Durga Puja, in cinema, has always been a spectacle of tradition – an opulent backdrop for familial gathering, rituals and high drama. Parineeta, Kahaani, even Devdas – filmmakers have heavily drawn on Durga Puja’s visual grandeur and intensity to heighten emotional appeal and amplify cultural identity. Karan Johar, in the 2023 National Award Winning Film Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (RARKPK), amplified the festival to be more than just a decorative milieu. The maverick filmmaker transformed Durga Puja into a radical site of subversion, where gender roles were toppled, femininity was feted as strength and masculinity was rewritten through broad brush strokes of vulnerability. Johar’s use of Durga Puja was startling in its layered socio-political resonance.
RARKPK, Durga Puja As A Stage For Gender Politics
Johar has long been accused of pandering to stereotypes like candyfloss romance. However, with RARKPK, he channeled the extravagance of Durga Puja into a statement on gender fluidity. The festival rituals, traditionally centered on the ten-armed-goddess, became the perfect cinematic setting to destabilize patriarchal norms. By situating his male protagonists within this ritualistic landscape, Johar, in a masterstroke, invoked the goddess as an achor for his critique of rigid masculinity
The Puja sequence sees Rocky (Ranveer Singh) – a stereotypical Delhi macho man, entering the space of Bengali ritual alongside Ranii (Ali Bhatt). As the screen floods with crimson and gold, Johar, instead of showcasing only Ranii as the inheritor of feminine strength, places Rocky at the heart of the ritual
One of Johar’s most powerful acts of subversion unfolds in the Dhindhora Baje Re sequence. The scene opens with Chandon Chatterjee (Tota Roy Chowdhury) dancing to Dola Re Dola, a performance that unsettles the traditionalists around him who have long mocked his passion for dance as unbecoming of a man. Soon, Rocky Randhawa (Ranveer Singh) – the embodiment of boisterous Punjabi masculinity – joins Chandon in a duet. And in that moment, Johar collapses the divide between what men and women are “allowed” to do – both on screen and in real life.
A dance historically tied to feminine grace becomes a shared act of devotion and self-expression by two cis-gender males. Rocky’s enthusiastic participation not only validates Chandon’s artistry but also redefines his own masculinity, showing that strength lies not in adhering to patriarchal norms but in embracing vulnerability and fluidity. The shock on Rocky’s family’s faces underscores the transgression, but Johar frames the scene with joy, music, and celebration, turning the defiance of tradition into an affirmation on screen.
The entire sequence, shot predominantly in red, with men too spearing vermillion disrupts Bollywood’s habitual coding of crimson as strictly feminine, tied to fertility, marriage, and womanhood. By allowing a male body to embrace the same color with pride, Johar breaks from heteronormative symbolism
Durga: A Symbol Of Plurality
Traditionally, Goddess Durga herself is a symbol of plurality. She is a mother, a warrior, she is creator, nurturer ad destroyer. She is both feminine and cosmic. Johar harnesses this multiplicity to mirror his characters’ journey. Ranii is intellect, assertiveness, and the confidence often denied to female leads in mainstream cinema. Rocky, in contrast, beautifully sheds his machismo, embracing qualities of empathy, care, and vulnerability. The Durga Puja sequence, thus becomes a metaphorical classroom where Durga teaches characters to embrace wholeness beyond binary definitions.
Bollywood has often mocked men who stepped outside set and defined masculine norms – casting them as emasculated fools or comic relief. Johar, in RARKP, subverts such imagery by consciously making his male leads adorn themselves in fluid red, dance to dhaak beats and participate in rituals essentially dictated as feminine by the society
Mainstream Cinema And A Radical Gesture
That Johar, a filmmaker known for his grand Bollywood gestures, would embed such subversive politics in a mainstream love story in cinema is significant. Unlike niche art house films, RARKPK reached millions. Its Puja sequence was vibrant and emotionally rousing. The audience could not help but cheer on the spectacle even as the film quietly rewrote who gets to occupy ritual space. However, within the defined boundaries of Bollywood, the act of inclusion was a powerful symbolic strike
Cinema And Puja Politics
By turning Durga Puja into a site for gender subversion, Johar’s brilliance shines. He joins a list of filmmakers who have used the festival to study identity. While Ray’s Devi was a critique of patriarchy and the loss of identity, and Ghosh’s Antarmahal exposed cruelty in silence, Johar chose to highlight celebration in RARKPK. And in its noisy, colouful and unapologetic madness, it dismantled gender binaries – Men could suddenly dance to Dola re Dola in red, and women can claim authority
