For ‘Mardani’ Eve Teasing is Enjoyable
Written by : Dhananjay
New Delhi: ‘Mardani’ might have made life much riskier for roadside romeos aka ‘tapories’ but Rani Mukherji, playing a tough cop in her upcoming movie Mardani, surprisingly has a softer side that is amenable to ‘eve teasing’. Well, it seems that for her eve teasing is enjoyable!
During her hurricane promotional tour before the launch of Mardani, Rani took to inspiring girls to learn self-defence techniques to take on their male tormentors. Rani, identifying herself as a social crusader, raves and rants against male predators. The girls picking up leaves from Rani’s lessons are likely to give romeos of the country a miserable time ahead.
But cut to late nineties and you would find Rani herself becoming the reason behind much of girls’ torments today. Not only this, she is also seen stoutly defending eve teasing as ‘joie de vivre’. If you recall the lyrics of the well-known song “Aye kya Bolti Tu” from Ghulam, you are likely to grasp the point that we are trying to put forth here.
The song became an unavoidable element of eve teasing after its release. Thousands of cases spurred by the song were filed throughout the country and today we see the ‘Ghulam’ actress, , talking about eve teasing as being quite ‘cool’.
In an exclusive interview to this writer in Delhi on 10th of September, 1998 for a Delhi daily Rani said, “Eve teasing is enjoyable pastime and I myself enjoy eve teasing in life. Eve teasing is a romantic facet of life and is inevitable. It pleases me when some children tease me with this song. But it should be done in sweet reasonableness. It should not hurt any girl.”
On the occasion of release of audio cassette of Mehendi at hotel Taj in Delhi, Rani had talked at length about the significance of eve teasing when asked if she was worried about eve teasing spurred by her film or she takes it as a measure of her success. Answering this question with a mischievous smile on her face she had said, “Even I am being eve teased through this song. Children of the apartment where I live eve tease me singing this song. I find it very satisfying.”
She further rationalised eve teasing, ‘In Ghulam, Aamir Khan has donned the role of a street romeo (tapori). Tell me how would a tapori propose to his girlfriend if not in the way he does in the film. I consider eve teasing a romantic part of life. Have your heard the song ‘Mohe Panghat pe Nandlal Ched Gayo Re’. Even Krishna resorted to eve teasing. Eve teasing is a very pleasurable, titillating experience. But if this song is misused to torment girls, it is wrong.’
Rani had further said, “Do your survey to find whether girls really feel bad about being eve teased? I think they do not. That is why they are dying on this song acted by me.”
Consider Rani making such comments today when eve teasing has fallen in disrepute.
