There is a particular kind of cultural conditioning that operates invisibly — so embedded in entertainment habits that we mistake it for taste. Viewers arrive at films primed by years of storytelling, by algorithms, and by the ambient noise of social media to receive male suffering as tragic, male grievance as legitimate, and male entitlement as worthy of scrutiny. The sympathy is allocated before the first scene has even begun.

At a recent standup show, comedian Pranit More encountered a crowd member who casually revealed he had bought a woman a plate of biryani for Rs 370 and considered this a transaction, one that entitled him to her body. He said it openly, in a room full of people. What’s striking was his ease. A person who has never been told, by anything he has watched or laughed at, that this outlook requires examination. That ease has a supply chain.

Dacoit, a Tamil production featuring Anurag Kashyap as a cop, centres around vengeance against a woman who betrayed her partner. The emotional architecture asks spectators to understand his anger, follow his trajectory, and invest in his rage.

Bandar, Kashyap’s Bollywood follow-up, goes further, constructing a cinematic world where false allegations against men function less as an anomaly and more as atmosphere. Every thread points toward the same conclusion, that men are a persecuted class, that women wield courts as weapons, and that institutions have abandoned the former.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recorded 4,41,534 crimes against women in 2024. Spousal and........

© Indian Express