The poster of Half Girlfriend is out and while I could careless about the movie or its director, Mohit Suri’s explanation over a major change in the female characters portrayal in the movie is really bugging me the wrong way.
So basically, the Chetan Bhagat written novel has been adapted for the movie with the same name and will star Shraddha Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor.
Side note, I think Arjun Kapoor has just reserved a role in all Chetan Bhagat book adaptation movies.
Okay, coming back on track but, according to the story in the novel, the lead female character of Riya was a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of her father as a child.
Now, I was anyways confused over the casting, the decision by director Mohit Suri to do away with this one aspect of the character from the film is just baffling on so many levels, not the least being his justification for doing so.
Why You Do So Mohit Suri?
In an interview, Suri was quoted as saying that, “While Riya has some dark family secrets, they are not related to sexual abuse. I have moved out of that dark, sexual zone completely. I wanted it to be more of a love story and to deal with contemporary social issues relatable to women.”
He then proceeded to explain this decision that since he himself is a father to a daughter it has prompted him to be more socially conscious.
Um… okay, so according to you being socially conscious is just removing any mention or focus to the very real and traumatic problems that women and children are facing in today’s time?
Mr. Director, you do realise that sexual abuse and with children especially is a very real thing that people of our country have to suffer through.
And instead of bringing that to notice with a big budget and commercial film and showing its consequences and how completely it can alter a person, you just want to create an idealistic world where such ‘bad things’ do not happen.
To Think Half Girlfriend Might Just Have Had Some Plot To It
Adding in such a dark and crucial plotline to the film could have probably added a bit of gravitas and realism to, and I’m assuming here, a very superficial rom-com that adds nothing to our life and society.
Just erasing Riya’s past like that and that too something that could have given her character in the film some much-needed depth is not just an insult to victims of child abuse but also reducing a to-be good movie to a common masala film.
That must be a reason why Highway another film that tackled child sexual abuse was Highway and Half Girlfriend will be Half Girlfriend.
Image Credits: Google Images
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