Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan Deals with Typical Marriage Problems with Caricaturized Portrayals!... By Mehak Reejonia

Akshay Kumar’s latest movie trailer Raksha Bandhan depicts an old story in an even older pack. Read more.

Rakhsha Bandhan is an upcoming Hindi family-drama movie that is slated to release in theaters on 11th August 2022. This Aanand L. Rai-directed movie stars the superstar Akshay Kumar along with Bhumi Pednekar, Seema Pahwa, and the sisters played by Sadia Khateeb, Sahejmeen Kaur, Deepika Khanna, and Smrithi Srikanth.

The trailer of the flick has been out and the reactions are somewhat polarizing. It opens up with the quotation “sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero”.

This pretty much sums up the movie at this moment, at least. It seems like a movie about a brother, played by the ever-cheery Akshay Kumar, trying to get his four sisters married.

On a surface level, this looks pretty limiting. The concept of the struggles faced by the father or, in this case, by the brother to get his sisters married off feels very dated.

Here comes the issue that everyone is talking about. The sisters! Even from the picture above, you can get what they are going for. If the brother is facing difficulties in marrying them off, then of course there has to be some kind of issue with them.

Stereotyping of the physical appearance of the sisters is a warning sign. As you can see, one is a typical, fair-skinned girl, next to her is a t-shirt-clad tomboy, then a girl who is on a heavier side, and lastly, an aesthetically placed dark-skinned girl.

These caricatured portrayals of the sisters are a major put-off. The only saving grace would be if the appearance of the sisters does not become a part of their whole personality. But after the “kutte ke hain baita…” dialogue (trans. that’s dog food), my hopes are pretty dim.

Dowry & Marriage

We see Akshay’s character saying that in every household, a girl is sitting because of the dowry custom. Is that wrong? No! In our country, dowry is still a reality. But saying that a father/brother is working day and night to amass the dowry in order to get their daughters/sisters married off, feels oblivious and ignorant.

Aanand L. Rai Factor

If there is anyone who can save a movie, it is the captain of the ship Aanand L. Rai. One of the most versatile directors of our time, Rai has given us an array of movies like Tanu Weds Manu (2011), Raanjhanaa (2013), Tanu Weds Manu: Returns (2015), Zero (2018), and more recently Atrangi Re (2021).

Coming after a few months from his last release in 2021, Raksha Bandhan is heavily dependent on its director, Aanand L. Rai.

He is one of the dependable directors whom we can trust. With the common theme of depicting the heartland of the country in his films, our expectations are high.

Let’s hope that the movie has much more depth than what we are being shown. What are your thoughts? Do you think Raksha Bandhan looks dated or did you find it interesting? Are you more interested in watching Akshay Kumar or do you like the director’s work more? Share your thoughts with us!