You know how Bollywood, in general, has created this image of a stereotypical father or a pitaji figure in our head. Someone who’s always questioning his daughter’s choices, trying to curb their freedom and exert control?

Yeah, Champak (Irrfan Khan) in Angrezi Medium has somehow managed to break the cycle of sexism and shatter the patriarchal norms of on-screen parenting. Don’t believe us? We have proof: 

1. Champak is a single parent who has no shame in admitting that he has been the father and the mother figure in his daughter Taraika’s life.

Whether it was braiding his daughter’s hair, cooking for her, standing outside the school with her tiffin or being the only bread earner of their small family, Irrfan’s character has redefined gender roles by being a mother and a father figure to his daughter.  

2. Champak trusts his daughter Tarika with all his heart. Even when she’s coming home late, he doesn’t bombard her with interrogation or question her character. He just trusts her. 

3. Living in a society where people expect his daughter to get married right after college, Champak fights with the system and supports his daughter through thick and thin. 

Acknowledging his daughter’s dream of pursuing higher education abroad and understanding her fear of the society pressurising her to get married, Champak fights against all odds. 

4. When he suspects that his daughter might have study dates with a boy, he doesn’t give her a lecture on sanskar. He understands. 

Even though like every other father, he is super possessive of his daughter and he secretly hovers over his daughter’s room when she’s studying with a boy, never does he ever cross the line or act inappropriately. It takes some time but Champak realises that the boy might be good for Taru and he stops resent him.  

5. Champak was once a product of the same patriarchal system. He robbed his wife of the chance of pursuing her higher education. But, he realises his fault and evolves to break the sexist cycle.  

Instead of continuing the same sexist cycle, he understood what he was doing wrong. He wanted redemption and there was no better way than supporting his daughter to follow her dreams.  

6. Shattering the norms of toxic masculinity, he doesn’t hesitate twice to put his self-respect on the back burner and apologise for something that wasn’t entirely his fault. 

Champak did what he had to for his daughter, even if it meant putting his self-respect on the line. Not only that he wasn’t afraid of crying or getting emotional about his feelings.

7. When Champak saw his daughter wearing a Little Black Dress, he didn’t get a cultural shock or flip out. His reaction surprised us.  

Taru might have gotten uncomfortable when her dad surprised her with sweets while she was sporting a LBD for the first time. But by the looks of it, Champak didn’t. They only thing that actually hurt him was when his daughter snapped at him for not knocking. 

8.  Champak takes a while but understands that Taru is a grown woman who needs her privacy and freedom. 

Unlike a lot of other onscreen dads, he doesn’t dismiss her right to privacy or tell her that her freedom means nothing. Even though it kills him to stay away from his daughter while they’re in the same city, he still tries to be supportive.  

9. Whether it’s selling his grandfather’s age-old sweet shop or committing a felony on foreign land, there is nothing Champak wouldn’t do to make his little girl’s dreams come true. 

Belonging to a middle-class family, Champak along with his brother went through a lot of struggles and failed attempts before he could finally find a way to get his daughter admitted to a university in the United Kingdom. He didn’t want her nationality or his financial issues to come in the way of Taru’s dreams.

10. Champak would never willingly let his daughter know about all the things he had to do to put her through college, let alone boasting about it. 

He saw fulfilling Taru’s dream as his responsibility and not as a burden. He chooses to not tell her about the struggles so that Taru wouldn’t get hit by a wave of guilt. He didn’t only support her financially but also emotionally. 

Shattering the norms of toxic masculinity, Champak was not afraid of crying or getting emotional to express his feelings.  

Irrfan Khan’s character as Champak is the positive, progressive, supporting, modern-day, cool dad we need to see more of in films.