Continuing with his fresh image of a new-age Bharat Kumar (on the lines of veteran Manoj Kumar), Akshay Kumar is in news since last couple of months because of his latest venture unusually titled TOILET Ek Prem Katha and its actual source of inspiration related with Swachh Bharat Abhiyan started by the Government of India.
Post the film’s trailer release, there have been more than one allegation with the first being its complete concept based on an idea taken from a short film titled MANINI. The film showcases a newly-wed woman refusing to defecate in the open and asking her husband to build a toilet for her. Mentioning the government finance scheme for the same its opening scene is quite similar to the one seen in TOILET’s trailer and the 3 minutes film is available for viewing at Youtube.
The second allegation came from the makers of film GUTRUN GUTARGUN, which also happens to be a project promoting the sanitation drive as a comic satire commenting upon the state or condition of women in the rural regions. As per its trailer and a few scenes uploaded in the social media, it also revolves around the romance of a newly-wed couple and their problems faced because of no toilet in their home. The village has only one community toilet and there are separate rules worked out for men and women to use it at different timings during a day. The leading lady refuses to obey the norms and the couple faces humiliation for revolting against the system revealing the actual ground level situation in such remote areas.
The third and most important link up of TOILET Ek Prem Katha being reported is with the National Award winning Tamil film titled JOKER (2016). But going through all the write-ups, I couldn’t find anyone writing about the film in details, though it’s now available at a major subscription based online movie portal.
It’s important to write about JOKER in particular as the film is not any comedy but an emotionally moving sarcastic tragedy revealing an ugly face of our society and its corrupt system.
For the first 45 minutes it revolves around a lunatic kind of character considering himself as the President of India, who regularly keeps protesting against exploitation and corruption in his surroundings resulting in repeated remands and harsh beatings in the police stations. But post this long introduction we get to know the actual reason behind his present state of mind shockingly related to the ‘Toilet building drive’ in his village.
Having a similar premise of a girl disagreeing to a marriage proposal due to the non-availability of a toilet in home, JOKER boldly reveals the corruption involved in such noble government schemes wherein the sanctioned amount never reaches the end-user getting lost in the system or long chain of approvals from various departments.
However, what turns JOKER into a highly praiseworthy meaningful attempt is its major twist in which the four incomplete walls of a toilet and the shamelessly corrupt bureaucracy becomes the reason behind the death of an unborn child and turns a newly-married girl into a completely bed-ridden body with no hope of recovery in medical terms. Taking the matter forward to the court, JOKER further deals into the debatable subject of Euthanasia or merciful release of a soul, that gets denied by the court, leading to another unexpectedly brutal climax leaving you in a thinking mode.
Coming back to Akshay Kumar, its doubtful that his film will dare to reveal the way JOKER does in a deeply hurting manner revolving around a similar subject. But would love to see if TOILET Ek Prem Katha also turns out to be a surprisingly meaningful movie marching much ahead than a cleverly planned social comedy opting for a commercially safer road.
In the end, I know most of the readers would surely be going for TOILET Ek Prem Katha this weekend due to its star-value, but if possible do watch the Tamil film JOKER too, in order to know how our regional Indian language cinema is much ahead than the still evolving Hindi movies.
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(The article also got featured in UC-News mobile app in August 2017)
