An edited version of this review happened on Tabla! - The Heartbeat of the Indian Community dated 13th Jan 2023. Screengrab at the end of the post.
Violence against women, whether at home or outside is something that is deplorable and disgraceful. Yet, we see news pieces that sprout often in the media about the ‘freak fire accidents,’ ‘violence-induced abortions,’ ‘broken bones due to beatings,’ ‘active and passive sexual abuse by caretakers,’ the list goes on. A study even went ahead to establish that during large international sports tournaments (FIFA World Cup, anyone?), domestic violence increases manifold. Oh! The testosterone-high alpha male cannot take his country’s loss in a mere football game with equanimity, can he?
Got to watch three movies recently.
All three of them had the woman as
the oppressed party; men of different shades: downright bad to half-good-half-bad;
chauvinistic, abusive etc.
All three of them had Malayalam
roots. (Surprise, Surprise!)
All three of them talked about how
women escaped the clutches of abuse from their partners, parents, and society
at large. No, they did not just walk out of the relationship after things came
to a pass. Neither did they traverse the labyrinth of legal systems to seek
succour. Yet, they took the justice into their own hands, literally!
I am tempted to say that the heroines
of these three movies took a leaf out of Agent Tina’s handling of baddies in last
summer’s blockbuster #Vikram. The lady in question there used the humble fork as a
deadly weapon to show men on what would happen if they misbehaved!
*******
Teacher
(Malayalam; available on Netflix)
A PE teacher Devika (Amala Paul) gets
drugged and raped - naturally, she does not know who did it. After tracing the
culprits, she talks to her 'loving' husband. And he does the usual: denial,
victim-shaming, worry-about-society, staying away.
Writers Shajikumar and Vivek (who
directed the movie as well), have built a taut two-thirds of the movie where
not only the protagonist but also the viewers have an uneasy sense of
foreboding.
As they unravel what had happened –
with no gory details, thanks for that! – one braces for the usual sermonizing
and even expect that the husband will change.
Yet in a classic twist, the
mother-in-law comes to Devika’s rescue; sows the seed of revenge in the woman’s
mind; pushes her to use her martial arts skills to bash the rapists.
The cameo by Chemban Vinod Jose was classic Mollywood writing (when Devika talks to him cautiously lest he also molests her, he deadpans, 'I am not into women!').
After all the build-up, the ending
was a bit unsatisfactory. The fact that Devika was adept at using nunchaku was
contrived and forced. So, you know what would happen as soon as she picks the
weapon up. Instance justice outside the courts!
But for that unsatisfactory ending,
Teacher is okay.
3/5
*******
Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey
(Malayalam; available on Hotstar)
What do you do when you are constantly
put down for being a female?
You get your elder brother’s broken
toys to play. You get his tattered clothes and books. Your name is a fraction
of his name – Jaya for his Jayan!
The need for your education is
questioned. Your relationships are microscopically analysed exploited, and you
face physical abuse. Duh!
Yet you bite the bullet; roll with
the punches and agree to the next forced move: marriage. You hope for the best.
Then as you enter the husband’s
house, you notice that the glass panes on the tables, cupboards and windows are
cracked; you notice that the TV remote control is broken and is held together
with rubber bands.
Remember the sense of foreboding?
Yes, that is the one!
Soon you find the husband is a
habitual beater and says, 'I will hit you when I am angry and then shall take
you to the nearby restaurant to feed you chicken curry and you should be
happy!'
The camel's back breaks: Karate kicks
in & the house comes down - literally!
Directed by Vipin Das who wrote JJJJH
with Nashid Famy, this movie is a light-hearted take on a very heavy subject of
wife-beating. Of course, one gets reminded of ‘Thappad’ by Taapsee Pannu, but
the treatment is entirely different. Again, the extent to which the families
don’t even realise that they are gaslighting a woman to be subservient is brought
about in a striking manner.
Darshana Rajendran as Jaya and Basil
Joseph as her husband Rajesh have lived the characters!
Yes, the ending was a bit contrived
though the court scene prior to that was a scream! Yet, JJJJH talks about the
victory of a woman who does not take physical abuse silently and is definitely
the last line of the Indian national anthem!
3.75/5
*******
Gatta Kusthi
(Tamil; available on Netflix)
There was Dangal then. There is
Dangal now. Girl gets into wrestling from young. Can't get her married off. Lie
about everything from hair length to education to skills. Get married into a
chauvinist environment. In a transformation scene worthy of repeat viewing,
saves her husband from the baddies. Husband sulks. Throws her out of the house.
Do they unite?
That is Gatta Kusthi (Tied Wrestling)
for you.
Aishwarya Lekshmi as the wrestler
Keerthi from Palakkad (where else but from Kerala!) and Vishnu Vishal as her
boastful, husband Veera do grapple hard to pull the movie forward. But it is
Karunas, the male-chauvinist-par-excellence uncle of Veera who steals the show
in the scenes that he appears – especially the scene where he convinces the
officer to register Vishal for a wrestling match against his own wife!
Yes, several dialogues are
misogynistic – but they only make you root for Keerthi more. Yes, they took the
commercial route (wrestling matches; bad, lecherous coaches; intermission-block
transformation scene; hero changing mind over five minutes of sermonizing by someone…)
But what made it enjoyable was that
except for one (mandatory?) fight sequence in the end, the hero had to play the
second fiddle throughout to the heroine.
2.75/5
*******
So, dear men! If you are about to
throw some tantrums and get physical, be ready to get some punches thrown at
you too! Teacher, JJJJH and Gatta Kusthi have shown the way! 😁
#sriGINthoughts #reviews
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