Rakhi is for real

Rakhi Sawant's back on TV

Rakhi Sawant's back on TV. Well, okay, but now, so-called reality contests provide only a familiar frisson. Sure it features her and the ex, but like with Amitabh Bachchan and Rekha at award shows, we know the editing pattern. We know what story will unfold. Rakhi now calls up both dependability and ennui. But also violence.

There are a lot of Facebook pages devoted to hating Rakhi. This seeming waste of energy is only mysterious till we look at the history of the world, which shows us that hate, while as passionate as love, is a considerably more concrete call to action. The latest such page is called 'Thank You Pakistan for taking Sania Mirza, now take Rakhi Sawant.' It has 1,39,000 plus members.

It's a disturbing page -- full of grotesque creature-like photo-shopped images of Rakhi and Sania. Abusive comments use the F word venomously, wanting to b'''' slap these women and more. Sputtering, foaming rage is expressed because Sania Mirza's marrying a Pakistani has successfully neutered all Indian men. Who knew it was that easy? This rage makes them want to throw Rakhi Sawant at the Pakistanis. Yes, very logical, we understand! Further, they say if Sushmita Sen marries Wasim Akram (why does no one tell me anything?) she will receive the same treatment. To these kaabilfolks I say, Bhaisaab, when we've got you, who needs a khap panchayat?

Many of the rabid commentators are women. Anyone with illusions about women being essentially nurturing, peaceable martyrs -- kindly revise. This should however clarify once and for all that it's not feminists who are angry and hating. Most of these women would shrink from being called feminists, as well they should, because the only freedom they display is in being misogynistic, demeaning and verbally violent to other women -- while consenting that women are someone's property to give and take, chiming in with some pompous dude who says here that Rakhi is "representative of all the bad & worst girls. All good girls shud beware of such type of gals to maintain their beauty of thinking." Beautiful indeed is the thinking here. Rock on, but don't expect me to call you sister.

This should not come as a surprise. The comments on sites like rediff are legendary -- whether the article is about global warming or new skirt lengths, the comments swiftly turn into unrelated, wild-eyed and witless bigotry. Ditto YouTube, where even innocuous film songs, always result in a bewildering Indo-Pak battle.

Someone needs to invent a form of mass psychotherapy (not via television) to deal with this craziness.

Interestingly, topics like the 26/11 verdict or the fate of Kasab, where you'd fear the greatest shrillness, seem to result in measured tones even from extreme viewpoints. So why does the most seemingly trivial call up such deep intolerance? What about themselves are these people seeing in a reality TV star that freaks them out so much? It must be true then, no hatred is as twisting and knotting as self-hatred. After all, where do people whose comments are a slobbering mess of profanity get off calling Rakhi Sawant crude or vulgar? I mean, knock knock, who's there? It's you!

Rakhi Sawant is pretty damn good at her job -- whatever your opinion of television. As a reality TV star she needs to ratchet up those TRPs -- sex, lies, drama, hyperbole are in the job description and the audience's appetite. Certainly those who vilify her don't demonstrate a taste for subtlety. So she goes to work and does it. What's more, she does it with greater wit, humour and entertainment than the incoherent, adolescent hate-pagers do. They should take a lesson or two in that from her.

Paromita Vohra is an award-winning Mumbai-based filmmaker, writer, teacher and curator working with fiction and non-fiction. Reach her at www.parodevi.com

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