Sonia Roy in Aitraaz: The Accused or the Victim? – Editorial

I am sure most of us have seen the movie Aitraaz. It is a simple and engaging movie that managed to do good business. It was appreciated throughout India and can be seen broadcasted on cable at non-prime hours. But, how many of us have watched it close enough to see the extreme misogynist side depicted so clearly in it. I am sorry for using such a heavy word right at the beginning of the article, but, there is no other that would suffice.

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Premise: Sonia’s character was created to showcase that the male lead is an “Achhe Ghar ka Ladka.” And just to clarify “Achhe Ghar ka Ladka” means the type of guy who wants to have kids with his wife.

So according to the plot of the film, Raj (Akshay Kumar – Mr Achhe Ghar ka Ladka), a telecom firm manager meets Sonia (Priyanka Chopra) – an aspiring model, whom he sees in a bikini-clad near a beach. Over there, Sonia loses her car keys, so Raj gives her a lift back home. Not to forget, while returning, he flirts with her big time. Long story short, they fall in love, start living together blah blah.

Eventually, during their relationship, she signs up for a big modelling contract from a major company. The next day she finds out that she is pregnant. Since she is young and at the start of her career, for her contract to stay intact, she chooses for abortion. This makes Raj very angry as he thinks she is getting an abortion because there are not married. So he asks her to marry him.

She explains to him the reason why she wanted an abortion was because of her contract. But, Raj doesn’t like her decision and decides to dump her. Just because she did not want to have a baby at that time, he leaves her and the baby alone. Instead of coming up with a solution, and without understanding her situation, he just bails out!

Analysis: Imagine what state Sonia would have been in. This would have left her scarred forever. She doesn’t even have a right to choose to work now. What will she make out of this? Eventually, this irresponsible behaviour from the Raj’s side is celebrated in the movie. And it is shown how Sonia is characterless and craves for attention from young men.

I agree she was desperate to have a good career. But, leaving her just because she did not want to have a child at that point seems ludicrous. Raj always knew that she was into modelling business which demands good looks. Why even sign up for that life with such a partner in the first place if you’re so narrow-minded and misogynist in your views.

Surprisingly, the second female lead, Priya Saxena (Kareena Kapoor), is a secretary to a lawyer, who helps Raj clean his house once. This impresses Raj even more. Priya has a minor level job and does house cleaning, while one who wants to make it big is a vamp. Voila! All of this screams utter nonsense.

Good news is that movies like Aitraaz are extinct and more realistic movies are the talk of the town nowadays. Thankfully, our audience was smart enough to embrace a change. Cheers to us!

Stream ‘Aitraaz’ on Netflix