Sexist Much? How Pushpa: The Rise Fails Its Female Lead Srivalli

After a surreal run at the box office, Allu Arjun's Pushpa: The Rise is keeping the viewers hooked on OTT. The action-thriller is the first of a two-part series focussing on the rise of a daily-wage labourer into a powerful red sandalwood smuggler. While Arjun plays the titular role of Pushpa, actor Rashmika Mandanna is seen as his love interest Srivalli. An out and out leave-your-brains-behind-and-you-shall-be-rewarded entertainer, Pushpa: The Rise is thoroughly enjoyable as long as it focuses on Pushpa's life as a smuggler. The minute the film switches gears to romance, it becomes impossible to leave one's brain behind and overlook the sexism weaved into its plot.

Pushpa The Rise story focuses on glorifying its male lead

No surprises here, at the core of this mass entertainer is a stylish male lead with signature moves, cool dialogues and an underdog backstory. We are told he is an illegitimate child whose mother is repeatedly humiliated by the family of his father. He grows up in abject poverty and yet retains his ego and identity. Pushpa has a signature move to light his cigarette, to caress his beard, to sit on a chair and a peculiar posture as well.

It feels like the supporting characters in the film were also written simply as steps in a ladder leading to his rise in our eyes. The case in point being its female lead Srivalli. When we are introduced to this character, we are told that she is a bit eccentric, yet a financially independent woman who knows her way around the world. Srivalli sells milk to support her family, she drives a moped, she is a Chiranjeevi fan and she helps around the house with odd jobs that are mostly left to boys. There is so much that writer and director Sukumar could have done with this character, but alas, he couldn't resist the temptation to simply use Srivalli to glorify Pushpa.

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Romance gone wrong, very wrong

The problem with Pushpa: The Rise's portrayal of Srivalli isn't her characterisation, but the treatment she is meted and the choices she is shown making, and the same applies for its male lead too- for the film's romance track. In one scene, Pushpa's friend pays Srivalli one thousand rupees to simply smile at his friend who has been stalking her and she agrees. In a follow-up scene, Pushpa berates his friend for poorly judging his character and paying a woman to smile at him. He also lectures his friend on how a woman isn't a thing to be bought, but in the same scene, he then asks his friend to pay Srivalli Rs 5000 to kiss him, now that his virtues have been corrupted. We are supposed to find the entire exchange comical, but it is disturbing at best.

Allu Arjun in Pushpa: The Rise

The film then introduces a lecherous character who preys on women and the minute he first enters the film, we know where the plot is headed because we have watched way too many films from the 80s for our own good. The bad guy has his eyes set on Srivalli and asks her to sleep with him for a night, in exchange for releasing her kidnapped father. Srivalli goes to Pushpa, tells him she loves him, but wouldn't show her face to him ever again, because she was going to sleep with the bad guy and that would "ruin" her.

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Obviously, Pushpa preserves the honour of his love interest and beats the hell out of the bad guy. But to see a financially independent woman being reduced to an object by two men is heartbreaking as always. Considering Pushpa: The Rise's mass appeal, couldn't its makers have chosen not to objectify her? Was the rape threat angle really essential for boosting Pushpa's larger than life image? Weren't the over-the-top action sequences, the signature walk, the spicy comebacks enough?

Pushpa's messiah syndrome is rubbed into the story using other women in his life as well. None of the women in the film, apart from the one playing a grey character, actually stand up for themselves. We see Pushpa rescue one woman from the clutches of the same bad guy who preys on Srivalli. Then there is his mother who is constantly berated by the family of Pushpa's father, but it is her son takes a stand against them, or the moneylender who insults her in the early part of the film. This theme is constant among many those who want to paint a larger than life image of their male leads, thus reducing women to mere victims that are saved/avenged by the hero. The 80s called, they want their masala theme back and honestly we would be grateful if the regressive trope of heroes rescuing women was retired for good.

Makers of massy entertainers should no longer be able to get away with such shoddy portrayals of women because we know the kind of impacts they have on the youth. We don't need men to learn that it is okay to stalk women, offer them money to increase proximity with them or that a "real" man beats goons who sexually harass their love interest. Empowerment of women isn't just about protecting women from sexual assault and preserving their honour, but creating a society where men understand the meaning of consent and respect the sexual boundaries of women.

Views expressed are the author's own.