What do Mamata Banerjee and Jaani Dushman have in common?

Anisha Sheth | The News Minute | July 3, 2014 | 5.28 pm ISTIndian politics and popular culture have several things in common. They can be very superficial, both have more than their fair share of melodrama and histrionics, our political leaders can have a larger than life image that people believe in, and of course, both can be very, very regressive.On June 30, Krishnanagar MP Tapas Pal said in a rally in Choumaha in Nadia district, West Bengal: "If anybody from the CPI-M dares touch my mother, sister, uncle or aunt, then this Tapas Pal is not going to spare them. Tapas Pal will shoot them with his revolver. Remember, I am from Chandernagore. I am not from Kolkata. Tapas Pal too has been a tough. If anyone from the opposition dares touch a daughter, father, child from Trinamool, I will do whatever I can to their entire clan. I will set my boys on them, they will rape them.”Obviously, there was a huge outcry and demands for his expulsion and resignation came from various quarters. It appears that Pal decided that the best way out for him and for his party (ironically headed by a woman) was to apologize. Trinamool Congress spokesperson Derek O’ Brien said: “(The) Party has accepted his apology. The party believes that the tone and tenor of the letter was right and the matter ends there.”First the comment, then apology and then the magnanimous forgiveness. Problem solved.Sounds like the re-enactment of a similar story from a very bad mainstream film released in 2002. Jaani Dushman. In the film, starring Manisha Koirala, two guys attempt to rape her but she is rescued by Sunny Deol. (Later in the film they actually do it, but that is a story you don’t really want to know). The two are humiliated and then... that's right. Magnanimous forgiveness.On a YouTube channel Pretentious Movie Reviews, Kannan Gill and Biswa Kalyan review films that are so bad, that you will roll around on the floor laughing, except for some of the scenes that are so regressive, they can make you cringe. The operative scene is one where Manisha Koirala’s friends including Akshay Kumar, Sonu Nigam, Suniel Shetty and a couple of forgettable people convince her to “forgive” the “jeete jagte naujavan” (young and energetic youth). (The relevant scene begins at around 45 seconds, but the whole review is worth watching.)Thankfully, aaaall is well. In real life, and in reel life. If an apology is all it takes, lets just throw out all our laws.