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Aap Jaisa Koi

 This is an average, run of the mill movie, that I watched a while back. There was no reason for it to have occupied so much space in my head for so long, in spite of having Madhavan in it. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The technicals are average and the artistry is very mundane.


The only reason it has spent so much time with me is because of a silly review that I read about it.
The review lauded it as a clarion call for women's emancipation and also went on to state that it was a story about liberated women.
That really got my goat and I know that unless I put pen to paper or my delicate fingers to the qwerty, I wouldn't be able to push it out of my rapidly dwindling grey cells.

What emancipation is being spoken of here? A woman having an MCP for a husband suddenly can not tolerate the patriarchy, and how does she react?
She suddenly develops feelings for a neighbor or maybe he was a tenant, I am not sure and I couldn't be bothered to find out. The trigger is an innocent jar of aachaar, which he appreciates and her husband doesn't.
So she launches an extramarital affair with him. And also gets her daughter to lie for them and then help them to connect too. And this very daughter then endorses the affair.
So help me out here, the woman is making potloads of food and and giving it away for free. The cost is being borne by her husband and he is getting no returns for his investment. Meanwhile she gets compliments galore. True the husband refuses to fund her store or any kind of enterprise, but instead of getting her daughter who is a successful corporate worker to help her get a leg up, she chooses to have an affair.
The other side of the story is that of the female protagonist who is "liberated" And why is she so?
Coz she goes on phone dates with men she doesn't know and chats with them through the night, in a husky voice. She is educated but doesn't know how fraught with danger this could be. And of course she knows and teaches a foreign language and she has had a prior relationship and of course to have the final patina on this coffin of a liberated woman, is the fact that she drinks.

If only she had watched either English Vinglish, or Lunchbox or Bareilly ki barfi or even Hamari Sullu, she would have gotten a look at what women emancipation truly looks like.
Or how well it could be portrayed without going blue in the face, whilst screaming feminism from the rooftops.
I hope this rant finally makes this movie disappear for me.
Poof!
#MiniasReviews
#AllLivesMatter
#AapJaisaKoiOnNetflix



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