Thank You, Ranveer, Thank You, Auntieji

Apologies to Ranveer Singh. But it’s so, so good and reassuring to find outrage against good old-fashioned ‘obscenity’ again – as opposed to the flurry of charges and worse against ‘hurting religious sentiments’. With one single episode, it’s almost like we’re back in the 1990s again when Milind Soman and Madhu Sapre, with their Adam-Eve act in a prophylactic ad, made aunties and uncles paroxysmal with sanskriti outrage. Singh shed his OTT clothes for a magazine photo shoot. The photos showcased the actor’s superbly sculpted nude body tastefully. But before one could say ‘Michelangelo!’, two applications were filed with Mumbai Police on Monday seeking an FIR (the latest mode of outrage registration) against the actor for ‘hurting sentiments of women’.

Now, this is a departure from the old ‘women being depicted obscenely’ indignation. Being a man, Singh may have, theoretically, hurt the sentiments of some men. But how does his nude photos that he shared on social media get the she-goat of an office-bearer of an NGO in Chembur? Singh was neither flashing nor streaking – actions that are liable to flutter the cardiac muscles of some women the wrong way. But it’s such a welcome relief from the usual bouts of outrage that we have to thank both complainant and Singh for providing a much-needed digression from the usual canker.