When it comes to cinematic offerings, 'Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare' serves as both entertainment and a controversial sauce of social commentary. Directed by Alankrita Shrivastava, the film features the adventurous lives of two cousins, Dolly and Kitty, who are fighting personal battles in the modern cityscape of New Delhi. Released on Netflix in 2020, its purpose is to challenge social norms and inspire conversations. Yet, if you scratch beneath the shimmering veneer, you might find not empowerment, but liberal pandering.
A World of Loose Morals Who are Dolly and Kitty? Far from your traditional heroines, these women bend morality for the sake of their desires. Dolly hides a dirty secret from her picture-perfect suburban family while harboring a growing dissatisfaction. Meanwhile, Kitty embraces her own form of liberation by joining a hapless phone-sex start-up. What does that teach us? Apparently, it's okay to deceive and rebel in pursuit of what postmodern ideals tell you is happiness.
Normalize Debauchery This is not your grandmother's Hindi film. Gone are the days of aspirational narratives featuring honor and upright families. If you want more evidence of society's plummeting moral fiber, here it is. The protagonists' escapades serve to normalize behavior that was once frowned upon. If this is the liberal dream, is it really what society needs? You might ask, "Is promiscuity now the order of the day?" Apparently, if Dolly and Kitty have their say.
The Celebration of Relativism Remember when right was right, and wrong was wrong? Not in Dolly Kitty’s world. Here, every individual writes their own rule book. Kitty never stops to question the ethics of her newly adopted lifestyle, while Dolly doesn’t consider whether her actions hurt her family. They're just two more characters living life according to relativism—the latest darling of progressive society.
When Women Chase Everything Female empowerment! That's what they want you to believe this film embraces. Except, empowerment looks more like a badly coordinated shopping spree. Dolly and Kitty have plenty of ambition but zero accountability. They're portrayed as liberated, when really they climb right into a mess of their own making. How empowering is that?
The Allure of Unrealistic Freedom Freedom in 'Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare' is a shiny bauble, but it's all flash and no substance. Dolly and Kitty chase this elusive freedom but remain ensnared in another sort of bondage—one dictated by sex and materialism. Maybe the film should have shown balance and moral responsibility as part of this freedom equation?
The Illusion of Sisterhood Trust and relationships are key, they tell us. In this film, however, sisterhood conveniently adapts to serve the plot rather than genuine character development. Dolly and Kitty might evolve from contentious interactions to mutual support, yet their sisterhood seems more like an excuse for bad decisions foredoomed to be construed as "growth."
Critique on Consumerism, or an Excuse for It? Consumerism isn’t just criticized here—it’s celebrated. The city buzzes around these women like an amoral arcade of choices and temptations. The film fails to take a stand against the consumerist mindset that engulfs Dolly and Kitty. Instead, it wraps it in shiny distractions, masking underlying emptiness.
Is Happiness Really That Shallow? At its core, the film raises the question: is this shallow happiness truly all there is? Dolly and Kitty grapple with existential crises, yet the solutions they find are somewhat superficial. Perhaps introspection and a traditional understanding of happiness might have served them better?
Indulgence Without Consequence Actions come without repercussions in this liberal utopia. By the end of the film, we're left with the narrative that indulgence—whether in lust, consumerism, or self-interest—carries no lasting damage. Reality knows better, and those missteps would be much more expensive in the real world.
The Echo Chamber of Modern Cinema 'Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare' caters to a predictable crowd. It's a cinematic echo chamber where radical ideals are fed straight back to a willing audience. A rebellious movie that emboldens a particular brand of autonomy while sidelining the eternal values humans have cherished for centuries. Maybe that's why conservatives find it fundamentally flawed. The movie equates struggle with empowerment, omits personal responsibility, and edges perilously close to the narrative being promulgated by liberals.
This film defiantly challenges traditional values while blindly rallying behind a liberal agenda. By propping up its own paradigm of morality, it leaves you questioning if this is the kind of liberation worth advocating.