Meenakshi Sundareshwar recently released on Netflix. The film stars Sanya Malhotra and Abhimanyu Dassani in the lead roles. But ever since the trailer of the movie released, people haven’t been happy about the casting, language, portrayal of Tamil culture, among other things.
Perpetuation of stereotypes against Tamils is one of the major concerns raised by people because the film is full of them.
But that’s not it. After the watching the movie, I realised that it managed to stereotype other things as well. Like,
1. Everyone from the northeast knows how to play guitar.
2. Engineers are committed to their relationships.
3. Engineers can figure out how to solve a problem if you tell them the answer.
4. Marriage diverges your focus and only singles can perform better at work.
5. Daughter-in-law, if educated, should be ready to tutor other kids in the family even if it means giving up a job opportunity.
6. A married woman cannot accept gifts from her male friends.
7. Long-distance relationships always involve one of the partners cheating on the other.
8. Good software engineers do not have interest in movies, alcohol, books, etc. They are just into coding and want to do only coding all their life.
9. Dentists are not doctors.
10. If someone is not able to find a job after engineering, means that they are fools.
11. The bride’s parents are supposed to give vessels and utensils in marriage.
As if the Tamil stereotypes weren’t enough, the movie showed and gave encouragement to so many more regressive ones.