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As Kabir Singh battles brickbats, a look at Malayalam cinema's recent subversion of toxic alpha males
FirstpostKabir Singh is being slammed for its depiction of toxic masculinity. Having said that, the film still doesn’t drift away from the larger narrative in Malayalam cinema — showing women as nurturers, about women anchoring the men and offering them purpose in life. In Thoovanathumpikal, his most celebrated work, the leading man, Jayakrishnan is a product of toxic masculinity, unable to take a girl’s rejection resulting in a one-night stand with a call girl. In all these narratives, a man’s worth is always weighed on the paternity scale — “If you are born of a single father, bring it on,” is the ISI mark of heroism in Malayalam cinema. He endorses machismo and has all the definite traits of a toxic male who thinks his manliness has been mocked and challenged when he couldn’t “protect and defend” his girlfriend.
History of this topic
Karan Johar says Bollywood derived toxic masculinity from South: This is not...
India Today)
Maju on his film Appan: 'My friends shared experiences of toxic masculinity, from where the idea developed'
Firstpost
What is toxic masculinity and how can it be addressed?
The Independent
Kabir Singh is getting blasted by critics. What is the fate of Dhruv Vikram's Adithya Varma?
India Today
Kabir Singh is a filthy degenerate but the movie is not a ‘celebration of toxic masculinity’
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