MenToo review: An insensitive, regressive take on male victimisation

1/5

Story:

Aditya is a corporate employee who is lost and unrecognised in a female dominant workspace. Munna is a mechanic who detests women after a failed romance. Sanju is stuck in a loveless relationship with a male-hating standup comedian Neha. They find solace in a stags-only bar where other men vent out their woes. How far will they go to make a man’s voice heard?

Review:

#MenToo, a tale focusing on male victimisation, commences with a half-sarcastic take on the origins of feminism and how the movement has turned into a mere gender-bashing game with time. It sheds light on an important issue - men can feel victimised despite being in a majority. Ironically, in the same way it suggests how women have misunderstood the idea of equality, the film reduces its female characters to toxic caricatures sans any identity.

In a bid to showcase men as victims in society, the film comes up with dangerous, sweeping generalisations about women. A character says it’s hard to trust a woman when she’s not a mother. A woman files a fake sexual harassment case on her male colleague, a female activist makes her husband do all the household chores as she lazes around, another female standup comedian who bashes men in her comedy sets uses her boyfriend’s credit card to go shopping.

In another workplace, it’s portrayed as if a woman can crack deals with her beauty and sweet-talk alone. The men are hurt to make way for a woman in a share auto and sit alongside the driver. While it would’ve been alright if #MenToo positioned itself as a comedy that looked at these oddities in a lighter vein, the tone of the film is largely serious and it wants to be an embodiment of the male voice.

Instead of using a traumatic incident as a hook to initiate a conversation on men’s issues, the blame is conveniently shifted towards the other gender and the filmmaker Srikanth G Reddy refuses to look at the larger picture. #MenToo, surprisingly, fails at its own game - one of its male protagonists proudly proclaims that he’s a ‘woman hater’. Then, what makes him any different from the women they portray in the film?

This is the reason why you’ll appreciate EVV Satyanarayana’s Jamba Lakidi Pamba all the more even today - it gives men a taste of what it means to be in the shoes of a woman, making a statement on twisted gender equations, entertaining without being regressive. #MenToo’s only bearable segment is Aditya’s flashback episode, where the couple takes a break for a year and gives the man a window to make a mark in his career before marriage.

Even in a film like F2 that mischievously stereotyped women, Anil Ravipudi took a U-turn in the latter half to do the balancing act. A recent instance, Save The Tigers too dealt with a similar issue but it didn’t make the mistake of being chauvinistic; the story was personalised and the societal angle barely came into the picture. #MenToo gets very monotonous, conveying the same point, roaming around in circles.

Just when it could’ve ended with grace, the climax has a satirical dialogue on a man celebrating the birth of a baby girl that’s in poor taste. To add insult to injury, there’s a homophobic joke when a man says he can’t ‘grow a pair of ba**s’ because he’s gay. #MenToo isn’t only problematic, it’s bitter and the essence of the story goes for a toss with the terrible storytelling.

Among the lead actors, Naresh Agastya and Kaushik Ghantasala are the pick of the lot - despite the ranting spree around them, they hold their own and make an impression. Brahmaji is passable in a ‘wise-uncle’ act guiding his younger counterparts with gyaan about women. Riya Suman is impactful in her brief cameo and Ashrita Vemuganti plays the modern-day mother with gravitas. Priyanka Sharma is strictly okay in a poorly written role.

Rakendu Mouli’s dialogues don’t quite help the film’s cause. The songs barely strike a chord. #MenToo more than raising awareness on an important issue is satisfied in being provocative. What it needed is more wit but it only ends up causing an ulcer.

Verdict:

#MenToo is a silly film revolving around a few butthurt men with provocative generalisations about women. Watching paint dry would be more meaningful and less harmful to your senses. Being a man may not be easy but watching this film is even more difficult.