Is ‘Broken But Beautiful 3’ Yet Another Toxic Masculine Presentation After Kabir Singh; Twitterati Can't Stop To Compare

For a movie to trend on social media even two years after its release, certainly speaks volumes about its massive success. Case in point is Shahid Kapoor-Kiara Advani starrer Kabir Singh (2019) which was trending recently on the day the teaser of ALTBalaji’s forthcoming web show, Broken But Beautiful 3 was launched. One may wonder what’s the similarity between the two, those who have watched the teaser and trailer of the web show couldn’t stop drawing an obvious comparison of its lead protagonist Agastya Rao (portrayed by Sidharth Shukla) with Kabir Singh – labelled as the poster boy for toxic masculinity by the hardcore feminists. While the movie had received a lot of backlash on social media and started a debate on the representation of women on the silver screen, the same community has once again questioned the decision and vision of the makers of the web show to glorify the similar regressive content in the name of progressive and entertaining narrative.

Alike Shahid Kapoor’s character that glorified toxic masculinity, an obsessive lover, physical abuse, and anger issues all in the name of love, Sidharth’s character in Broken But Beautiful 3– a theatre director seem to have got all the similar traits as he is shown smoking, drinking, depressed, angry, restless and an obsessive lover in the trailer. While in Kabir Singh, the lead protagonist slapping the girl he is madly in love with has been projected as the new normal, also suggesting that all is fair in love and war, the web series too showcases Agastya’s aggressiveness and violence as a passionate lover. Sadly, looks like it has taken a lot of cues from the 2019 musical blockbuster.

While Kabir Singh earned Rs 70 crore in its opening weekend (pre covid pandemic era) with the audience praising toxic masculinity (getting normalized), we won’t be surprised if Broken But Beautiful 3 continues the same success story! The series to start streaming from 29th May on Alt Balaji