The actor is known to be an iconoclast (in positive sense!). She bravely broke the stereotype Bollywood heroine image of a submissive, sacrificing woman. She even experimented with the anti-heroine image too. She is assertive, fought tooth and nail with a star actor and made a place for herself. Usually with success, people mellow down and try to reach beyond the apparent success or get creatively confined to that success. But not Kangana. She continued with a strange vengeful bitterness, may be because that bitterness bought her success and limelight.
But unfortunately, with bitterness one thing you most certainly require--an enemy. Where can you find a perennial enemy? Well, jingoism! And lo, our star jumped into the tide of undying love for her (ours too!) country!
Sushant Singh Rajput’s untimely death has given a new twist to Kangana’s zealous bitterness--first nepotism, then drug abuse in Bollywood and now Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray himself! The level of her language is constantly sinking into depths of the derogatory. Suddenly, the chief minister is ‘Tu’ and ‘Tera’ as if the arguments are taking place on a down town street of India. Suddenly, she remembered Kashmiri Pandits and promised to the country that she will make a film on them and well, how could she forget Bala Saheb Thackeray and her pet topic ‘Vanshvaad’ (nepotism)! While talking about all this, she has conveniently forgotten that she herself comes from a privileged and influential family.
Of course, a senior politician used a single derogatory word for her, and all hell broke loose. The leader became quiet. But the abusive tirade she has been running for days now on social media has found a new dimension. Her posts targeting the Maharashtra chief minister have been particularly demeaning. Then she has shared a BBC news report and called the media house ‘fools’ bragging that a person who can use her as a ‘pawn’ is not born yet! I must remind you here that am limiting myself to some of her latest tweets only.
The kind of language she is using doesn’t certainly belong to ‘artistic’ community or creative people or even actors at least not on public platforms. This language is quintessentially the ‘sanskari’ right-wing language particularly on social media platforms. That’s the tactic-they shock you and threaten you with the sheer obscene and abusive language. Any reasonable person usually withdraws from the argument if faced with such language and they think it’s their victory. That has been happening for years now on Indian social media platforms. Hence her bravado seems to be supported by political power.
Haunted by her own persecution complex, unfortunately, a talented actor as she was is now sinking into cheap tactics of hogging limelight. Well, we may be wrong though. Her dramatics may catapult her politically, politics being such a tinpot as it is today.
But as an actor who showed the signs of being socially responsible, she has set the standard of a new low of language on social media. That can also be counted as one of her (political) achievements as an actor. If politics be a stage then Kangana is performing to the hilt! Sad thing is, whatever decency and grace was attached to the aura of actors and filmmakers has completely vanished! Ah, but well, as long as you get the kicks out of such cheap theatrics, sit back and continue being shocked by her ‘sanskari’ reviling till the time she gets something else to catch your fluttering eyeballs.
