Bollywood as an industry has always been smitten by romance and music. So much so that a majority of movies made in bollywood perpetuate the “musical romance” that doesn’t exist in real life. But, even after decades of making movies, Bollywood has not been able to overcome its rudimentary thought process. This has led to many toxic relationships being doled out as romance in our hindi movies.
Here are some of the all-time great “romantic” movies and characters, we feel were so toxic that they should have never been made. And we hope no one encourages such relationships in real life.
1. Kal Ho Na Ho
From Aman’s “6-din ladki in” theory, to Rohit’s complete lack of faithfulness throughout the movie, every single character of this love triangle is problematic. Even Naina, who is shown to be a strong-headed woman, doesn’t show any opinions of her own when it comes to choosing her partner. And, how could we forget what a toxic friend Naina was to Sweetu!Â
2. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai
This 90s superhit is full of learnings on how a real-life romance should not be. When Anjali dresses comfortably as per her choice, she is shown to be invisible to Rahul. But as soon as she starts wearing Sarees and has long-hair, suddenly she is desirable?! Does it mean he won’t love her at home, when she gets into her comfortable pyjamas?
3. Aashiqui 2
In this musical love story, as soon as the spotlight movies away from Rahul and onto Aarohi, he leaves no stone unturned to mess up their lives. This movie is a prime example of what relationships should never exist or encourage in real-life.
4. Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
The main lead – Bunny is a self-absorbed personality, who thinks everything revolves around him. He doesn’t give a shit about what is happening in Naina’s life, up until he sees she might move on and get into a meaningful relationship with someone else. Even when confessing about his absence, he makes a big deal about leaving his life behind for her. We wish Naina had given life another chance, and said No to Bunny.
5. Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein
While we have no doubt that Madhavan played the role to brilliance, but we wonder why is Maddy’s character hailed as the epitome of love. Maddy was a hag who lied & cheated to get Reena to fall in love with him. The fact that after getting to know the truth, Reena still goes back to Maddy, is exactly what is wrong with Bollywood’s thought process.
6. Kabir Singh
No amount of words can describe what all was wrong with this movie. Kabir is a narcissistic person, who treats Preeti like crap, and even declares that she “belongs” to him in the first meeting itself. No matter how badly he treats Preeti, the way she runs back to him time and again, just proves the misogynistic mindset of Bollywood film-makers.
7. Raanjhanaa
Even after being rejected & slapped, the lead, Kundan, stalks Zoya for several years. He stalks her into agreeing to be with him. Is that love? No. It’s pure harassment.
8. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
The longest running Bollywood movie in movie theatres, DDLJ is not something that should inspire lovers of coming generations. Raj literally harasses Simran on the train they met, followed by gate-crashing her wedding, and then asking her to runaway with him. All this because our Bollywood directors think that’s what love should look like – with the girl ready to forget everything just because… well no reason!
9. Dil To Pagal Hai
Rahul has no respect for woman’s privacy and keeps walking in on Nisha without knocking on the door. He lives in a fantasy world with this thought of an “ideal girl” Maya in his mind. When he sees Pooja, he decides this is Maya, and he keeps projecting his fantasy on her. Why? Because he is the “Hero” of this movie! And let’s not forget Pooja takes all this shit quietly. All because our Bollywood feels it’s what real-life love stories are made of.
10. Badrinath Ki Dulhania
Badri continuously stalking Vaidehi throughout the movie is not love. It is complete harassment. Even when Vaidehi moves to Singapore to build her career, Badri creates a scene and makes sure she can never live the life she wants. Dear Bollywood, this is not what love is about! Please.
Do you think there are more movies that can make it to this list? Let us know in the comments below.