Aamir Khan’s Dangal raked big moolah in India and abroad, and reached the 2000 crore club. It won all major awards, and continues to get lauded by both public and critics. Dangal is definitely a feel-good, crowd-pleasing film. But the subtle narrative is not really about the two sisters. Instead, it focuses mostly on their despotic yet affectionate father and his unfulfilled dream.
Dangal is not a Bend It Like Beckham like movie where the female protagonist beats all the odds to achieve her dreams. The movie justifies dictatorial parenting and reinforces the age-old ideas that it hopes to fight . Yet, many people are touting it as a feminist movie, just because two important characters are female wrestlers from Haryana.
The female protagonists fight sexism and male privilege throughout their journey, but the girls are not chasing their dreams, instead striving hard to make their father proud. They are docile, puppet-like, and blindly obey their father, who is an autocrat kind of a person. He imposes his interests and choices on them. He is the decision maker, and believes he knows what’s best for the girls. That’s not even remotely close to empowerment.
Along the way, the girls face severe ridicules yet go against all odds to get successful and make it big in a world that’s traditionally envisaged by men. But, it’s not the girls who win at the end, it’s their father, the patriarch. From chopping off their hair, to denying their favorite food, and making them undergo grueling training even from a tender age, the father forces wrestling on them by all means. Does such a story propagate woman empowerment in any manner?
By putting the burden of his unfulfilled dream on his young daughters' shoulders, Mahavir reinforces the prevalent norms in our society. The movie is about his dreams, predicaments, and challenges. How on earth does this break misogyny?
That said, Mahavir is not a complete patriarchal stooge either. The father teaches the girls to be fearless and persist, no matter what the situation is. So, the movie definitely makes us want to cheer for women who make it big in male dominated fields like wrestling. But a Mahavir-like dad and his ‘hanikarak’ ‘craziness’ will do more harm than good in real life. Wondering why?
While all is hale and hearty in reel, it’s not the same in real when parents force their dreams on children. We can see an alarming rise in the number of students who choose suicide as a way to deal with wrong and forced career choices and pushy parents who project their unfulfilled dreams on their children. Why do they kill themselves? Because, they simply fail to deal with the intense psychological pressure. Still, several parents consider their children as tools fulfill their unaccomplished dreams, aspirations, and desires. Children should be allowed to chase their own dreams. They should not be forced to follow the dreams of their parents.