Trust cinema to change the paradigms and norms that govern the societal norms of the society. QUEEN indeed could be that experimental film that may change the manner in which one approaches the idea and concept of a honeymoon.
The traditional norm associated with Honeymoon is that a couple who have been married, go out to hitherto unexplored territories, to discover each other, both at the physical and cerebral levels and to start finding out the nodes of resonance and the nodes of discord.
Well, what is a paradigm if it is not challenged? Director Vikas Bahl seems to have taken up the challenge and while the honeymoon may have been a concept imported from the West, it has become an initiatory process of conjugal bliss.
But what Vikas Bahl is proposing now through QUEEN is to go on a honeymoon alone. And what’s better, it’s the bride who’s going solo for her honeymoon! Stag parties have now become a norm where both the boys and the girls on the verge of being betrothed, supposedly go on a binge a night before stepping on to the altar, to enjoy supposed freedom, before being chained to norms and expectations.
QUEEN is a significant step forward in exploration of the self. That too from the perspective of a female, hailing from a small town. It is an approach to empowerment, empowerment of the self as also the soul, as QUEEN could encourage quite a lot of small town youth to go on a self-expedition to understand self, see the world and prepare oneself for a new relationship in life.
Besides, what better way to bring an element of conviction about the process, than by choosing Kangana Ranaut to enact the role as she hails from small town and she thrives and excels in execution of such roles, as it provides her a veritable opportunity to dig deep into her experiences and bring them on with an element of conviction on to the silver screen.
It is not that this self-exploration is happening for the first time, but the self-exploration in a honeymoon mode could perhaps be happening for the first time. One only hopes that post QUEEN, Vikas Bahl would also make a KING that would try to explore the nuances of honeymoon from a single male perspective, as it is happening in QUEEN from a single female perspective.
