Ki & Ka
Director – R. Balki
Producer – R. Balki
Written by – R. Balki
Starring – Kareena kapoor
Arjun
Kapoor
The movie Ki & Ka is a very
strong attack on “Indian mind set” or we can say “Hinduism” about the role of man
and woman in marriage and in society.
This is romantic comedy-drama
film. The very first scene of movie is an effective satire, where Kia (Kareena)
speaks about the role of woman in patriarchal society, in which Man is equal to
success and Women is all about helping hand and support for husband to achieve
his success. Kia defines role of women by calling her “pillar” which supports
building, and also added that everyone remember building not the pillar. Same story
we have in our culture, successful man is very well known but his wife is just
like a piece of decoration in house.
This is the reality of our society
and culture. People used to give credit to wife of a successful man for being
his support system, but what is in that credit? Is it morally good to do such flattery
things?
Ki & Ka has changed the role of man and
woman, Kabeer is house husband and supports his wife to fulfil her dream of
becoming a successful business woman but at some extent the plot has diverted from
the tract as we can see in the scenes where Kia is abusing Kabeer because he is
not earning, we can feel power structure that Power of earning member on
non-earning one.
As a poststructuralist critic, we look at the movie we would find that the concept of
movie looks like in support of woman, but it is totally about man, like man can
be prove themselves perfect in every role, while women is always about
jealousy, hatred, short tempered and sensitive.
As emotion does not follow gender, the
important part in movie is emotion of jealousy. If we take an example that a
very successful man is continuously surrounded by the praising of his wife which is "house-wife", he would feel jealousy and his ego would definitely hurt, the same
thing has been happened with Kia, as she was so jealous with her husband who
became famous by giving speeches rather than working hard like her, and she abandon
him and abused a lot.
The good use of archetypes is specialty of R. Balki, in such scenes like Kabeer feels jealousy there is a
use of water with the help of dancing fountain, strong flow of water suggests
fall. Another is the scene of quarrel between Kia and Kabeer where Kia is one
by one coming down from staircase, as she is coming down from her moral level.
The movie has a very strong issue
of society, gender difference, inequality and rigid mindset of Indian society
in which woman is so much neglected. As far
as feminism is concern, the movie would not get such appreciation by feminists,
because of the projection of a role of wife as Kabeer, as in most of the scene
kabeer is cooking, enjoying in kitty parties, and shopping, this has been
projected as the work of woman, and Mangal-sutra is shown as a symbol of wife which is not so good idea.
The definition of wife is given by Kia, as she
calls Kabeer “wife”, which is not appropriate. The main point is, centre of the attraction in
movie is Kabir (Arjun Kapoor) as a house husband rather than Kia as a working woman.