Some of the many roles Ayushman Khurana has played so far - sperm donor, (pretend) blind guy, man with premature ejaculation, man with premature balding, man who does strīvesha/female roleplay, man with senior-pregnancy parents, man with Kumar Sanu complex, & ofc Brahmin saviour.
This is an interesting filmography. Khurana seems to have a patent interest in savarna male anxiety & the precariousness of masculinity, which should be a great counterpoint to the Akshay Kumar/Bhaijaan hypermasculinity of the times, but it's not.
Instead, there is an odd juxtaposition of impotence with disability with gender performativity, almost as if all these things have conspired to prevent the savarna (in fact many a time Brahmin) male to achieve his fullest masculine potential.
In fact, Article-15 is an anomaly in this repertoire. Along with his flops, i.e. Bewakoofiyan, Hawaizaada, etc where Khurana seems to play mostly perfect guy with small conflicts in his life (haven't watched either, lol), Khurana succeeds when he messes with bodily performance...
...and when the script requires him to require an aura of masculinity. I think aura is important here; most of these films are really about recovering the aura of mardaanagi, while emphasizing the whole thing as an act, a farce that nonetheless has to be kept up because "samaaj"!
*requires him to project (GAH!)
So it's no wonder these films are also subtly (or as in Dream Girl overtly) misogynistic, homophobic, & casteist-classist; they are mostly caste dramas that both pillory the savarna middle class but fondly marvel at the middle classness of it all.
So it's no wonder these films are also subtly (or as in Dream Girl overtly) misogynistic, homophobic, & casteist-classist; they are mostly caste dramas that both pillory the savarna middle class but fondly marvel at the middle classness of it all.
I dont know if I'm making sense lol, but what I mean is whether it's the male-orgasm centric sexual attempts in Sarva Mangal, or sex-shaming in Badhaai Ho, or virility-pride in Aryaputra Vicky Donor, these films are affectionate towards these traits, even when it means...
... women, old people, the rest of small-town/small-urban society are treated like shit. Youthful savarna mardaanagi & puritanical sexual mores have to be just so twee in the way they always have been.
And sexuality, the penis, and - if I can reduce it to its baseness - the capacity to fuck, constantly figure in this savarna male anxiety. All the physicality of being male - hairiness, body language, weight-lifting (literally the hallmark of his maleness in Dum Lagaa Ke)- are...
... actually subordinate to the desperate fear that this man from the Hindi heartland may be denied sex. It would be laughable, except it's so bloody Freudian in its simplicity and this is the formula that works for Hindi cinema.
Someone mentioned these roles are incel-adjacent, but it's not quite accurate because Khurana hooks up constantly in these films. It's not the woman who is the conflict, it's consummation, and whatever connotations that has in Brahminical imaginaries of sex. Wildly interesting.
Because if the happy endings (haha) of these films are about Man reaching his potential through sexual performance, the larger homosocial bonding & social approval of other men is often key to this. In a nutshell, caste-male endogamy. This is at least my hypothesis for now.
