10 Popular Bollywood Songs That Are Highly Gender-Discriminating

Bollywood – the lifeline of us Indians.

In a country plagued with problems of all kinds – unemployment, poverty prevailing in almost 80% of the population, patriarchy, corruption- watching films is a source of not only entertainment, but also of forgetting troubles that are constantly bothering us Indians. While it all started as entertainment, it has now reached a point where people worship actors, actresses, and characters almost as much as they worship God.  Bollywood is incredibly influential – there’s no doubt about that.

Where there is Hindi cinema, there are catchy and fun songs. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll realize one of the reasons for the dropping patriarchal standards of our country. I’m not saying it’s the only reason; I’m saying that it definitely plays a part. When creators of films decide that a certain kind of behaviour and certain kind of lyrics are appropriate to show the audience, the highly influential audience also thinks it’s appropriate to behave that way in real life. Catch my drift?

Here are a list of a few songs we listen to today that are laced with sexism and overall gender discrimination.

P.S. : Honey Singh has been mentioned because he is now a very popular Bollywood artiste.
P.P.S. : The songs that made it to this list are just a few compared to a lot of others. These were picked at random.

1. Dilliwali Girlfriend – Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani

This song is undoubtedly catchy, but the lyrics seem a tad unsettling. The boy apparently thinks it’s okay to chase a girl and ask her to marry him, because he left another girl for her. A line also reads: “Tujhe le jaunga main toh yahan jhande gaad ke” (I’ll take you away and put a flag where I picked you up from, as a sign of victory). Okay then.

 

2. Palat – Main Tera Hero

The guy in this song sounds like his ego is being hurt, because the girl isn’t noticing him. One of the lines reads: “Kehta hai kyu mujhse zamana, nahi aasan hai tujhko pana” (I don’t know why the world is telling me that I can’t have you), and then he goes on to how he’ll pamper her once he does get her.

 

3. Love Dose, Yo Yo Honey Singh

An article based on Bollywood and sexism is incomplete without the mention of Yo! Yo! Honey Singh, and rightly so. In this song, not only does he chase the girl and tease her, but also takes her phone, calls her father, and tell him that he’s basically really rich, so he should give away his daughter to him. What’s worse is that the girl seems to blush when he says that.

 

4. Yaar Na Mile – Kick

The song is basically about how a woman can’t live without the man (special emphasis on the picture shown above). ‘Nuff said.

 

5. Pinky – Zanjeer

Let us, for a second, forget that this song is an item number. The song basically says that a woman doesn’t care where the man is from (one positive point, I must admit), just as long as he has the money. So we’re back to square one.

 

6. Lovely – Happy New Year

It’s obvious that an item number has to objectify women. But the reason I chose this song out of all is that there’s a part of the song where a man is rapping, and the rap mentions that she’s so obsessed with the guy, that she likes all his Instagram pictures, asks for his autographs, and is basically so nuts about him that the guy actually asks her to stop (“Haye ni kudiye, kardi tu hadh, mitran da peecha please dey chhadd”). Depicts a woman in a bad light, undoubtedly.

 

7. Brown Rang – Yo Yo Honey Singh

I tried really hard to not make this entire article about him, but I couldn’t help myself. Here, the master song-writer says this:
“Urre aa tenu ik gal samjhawan, maade purje nu kade hath main na paawan
Vaise taan mitran da bahut vadda score but white chicks na
I don’t like them anymore, bann mitran di whore
I mean mitran di ho”
This, loosely translated, means: “Come here, let me explain something to you, I never touch anything sub-standard.
By the way, I’ve scored many times, but only with white chicks.
I don’t like them anymore, come be my whore.
I mean be mine, ho.”
Need I say more?

 

8. Chittiyan Kalhaiyan – Roy

The latest song that is creating waves among the audiences. The first thought that came into my mind was how ridiculous it makes women look. Some of the lines that made me cringe were “take me shopping”, “take me out to watch a movie” and that she’s so proud of the fact that she’s fair. Is a woman’s worth based only on her fairness? Come on, guys. It’s 20-fucking-15.

 

9. Jummey Ki Raat – Kick

A typical song where the guy thinks that chasing a girl is the answer to everything. Sigh.

 

10. Gandi Baat – R Rajkumar

The entire gist of this song was that he waited for the girl to turn up. He tried to be nice, but she wasn’t interested (Raja beta banke maine jab sharafat dikhayi, tune bola ‘hatt mawaali’ bhaav nahi diya re). That was unacceptable to him, so he decided to stop being civil, and take the high road with ‘gandi baat’.

Sounds about fair.

These were not even a complete fraction of all the songs out there that talk about demeaning things against women (I haven’t put two of Honey Singh’s songs that are wayyyyy worse than the ones I’ve mentioned here. I almost cried with anger when I read them).  To conclude, I’d say that even though we think we’re turning more modern with each passing day, we’re actually only positioning women differently in the same light- where she isn’t as important as the man- be it films, or even real life. And to be really honest, Bollywood is partially to blame. So, the next time we go watch films, let’s try to keep it separate from our realities. Because after all, it’s fiction- it shouldn’t be applied to real life.

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