BROMANCE AT THE BOX OFFICE

Three blockbusters offer signposts to an understanding of vulnerable masculinity in contemporary India

- Shrayana Bhattacharya

In the past three weeks, many of us have been delighted by three films that have depicted masculine fragility in deliciously diverse ways. There was Oppenheimer, where a Great Director made a Great Film about the ethical dilemmas of a Great Scientist. Karan Johar and a team of writers imagined the hellishly sexy Ranveer Singh as Rocky, unshackling decades of emotional stunting accorded to shiny "all about loving one's family" Punjabi himbos and the gender norms within their families. And there was Greta Gerwig's kinetic Ken-played by Ryan Gosling with his own insecurities, lack of independent housing, and theme song in Barbie. All this as we build anticipation for Shah Rukh Khan's continued attempt to redefine the tired tropes of the Indian action hero with a crew of women soldiers in Jawan, a film that appears to be like Chak De! India meets Pathaan via Chennai. Men are fun at the movies again. At least, for some of us in the audience.

I have no interest in opining on the merits of these movies; most of us are exhausted by the number of post-modern hot takes these pictures have generated online. Instead, I will take you on a strictly offline ground-up tour of the audiences watching them at cinema halls. Across seven cinema halls in Delhi, Faridabad (Haryana) and Mumbai, I observed and interviewed viewers. This is hardly an exhaustive and representative take. However, hanging out at cinema halls offered three signposts to help understand the appetite for a modern and vulnerable masculinity in contemporary India.