Pinkless Vakeel Saab Upsets Feminists

Vakeel Saab, the official Telugu remake of the National Award-winning Bollywood courtroom drama ‘Pink’, is the first among Pawan Kalyan’s long list of comeback films. Pawan reprises Amitabh Bachchan’s lawyer’s role from the original version that also had Taapsee, Kriti Kulhari and Andrea Tariang in lead roles.

But here, it’s been Pawan’s one man show ever since the launch of Vakeel Saab’s first look poster. Be it the ‘Maguva Maguva’ song or the action-packed teaser or the recently released ‘Satyameva Jayate’ song, Pawan has dominated all the promos and the female leads were made to look insignificant.

Vakeel Saab’s makers don’t seem to even think of highlighting the film’s leading ladies – Anjali, Nivetha Thomas and Ananya Nagalla, even though the film is essentially a female-centric film that delivers a strong message against sexual harassment on women.

On the contrary, Vakeel Saab’s original version, Pink, and its Tamil remake ‘Nerkonda Paarvai’, highlighted its leading ladies and both Amitabh Bachchan and Ajith took a back step in the promos. Vakeel Saab team’s enthusiasm in glorifying Pawan’s heroism at the cost of the film’s very spirit has made Vakeel Saab ‘Pinkless’.

While feminists and critics are unhappy with this promotional strategy, fans defend it, saying that Pawan is a big star who can pull in more crowds to watch a female-centric drama in theaters. Well, we will have to wait until the film’s release to see if the makers will stick to the original version and highlight the leading ladies in the movie at least.