By Krupa GE
When I saw a full-fledged flashback sequence for Alia Bhatt’s character, involving only her and her life, in the film Dear Zindagi, I let out a low whistle. For the first time, in forever, I was seeing a woman in a ‘mainstream’ film get that. So it’s possible? There can be movies about what women go through, and they can talk to shrinks? Hell yeah. I loved the movie despite my many issues with it. It happens so rarely that when it does you want to hold on to it. Seeing women you can relate to; women who aren’t caricatures written by men who seem to have closed their eyes to the real women around them. It happened briefly in Tamasha. Something about Deepika Padukone’s role in that film, despite a lot of things to not like, stayed with me.
I felt the same way about Kaatru Veliyidai, and before I go on, I’ll have to warn you about spoilers.
Mani Ratnam does something strange in his newest film. Smart, but strange. Strange because the effect is not entirely pleasant and you don’t expect a movie that ‘looks’ like this to make you feel unpleasant.
He writes up the typical masala movie hero VC (Karthi), who seems to be perfectly agreeable on paper, but when seen from a distance. He’s also everything we are used to seeing in a Tamil cinema hero: invincible (escapes the enemy nation’s prison by crossing the border as if it were a mere toll booth), looks pretty damn good, dances really well, wears great clothes, ‘seems’ liberal – he takes his girlfriend Leela (Aditi Rao Hydari) to his brother’s wedding to a very pregnant fiancé who even gives birth on the same day as the wedding. But he also spouts the kind of chauvinistic lines that are regulars in our masala films and where our Neelambaris are shown their place for daring to desire or simply having a tongue. He goes through his hero usual arc. Living in his own world, thrilling her with his flying skills, wooing her pretty easily, standing up for ‘Amma’. In one telling scene, at the hospital where his sister-in-law is giving birth, VC’s father is rude to his mother. So VC tries to be the hero for his mother—who does not need his protection but he thinks she does anyway—while battling a toxic father. But at that exact same moment he also walks all over the woman he is with. He asks Leela to shut up. End of discussion. ‘Shut up,’ he thunders. In another, when she refuses to shut up despite his command, and continues to offer her opinion on war and terrorism, surrounded by his colleagues, all men, he tells her that men and women are different (hence unequal) and expects her to understand because its biological. Come on, she’s a doctor, duh, why didn’t she get it? It was biological inequality.
We’ve seen shades of this man. In our homes, in the streets. The man who gets unreasonably agitated at the idea that a woman might have—wait for it—thoughts about the world at large or about how their relationship should be. Men who quickly appear on our social media timelines, DMs, chat messengers, to show us our place. Who mansplain swiftly so that they can get us to shut up as quickly as possible—so that they can shout at the top of their voice, and collect validation from our silences. Who take what they want out of relationships without caring about what the woman might want. Because what more can she want? She has snagged the man. Isn’t that enough? He spends his precious time with her. Shouldn’t she be thankful?
All of this could’ve, would’ve, should’ve gone unnoticed, as part of the film, as part of the mythmaking of this hero. As a part of the parcel, the price the woman pays for getting a chance to share screen space with our demigod. When the man shows the woman her place in Kaatru Veliyidai, the audience is supposed to go into a tizzy and erupt into applause, right? That’s the script for a nice masala movie. Instead, the silences and the defiance that play out between the woman and the man lay threadbare what we reduce women to in our frames when we write lines meant to show them their place. Mani Ratnam dares to send a woman with self-respect into his script. Tada.
For me, it was as if all of our cinema’s heroes were in this one film— puzzled, witless, against this one woman who was waging a war of sorts, on behalf of ‘women like us’, alone, against ‘them’. A woman who’s aware of her place in an unequal relationship. A woman trying to hold on to her self-worth. It was sad too, because it seemed as if there was no one on her side in the movie. She was so lonely that I wished sometimes she had a girlfriend who was in the story for more than just quirks. A girlfriend who goaded her on to stand her ground. A girlfriend who just said, ‘talk to a shrink about how you feel’.
