MouchoPrema: Pokkiri Raja

I've written more fully about the 2010 film Pokkiri Raja, but what I didn't mention was a couple of instances where references to the moustache are used to highlight and extend a little  Dolce and Namak's note that they are "THE most coveted symbol of virility and manliness:"

In the first instance, Surya (Prithviraj) is brought into the police station by the Commissioner, whose daughter he wants to marry.  In pressing point his home that this relationship really isn't in the cards, the Comissioner asks Surya:

That is, he's asking Surya if he's really thinks he can stand up to the Commissioner and defeat him.

The Commissioner drives his point home later in the film.  Surya's brother, Raja (the Pokkiri Raja, or king of rogues of the film's title) is determined to see his brother marry the Commisioner's daughter.  The Commissioner, confident that the marriage will never take place (and certain that he will marry his daughter off to the son of the Home Minister), makes a boast:

 

Yup.  He'll shave off his moustache if things don't go his way.  Which, of course, they don't, and Raja makes sure that his brother and his girl get married, which prompts this exchange:

 

When asked if they should shave off the Commissioner's moustache as per the bet, Raja replies that it doesn't matter, they might as well leave him his moustache, because it's not the moustache that makes the man, it's the man who makes the moustache.

 

Comments

[Ness]

This reminds me - there's a part in Chor Machaaye Shor (the Bobby Deol version, but of course) where Paresh Rawal is extolling the virtues of the Mooch (he is mustache obsessed for the whole film, which is kind of educational actually for people who don't get the relevance of the mooch)

http://shahrukhislove.blogspot.com/2011/03/chor-machaaye-shor.html (scroll down a bit!)

[katherine]

I love it! Totally had forgotten that film.

You know, the more people post about the moustache thing, the more I get mulling over all the sociological/psychological implications of the thing, and it's really rather fascinating.