Men and women can have a range of relationships: Arjun
(Sourced from PTI)
Every relationship between a man and a woman is not of romance, says actor Arjun Kapoor whose latest film Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar tries to depict a "realistic" world that is not complicated by love. Directed by Dibakar Banerjee, the movie puts respect over and above romance, Arjun said. The actor further says that the film has a realistic perspective.
"We as artistes always say we want to do something different, this film was actually written in that world which was realistic," the actor said in an interview. "A lot of things get convoluted sometimes when you put romance (in the story), the focus goes into building the chemistry," he added.
"Men and women should be allowed to exist in different ranges of emotion and relationships. But respect should be mutual. In this film, respect supersedes love. Many times, we forget respect when in love," Arjun added.
Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, where Arjun's frequent co-star and friend Parineeti Chopra plays Sandeep, a bank executive, and Satender Dahiya aka Pinky, a suspended cop, takes off from the usual road thriller to veer into different paths. The film, which had its digital release on May 20, explores themes of gender and class. The story is co-written by Dibakar and Varun Grover.
In retrospect, the 35-year-old actor said, the film talks about things that are "relevant." "When I saw the film again, I realized I may be far more liberal in my thought process already, so Pinky in me is alive and awake. But there are a lot of Satender Dahiyas who don't know there is a Pinky inside them," Arjun said.
Conditioning of male patriarchy in society is such that a man is supposed to only be a certain way because it suits traditions, he observed. "But there are many people trying to break out from the tradition and be their own people. I'm grateful I haven't gone through that because it can be very stifling and suffocating, especially for women," he added.
Arjun, a self-confessed fan of Dibakar, said the director's one-line brief to him about the movie when they were starting out was: "This film is about India and Bharat, and their collision." Sandeep is the new-age modern India that wants to rise and Pinky is Bharat that wants to survive to make his ends meet on a daily basis, he recalled.
For three months, the actor, along with Dibakar worked over his Haryanvi diction and talked about the character and his personal life. They met and spent time with real police officers in Mahipalpur, Delhi, during the fortnight and stayed there, Arjun said.
