Salman's Sultan 2 Dhanush's Raanjhanaa,cn BW not glorify stalkers?

Delhi, September 20. A 34-year-old man stabs a 22-year-old woman more than 20 times in broad daylight, killing her right there. No one stops Surender Singh from committing the crime. Karuna lies dead there.

Karuna's family, it is later found, had already filed a complaint with the police about Surender, who was stalking and harassing the girl.

Neighbourhood man stalks girl, she doesn't reciprocate his advances, jilted lover kills her. It is a story we in India have grown up with and have been conditioned to not react to. Especially in small towns, where stalking is the way to get the girl. The refrain people keep quoting after an incident like the recent one takes place is 'these things happen'.

Take Bollywood. For years now, we have seen the 'hero' stalking his 'love interest' after he falls in love with her 'at first sight'. He stalks her for days till she finally gives in. And they live happily ever after. No one points out that it is wrong. Because 'that's the way things happen'.

Raanjhanaa

Aanand L Rai's 2013 film Raanjhanaa is the quintessential glorifying-a-stalker film in recent memory.

Dhanush's Kundan in Raanjhanaa uses his friend Murari's (Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub) handbook to woo girls: Dekh bhai, apne Uttar Pradesh mein na ladkiyan do tarike se patayi jaati hai... ek toh mehnat se: subha se shaam peechha karo, ghar ke baahar, school ke baahar, bazaar mein, sadko pe, cycle pe, ricksha mein, tempo mein, ro do, khana khaana chhod do, wazan ghatalo, aur ladki ko itna thaka do ke woh thak ke haan bol de. Par Pandit tum Shah Rukh Khan toh ho nahi ki yeh sab karke pass ho jaao... ab hai doosra tarika: Vinod Mehra ban jaao.

Kundan's stalking gets him the girl, albeit as a friend. Murari's advice to his friend has Shah Rukh Khan at its core. Khan, who shot to fame with his psycho-stalker acts in films like Darr and Anjaam, is the but-obvious guru of the country's stalkers, especially in Tier-2 towns like Banaras. So when Murari tells his friend that all pretty girls of the town end up being 'taken by' doctors and engineers, Kundan's response is, "Yeh Banaras hai... launda saala yahan bhi haar gaya, toh jeetega kahan!"

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Raanjhanaa takes us to Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. When Milkha (Farhan Akhtar) bumps into Biro (Sonam Kapoor) for the first time, he does what any Bollywood hero meeting the heroine for the first time does: falls in 'love at first sight'. What follows is a problematic way of getting Biro to respond to his advances: Milkha initiates a conversation, keeps following her around, gazes lovingly (*eye-roll*) at Biro and what not. Till he gets the girl

Tere Naam

The one Salman Khan film that had an entire generation of men following his footsteps (not to mention the hairstyle) is Tere Naam. The story of a rowdy guy Radhe (Salman) who falls in love with a college-going girl Nirjara (Bhumika Chawla) had an entire country rooting for this stalker of a man. Result? Nirjara falls in love with him

Wanted

Guy sees girl. Guy falls in love with girl. Guy starts stalking girl. Girl is irritated. Girl sees guy's 'efforts'. Girl falls in love with guy. Salman Khan's Wanted is necessarily this at its core. Nothing new for Bollywood, nothing shocking for Bollywood. And of course, let's not even go into how much money the film went on to earn

Besharam

Probably one of the worst films in Ranbir Kapoor's career, Abhinav Kashyap's Besharam was a flop more for its story than its stalker-lover hero. Ranbir Kapoor's Babli shamelessly (Besharam, anyone?) goes around following the girl (Pallavi Sharda as Tara) even after she insults him. No points for guessing what happens next: girl falls in love with the guy. Happily ever after follows

Sultan

This year's biggest blockbuster so far: Salman Khan's Sultan. Salman Khan's character Sultan Ali Khan bumps into Aarfa (Anushka Sharma) and begins following her all over Rewari, from the wrestling pit to the masjid. Sultan gets the girl, and all stalking is forgiven. All's well that ends well. Especially when the 'ending well' comes with a Rs 300 crore at the domestic box office income.