Shibu K Moideen the producer of the recent Malayalam film Queen hits back on film critic with a sexist remark, on a tweet:

Queen a movie on Rape and Self-proclaimed feminism has been slammed by many critics including

Anna MM Vetticad in First Post – This is not a review this is a protest!

Sowmya Rajendran, Entertainment Journalist at The News Minute – With its ‘Blameless victim’, Malayalam film ‘Queen’ does a disservice to rape survivors. 

The movie has been called out by most critics and prominent personalities on social media for its depiction of rape and the stigma attached to immorality with regards to the victim; a far cry from the 2016 film Pink. As if that wasn’t enough, Producer Shibu went on to personally attack journalist Sowmya Rajendran thus.

Talking to JFW, Sowmya Rajendran responded, “I was not surprised by Mr. Shibu’s post. This isn’t the first time that someone from the film industry has reacted badly to criticism, especially if it is made by a woman writer. I did not write a review of ‘Queen’, I wrote an opinion piece on the problematic way in which the film has handled rape. If the makers truly believe in gender justice, they should also accept a woman’s right to disagree with their work and critique it. The ‘fish fry’ comment is a reference to actor Rima Kallingal’s TEDx speech and the contempt that Mr. Shibu displays towards it amply shows how little he understands sexism, misogyny, and gender discrimination. I’m sure the irony is lost on him that he made such a comment when defending ‘Queen’. I have nothing more to add to the debate since I passed out of kindergarten a long time ago :)”.

She also went on to add, “There is an effort on Twitter to direct fan abuse towards me and TNM by certain film industry trackers. They tag fan and actor handles and claim that we have been consistently trashing superstar films. These baseless accusations are amusing and I’m far from being intimidated by them.”

However, this is not the first time, Cinema critics/journalists have been attacked in this manner. Last year Dhanya Rajendran was trolled with endless rape threats and insults in regard to her allegedly talking down a movie of commercial actor Vijay. It seems like the more progressive our mindsets and passionate views are regarding feminism and its reflection in movies, the more regressive it gets in real life.