An article that appeared in the Marathi magazine Chitralekha, took a note of Hindi songs from the golden era to the present time, and commented on their treatment of women. The high point was ‘Tu haan kar yaa naa kar’ — simply meaning that ‘whether you say yes or no, you are mine’. In other words, the lady’s preferences for her partner do not count. In fact, if you try a simple memory recall, you would find a long tradition of Hindi songs from black and white era to the present time — the boy chases the girl, the girl is annoyed; she keeps running and tries to escape, is chased by the boy, and within 3 stanzas gives in. So, according to them, it is a time-tested formula that if you keep chasing and harassing a girl, you would definitely win her over. If you draw a frequency distribution chart, you would find the median over this theory. Incapable of making a distinction between real and virtual world, crazy youth strive to follow the behaviour shown by their favourite stars (See: Has Cinema Made Us More Insensitive?). In so many cases, a girl was unrelenting, so the boy physically assaulted her, threw acid on her, or even killed her. It had to be so as a follow-up of that theory.
Why then this double-talk — on one side glorifying eve-teasing, and on the other hand making laws and legislation against it, holding candle marches and so on? The basic fact — which is so often ignored — is that they are also human beings and must be treated as such. Holding seminars, writing poetry, extending reservation in jobs, allotting seats in buses — all these gestures put us on a high pedestal where the whole society looks us as kind and noble. But what about the general perspective towards them — that they are created as an object for fun, happiness, entertainment, and no preference, likes and dislikes of their own? I do not claim that I understand a woman’s mind all too well, but as a human being, I do doubt whether all these ‘gifts’ of bus seats, job reservation, poetry, seminar would appeal to her if her identity as a human being itself is ignored. But then, I do not know; it is thus that I think it to be.
Image source : YouTube.
Pradyot 
Some times art imitates life and sometimes it is the other way round. Sometimes things are shown on movies because because such mind sets exist in society.
In that case, we accept that cinema does not have any social obligation or responsibility. I would not argue against that point of view.
However, matter becomes serious when crime is romanticized.
Please ignore the previous comment, Clumsy mistake. Anyway, I agree with your post, it is important to show the right thing on the big screen and pretty irresponsible to get away with the argument of “we’re writing such a script because it’s what people want to see.” Like they hold no responsibility whatsoever, when in reality fans in our country worship their favourite celebs and imitate them, so ball isn’t always in the court of viewers otherwise they wouldn’t have celebrated movies that have a sincere moral theme eg Taare Zameen Par, Iqbal, Munna Bhai series and Aamir Khan’s ‘let’s change our country’ shows and movies, among others.
I’m glad you raised this issue!
Thank you for your valuable thoughts. Your argument that the viewers can choose only from the content that is offered to them is so good! It did not occur to me. Thanks again.
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Cinema has infantilized and objectified women from time immemorial. They are shown as ‘commodity’. The lyrics of the recent movie songs are even more deplorable, especially, the so=called item numbers!
I completely agree with you Maniparna.
Please watch it ASAP…guess you would agree with them!