No Taapsee, mocking a tragedy isn't 'sarcastic', it's plain insensitive
What's the story
It seems Bollywood celebrities have stopped putting any thought whatsoever into their tweets. And the latest one to do so is Taapsee Pannu.
Taapsee, known for "raising" her voice, showed her insensitivity when she mocked the murder of a 19-year-old.
What's worse is that when she was called out, she hid behind "I-was-being-sarcastic" excuse.
Tell us again, why should we take stars seriously?
Case
A 19-year-old was brutally murdered, Taapsee saw an opportunity
To give you the context, let's tell you how it all began. On Saturday, a 19-year-old aspiring model was found dead in Nagpur.
The deceased, identified as Khushi Parihar, died a brutal death allegedly at the hands of her partner Ashraf Sheikh.
Ashraf, who had doubts about Khushi's loyalty and questioned her friendship with other men, killed her by crushing her head.
Comments
Using Khushi's death, Taapsee took swipe at Kabir Singh's director
If Khushi's untimely death wasn't sick enough, Taapsee thought it is fine to use it to take a jibe at Sandeep Reddy Vanga.
Vanga, the director of Shahid Kapoor's Kabir Singh and its original movie Arjun Reddy, recently said that if a man can't slap his wife/girlfriend, it doesn't qualify as love.
His comments were more problematic than the misogynist movie he made, and Taapsee thought to call it out.
Tweet
There're many ways to slam Vanga, Taapsee chose the worst
While it's absolutely fine to slam Vanga for peddling a narrative which is dangerous for women (after all when is love ever equal to violence), Taapsee's manner was pathetic.
She could have spoken up when Vanga made the concerning statements, but she didn't.
Instead, she tweeted the report on Khushi's death to take a jibe at him and ended up being thoughtless.
Twitter Post
Here is what Taapsee tweeted
Or maybe let’s just say they were madly in love with each other n this ‘act’ was to validate his TRUE love for her. 🤷🏻♀️ https://t.co/BGmhA7XHyM
— taapsee pannu (@taapsee) July 15, 2019
Reactions
After Taapsee's brainless tweet, Twitter users pointed out the problem
Since Taapsee didn't quite understand what was wrong in her reaction, Twitter users did the needful.
"You must be deranged to take a dig at Kabir Singh while reacting to a real murder," wrote @KarunaGopal1.
While @Babu_Bhaiyaa wrote: Or perhaps the 'kiIIing' of an innocent 19 year old girl is not an appropriate source of Sarcasm. It certainly isn't (sic).
Twitter Post
It's a crime, not sarcasm
Only a bollywood actress know how to fake a Sarcasm on a serious hate crime
— Rishi Bagree 🇮🇳 (@rishibagree) July 15, 2019
Second tweet
In yet another tweet, Taapsee asked people to understand sarcasm
After being slammed from several quarters, Taapsee came up with a genius plan which she probably thought would bail her out.
Quoting her first tweet, she wrote, "Statutory warning: people with no sense of sarcasm kindly ignore me n my tweet. Thank you, it was nice not knowing you".
This further infuriated netizens who asked her to hire a PR manager.
Twitter Post
Taapsee, please take note
Consider hiring a PR manager who can help you to understand how to behave in public domain and sarcasm on the brutally killed dead bodies was never a sensibility in any culture.
— Dr. Shweta Gulati (@DrShwetaGulati) July 15, 2019
Movies
We can't have filmmakers acting irresponsibly anymore
Now, Kabir Singh and other movies which propagate thoughts like "A woman's no means yes" or "It's okay to hit a woman if you care for her", are deeply problematic.
At a time when crimes against women are at an all time high, we really don't want an on-screen hero who does all these things and then "gets the girl".
Writer's note
But then Taapsee was no better in this scenario, either
Having said that, Taapsee, you committed a mistake by trivializing a tragedy. It would have been way better had you explicitly mentioned Vanga to tell him how his statements shape the narrative in the real world.
You simply can't joke about someone's murder to show how "opinionated" you are about women's issues.
But then, we really don't expect anything better from Bollywood stars.