Oops, The Queen Comes Hurtling Down

English, a language that once was ‘the white man’s burden’, and which later went on to become the most powerful vehicle of modern thought across the globe, is often referred to as the ‘Queen’s tongue’.

Kangana Ranaut, who once was a talented and ambitious actor, but who later turned out to be an insecure and jealous woman, is often referred to as the ‘Queen’.

When any Queen is given royal treatment it becomes her gallant duty to protect the sanctity of her majestic tag. She cannot afford to lose her mental balance, fail and falter and relentlessly keep wagging her tongue.

There is a time and a place for everything. When it’s time to plant and you start to uproot; when you are supposed to construct but you start to destruct; or when you break into a dance while the world is mourning; it means that royalty has gone to the head and has taken over the loyalty to your subjects. Then the invisible crown on the Queen’s head no longer looks aristocratic or feels noble.

With ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ and ‘Queen’, Kangana was rightly catapulted to the big league. When she won a National award and gave out public statements, it was always with a fearless attitude, making her sound like a woman who meant and stood by what she said. Her title of ‘the Queen’ felt justified for all the right reasons. But that was once upon a time, because soon the spiralling descent started.

Real superstars focus on their careers, to deliver year after year, film after film, over long periods of time. They don’t go on a self destructive spree by interfering and insisting on getting larger than life roles for themselves, or becoming shadow directors.

They don’t have internet wars with their boyfriends, call them ‘Silly Exes’ and take them to court. Or start a one woman war against imaginary ‘Bollywood mafias’ and engage in schoolyard fights against others at the cost of their time and mental health.

They don’t start a flood of accusations labelling actors and directors as ‘mediocre’, ‘soft porn stars’ or ‘flag bearers of nepotism’, thus sparking debates. They also don’t mistakenly believe a ‘satirical’ post to be genuine, or genuine history to be false.

But that wasn’t all. The worst was yet to come. The Queen was about to become the Queen of Controversies. With her unparalleled devotion for a ‘King’, she came out with guns blazing against most of her subjects with her bullying attitude and uncouth behaviour.

Her ‘Oops’ moments continued to increase with factually incorrect remarks igniting a flurry of memes on social media. She also faced a severe backlash and a legal notice after stating that the ‘Mumbai police haunts her more than the mafias of Bollywood’.

Once she even went on to compare the city to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. An FIR was filed against her for allegedly spreading hate propaganda and inciting communal violence in West Bengal, thus suspending her Twitter account. She also threatened the leading film magazine Filmfare for whatever bizarre reasons.

When she proclaimed Subhash Chandra Bose and not Jawaharlal Nehru as “our first Prime Minister”, unknowingly she did shed light on a lesser known historical event and we learnt that Bose had indeed declared India’s Independence, and was known as the ‘head of State’.

But when Kangana Miss took us to class to give us a revision of our history lessons, declaring that, “The Independence of 1947 was just a ‘bheekh’ (alms) and we got our real freedom only in the year 2014”, that was a bit too much to digest.

Since the Queen and controversy walk hand in hand, when she finally started her political career and as a proud Hindu boasted that even if she eats beef, BJP still found her fit to be given a poll pass, she attracted undue attention. Kangana’s controversial statements continued, involving mistakenly attacking her party colleague Tejasvi Surya (instead of Tejasvi Yadav), or criticising Rahul Gandhi and his ‘aloo making machine’, and questioning Motilal Nehru’s wealth (who she calls the ‘Ambani of his time’).

But Kangana’s peak level of self obsession was seen when she compared herself to the icon of cinema, Amitabh Bachchan. But when she said that it was our Vishwaguru PM’s guidance to Vladmir Putin, and Ukraine that prevented World War III, even the ‘War Rukwa Di PawPaw’ girl was put to shame.

Call her witty, silly, smart, courageous or outrageous, but never have I seen such a rapid rise and such a sharp fall. In fact her career trajectory resembles the tragedy of a beautiful train wreck.

It also reminds me of all those who suffer from a disorder called ‘Mephobia’- the ‘I’ ‘Me’ ‘Myself’ syndrome, where those infected use their fame and power to dominate and subjugate the weak. When all kinds of emotional manipulation including spreading fake news or stonewalling fail, they play the victim card. If you care to notice, even the word ‘narcissistic’ has not one or two but three ‘I’s.

How do you deal with such people who believe in only Black Or White? There are two ways. One is called Grey Rocking. The term draws inspiration from the discreet and inconspicuous grey rock that blends into its surroundings, attracting minimal attention. So basically the technique is used to divert them by acting as unresponsive as possible. Yes, sometimes ignoring is also bliss!

The second is to keep on asking questions. It doesn’t matter if you are stonewalled. It doesn’t matter how slowly you go as long as you don’t stop. One day, when the time and the tide turns, you will get your answers.

When you witness any accident, is it right to go forward to help or stay put? While it’s easy to think of heroes and villains as polar opposites, a compelling argument is that the true opposite of a hero is not a villain. It is a bystander.

This and only this perspective, challenges all the ‘bystanders’ to re-evaluate their roles in society. It defies us to confront the impact of our choices, urging us to believe in something important. To go out and be the change! To continue to be inactive by steering away from controversies, can be just as detrimental as being manipulative.

Nargis Natarajan is a writer, author and novelist residing in Bhubaneswar. Views expressed are the writer’s own.