Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Times Coins A New Genre For Bollywood - Favourite Rapists!!!!

 REALLY???

Reading newspapers every morning while sipping tea, is a custom! A daily dose of infotainment- most of which I rush through, with the headlines in the mornings and then rush back to my routine, to return for a much awaited second and a detailed reading round before calling it a day. Yesterday, as I was scanning through Pune Times, I was not awed much with it carrying an exclusive 'girl-on-girl kiss' picture from Ragini MMS2 (the paper has wiped all the 'o my gosh' feelings and 'how can they print such stuff',... long back.. ).

But then, as I ran through the bottom half of the paper, the caption of a photo read - Bollywood's Favourite Rapists.... I was taken aback. For a moment, I thought I read something completely wrong and started reading it again. The caption was screaming loud and clear, that I had read it correctly. There was an instant rage that shook me up.

FAVOURITE RAPISTS!!!!! Really??? Are there favourites for this??? Though tagged for the reel scenes, was it even necessary to print this caption and the picture at all? Rape... and now favourite rapists... such casually used words!!! To top it, written and approved by a woman! Didn't any sense of responsible writing, morality, or any bit of shame strike while doing this, at all? Isn't it a show of mockery towards such a monstrous reality? Or did they think this would be so creative, so cool, let's coin this new term? Didn't they realize anything at all before shooting it for print? No, they didn't!

To sit and think and make some calls and fetch some pictures, to write anything related to such a sensitive topic, the words should have been chosen very carefully. I felt ashamed, I felt angry, I was hurt... to have read it.

Media as the fourth pillar of democracy, media for information, media for news, media for views, media for entertainment... Everything that happens, that should have, that should not have, that is, that can be... anything that you want to know, is presented before you through media! While it serves a 360 degree view on everything that revolves around us- criticizing with strong opinions and analysis, a torch-bearer for many causes; media holds enormous power!

But, it is disheartening when it stoops to such a level.