Yet, she is my hero in this film. Because alone, on her own, Leela makes inroads. She makes you cringe at this man who would’ve, could’ve, should’ve been the hero. Two young women next to me in the theatre recoiled as VC in one scene, pulled Leela close and said, his obsessive gaze reeking of power, that he loved her more than she loved him and that he would love her even if she didn’t love him. One of them said, “Paavam. Poor woman! Leave her alone.” That, according to me, is this movie’s success. It is asking us who we are rooting for in our films.
If this were a movie about VC the monster vs Leela the woman, it would have ‘felt’ good. But the film isn’t going for feel good. Instead, it humanises this monster. That’s what makes it uncomfortable. It’s about the emotionally unavailable fighter pilot man vs the fixer-upper doctor woman.
With Kaatru Veliyidai, Mani Ratnam holds a mirror close to the upper class/caste space, where just under the expensive décor, shiny, perfect clothes, clean-shaven and made-up faces, lies a rot. Let’s face it, there are more VCs than we care to admit in our lives.
Krupa is a writer and journalist based in Chennai.
April 10, 2017 at 6:00 pm
Only thing that made this narrative jarring if her masochistic tendency
April 10, 2017 at 10:22 pm
Upper Caste ? But why is class or caste here. The other side of both have the same problem too. Infact its omnipresent. But for that agreed
April 10, 2017 at 10:57 pm
People around me have been saying what a horrible movie this is and I have been struggling to tell them what I thought, when I stumbled across your write up. You have written exactly what I felt, in the movie and what I felt it was about.
Mani Ratnam truly showcased what a lot of women and men go through in a relationship (even the supposed modern ones), in the most subtle way he can. He remains the true master of nuances.
Thanks Krupa.
April 11, 2017 at 3:12 am
Nothing lonely about a well off woman wanting masochism. She has all the privileges and choices in the world but wants this monster. If she was poor and forced by her village or slum to be with him, then we can understand. But here, this doctor deserves what she pathetically wants and they both need mental help. That’s all. Si please stop this upper class fuss
April 11, 2017 at 12:29 pm
Wow… Just love this article…Too good
April 11, 2017 at 1:40 pm
“Who take what they want out of relationships without caring what the woman might want”. So true. The problem is,it is us women who elevate these kindsof guys on some deified pedestal. If he’s well groomed, tall and decent looking with some semblance of a career …we go “oh-my-gawd. What a dude. Isn’t he awesome?”. N then, there’s no looking back. A man’es ego equals the ego of at least 3 women. This is how they are born n raised. The nice guys cant be so appealing bcoz they dont play the “i’m such a rockstar/stud, swoon on me now” game. The ones who do are the ones we women foolishly keep tripping over ourselves for. The fact is women have to first admit to themselves that they deserve better, far beter. They need to make tough choices by rejecting these type of guys. Unfortunately here in the movie the actress goes against her self worth and remains with this guy, thinking “i cant do better than this, lets just go with it”. That’s wrong. That’s wrong. Leela is walking all over her own self worth, why does she expect anybody else to doany different?!?!?
April 11, 2017 at 6:15 pm
I really like the way you have written this article. Very few people out there have got the true meaning of this film. The fact is that the director had tried to show us how revolting male dominance is. Perhaps the movie was intentionally unpleasant so that we would realize how we put down women in everyday life.Respect to the director for this.
April 11, 2017 at 7:37 pm
Very well written, some conclusion in respect to crossing border it was done from afghan side, there is fences at India-Pak border. Wish you had checke this! Secondly, map are prevalent more across all section of Indian society irrespective of educated or not educated..
April 12, 2017 at 8:24 am
You have just written what I am struggling with my circle to understand. Ever since We watched this movie there is a constant fight going on. The truth is there are more VC’s in real life, but they are not even ready to reliase they are nothing but VC.