She stoops to conquer! Literally!! To see Deepika Padukone get to the ground to twerk her torso is not my idea of a song well spent.

There are some heroines who are born twerkers. Like Priyanka Chopra and Katrina Kaif. Deepika doesn’t have it in her. It’s like Waheeda Rehman doing Buddha mil gaya. Vyjanthimala had it. Waheeda Rehman didn’t.

Twerking is the least of the problems with the Besharam Rang song. The opening lines pay an in-your-face lackluster homage to the 1958 Qawwalli Humein toh loot liya milke husn walon ne kale kale baalon ne gore gore gaalon ne sung by Ismail Azad Qawwal.

No acknowledgement of the original source of the opening lines. Or the tune which sounds like Bappi Lahiri’s Kissi nazar ko tera intezaar aaj bhi hai. On the social media the song has been slammed for sounding like so many earlier songs. So, no. Not an original. But it’s not the vandalism of the song that offends the most deeply.

It is the way Deepika Padukone allows herself to be objectified in the crudest manner possible. That a female choreographer Vaibhavi Merchant is an accomplice in this crass act makes it worse.

In the context of the song it is Shah Rukh Khan who is “manfully” gazing at Deepika in a bikini. But the gaze actually extends to every male member in the audience. Objectifying women has always been a favourite pastime of Hindi cinema especially in the songs and dances. Katrina Kaif’s Chikni chameli and Malaika Arora’s Munni badnaam top the list of male-gaze feasts.The lust supper, if you will.

With Deepika Padukone , there is the added pressure of fitting into a slot that she doesn’t really belong in. The endresult is mortifying, more a dip into aspiration than execution.

Who would do this to the dreamy ethereal heroine of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Bajirao Mastani and Padmaavat? This one song in Pathaan robs Deepika’s image of dignity and grace, those rare qualities that she radiates at her best. Today everyone wants to be a hottie. Recently when I gently pointed out to Janhvi Kapoor that she doesn’t need to do all the male-gaze attention-seeking tricks that her colleagues play ,she very firmly told me she knows what she wants and how to go about her career.

In other words, eff off.

I am sure Deepika is just fine being the twerking torso , especially since her loved ones are just fine with it. But she does have a responsibility towards her fans. And not all of them have liked what she has done in Besharam Rang.