A Love Story Gone Wrong: When Therapy Meets Toxicity
In a world where toxic male leads seem to dominate our screens, we were hopeful that Tere Ishk Mein would offer a fresh perspective. However, the film's attempt to explore a toxic trope took a turn for the worse, leaving us with a cringe-worthy tale.
Aanand L Rai's Tere Ishk Mein introduces us to Shankar, a man haunted by a traumatic past. His rage stems from witnessing his mother's tragic death, a memory that fuels his volatile and broken state. Enter Mukti, a PhD scholar with a unique mission: to eradicate anger from the human psyche through experimental therapy.
But here's where it gets controversial... Mukti's approach is questionable from the start. She chooses Shankar, a man prone to violent outbursts, as her subject. Despite his aggressive behavior, she slaps him and smiles back at his creepy response. This sets a disturbing tone, blurring the lines between abuse and flirtation, and treating therapy as a mere game.
Mukti's determination to prove her thesis leads her down a dangerous path. She exploits Shankar's emotional vulnerability, mistaking his obsession for progress. Her actions are a far cry from the professionalism one would expect from a PhD scholar.
The film presents a bizarre narrative where Mukti believes she can 'fix' Shankar. She records his emotions without providing any actual therapeutic intervention, and then presents him as a success story to her professors. When reality hits and Shankar's anger erupts, Mukti refuses to accept failure, continuing to enable his toxic behavior.
Things take a turn for the worse when Mukti's actions become ethically questionable. She asks victims of Shankar's violence to slap him, and then agrees to his demand for physical intimacy in exchange for being slapped. This scene is a prime example of the film's lack of ethical boundaries.
Mukti's lack of agency and common sense is the primary issue. She knows Shankar is unstable, yet she leads him on, perpetuating a toxic relationship for the sake of her experiment. Her father's intervention is the only thing that finally brings some sense of reality to the situation.
Shankar's outbursts are romanticized and excused, and the film even turns his father's tragic death into an emotional monologue. The absurdity continues as Mukti's life spirals out of control, making decisions that defy logic and common sense.
By the end, the film not only fails to critique toxic masculinity, but it worships it. Instead of exposing the harmful alpha behavior, it celebrates it. Both Shankar's aggression and Mukti's poor decision-making are glorified, leaving us with a disappointing message.
While the acting, especially Prakash Raj's performance, was commendable, the story falls flat. Tere Ishk Mein had the potential to dismantle a destructive trope, but instead, it reinforces it. The portrayal of a female psychologist as a punchline, delivering lines that reduce her profession to a joke, is a disservice to the field.
And this is the part most people miss: when a film fails to portray mental health issues and therapeutic processes accurately, it not only does a disservice to the audience but also to the professionals working hard to help people. Ma'am, you've turned psychologists into a punchline, and that's a concern we should all address.
What are your thoughts on this controversial portrayal? Do you think films have a responsibility to portray mental health issues accurately? Let's discuss in the comments!
