The year was 2004. Three top actors of Bollywood joined hands to star in what they thought was a film way ahead of times, but now that we look back, it is plain patriarchial and chauvinist. How? Sit back and let’s take you through the misogynistic journey that Aitraaz is.

Aitraaz is a story about Akshay Kumar AKA Raj Malhotra who falls in love with a ‘lawyer’ Kareena Kapoor AKA Priya. Like every stupid Bollywood film that gets stupider by the minute, Aitraaz begins on a note of confusion. Priya, a lawyer gets mistaken for a maid. Yes, that’s right, Akshay Kumar, the hero of the film gets confused between a housemaid and a lawyer. The story gets more bizarre. Read on.

Everything wrong with Aitraaz

The abysmal plot

Priya is introduced as a woman who does not need to work, because of generational wealth. And Akshay Kumar is a man who asks a lawyer to make some tea for him. Why? Because women, why else? What we find more amusing is that Priya, who has come for a job interview as a lawyer is ok with the fact that she has to make tea in her first job interview. Guess by this time the writers had bid goodbye to the logic.
The movie then proceeds to show Raj the Gentleman, pretending to be a lawyer so that Priya visits him every day. It gets worse when Priya gets to know the truth and instead of getting furious that a man she hardly knows for 2 days tried sabotaging her career, she instead falls in love. Yes, kyun ki ‘Pyaar Pyaar Hota Hain’.

The story proceeds and enters Priyanka Chopra AKA Soniya. Soniya is the wife of a rich entrepreneur and also happens to be Raj’s ex-girlfriend. The makers then go on a major nostalgia trip and show Akshay and Priyanka doing some questionable moves at exotic locations 5 years ago. Raj falls in love with Soniya, but the latter is a focused model and when she gets pregnant all she wants to do is focus on her career and not be a mother. But how dare, a woman, prioritise her career over kids and a man? Hence the two part ways and we are brought to the present story where Soniya tries seducing Raj. What is happening?

What happens next is what people thought was way ahead of its times, which we could agree had the dialogues not been overtly patriarchal.

The dialogues

While the plot is questionable, the dialogues make us want to bang our heads. As rightly said by Kareena in the film, ‘Bitch woh hoti hain, jisko apne bacche ke baap ka pata nahi hota.’ Wow, judgy woman calm down.

It does not end there, when someone asks Akshay Kumar AKA Raj what love is, he has a very satisfactory and elaborate reply, ‘Pyaar, Pyaar Hota Hain.’ Ok!

The problematic portrayal of women

If you notice, Priya is portrayed is a positive light because she gets married, sacrifices her career and even wants to have kids. But, Priyanka is shown as a vamp, a horny woman who gets knocked up and is a bad mother since she wants to abort. The makers decided to make a woman who prioritises her career as the negative lead. Not misogynistic at all.

Akshay and Priyanka’s rape scene

The most talked about part of the film is where Soniya forces himself on Raj. Raj goes to meet Soniya for a professional meeting but instead, she performs a very questionable dance which we would never advice you to repeat. Raj, who mind it is not interested and is a faithful (?) husband sits through it, watching and almost enjoying it. His conscience only kicks in when he sees Priya’s photo in his locket during their terrible makeout session.

Soniya gets furious as she does not get what she wants – a married man to have sex with her and hence begins the trial between Raj, Soniya and of course Priya.

By the end, the makers decide to add some more bizarre sscenes like Akshay being asked to strip in the court to show off the scratches on his back. And if you see the film very closely, the previous night Raj had very few scratches and that also on his back. Continuity was clearly a joke!

While Aitraaz does pick up the issue of the need of sexual harassment laws in favour of men, the execution, plot and dialogues are too bad to ignore. On the other hand, do watch the film for Priyanka and Akshay’s fiery chemistry!