What “Thappad” did right and “Kettiyolanu Ente Malakha” did wrong

Sometimes, I feel that the most lethal characteristic of patriarchy is its ability to make people believe that it doesn’t exist. After watching Thappad, this thought again came to my mind and more than that, my thoughts drew a parallel between Thappad and Kettiyolanu Ente Malakha which I watched a few months back. Even though both these films seek to address different issues, it won’t be a mistake to say that fundamentally both these films are set on the same backdrop. But it is in Kettiyolanu Ente Malakha where the lethal characteristic of patriarchy that I mentioned comes into play, the viewers don’t even realise that it exists. A seemingly progressive movie takes a regressive undertone in the second half. That is the point where Thappad makes no compromise. Now let us analyse it how. (Spoilers ahead)

It is of no doubt that Kettiyolanu Ente Malakha is a good film in terms of its technicalities, entertainment and a stellar performance by the cast. The characters were portrayed in a very realistic manner and not to mention, Asif Ali did a fine convincing performance along with a strong supporting cast. The director and writer are, in fact, successful in bringing the topic of marital rape and the relevance of sex education in every teenager’s life. As the popular saying goes, sex educators in India are people in our friend circle! The same goes with the protagonist of KEM, Sleevachan (Asif Ali) too. Sleevachan is portrayed as an innocent guy who didn’t seem to explore sexuality much during his teenage days and even after that. His mother describes him as someone who sees females as either his mother or sister (but I don’t understand why he forgot this while raping his wife). But there can also be an interpretation that he may have felt that ‘restraint’ is a part of the process since his sex educator (barber Sajeevan) was too good to give advice of this sort! But I still doubt whether one needs the advice to understand not to do something forcefully if the other person doesn’t want it. I felt that the second half is completely told from the perspective of Sleevachan and trying to establish his innocence to the viewers even though the film does admit that what he did was wrong. The intensity of the emotional trauma that his wife Rincy underwent is almost completely omitted in the second half. I don’t think the intensity of her trauma becomes less if rape is done out of innocence, or at least the film should have tried to explore the dimension of her emotional trauma. But the film is too keen to reconcile the couple and finally, Rincy does understand Sleevachan’s innocent love towards her, forgives him and moves forward with him. Happy ending! I guess most of the audience(including me) while watching the film wished that Rincy should forgive Sleevachan since it was a mistake not done deliberately by him. That is the point where our lethal characteristic of patriarchy becomes active. It makes us into believing that what happened was not a big deal (seriously?!) and they should move forward. I don’t believe that all characters in a film should be politically correct since it is not the case in real life. But films do have a moral obligation to convey something that should be progressive. It should have the audacity to question the status quo. What is portrayed as progressive today might become regressive after 30 years, but the important part is that it should be progressive today and should not advocate ideas that were prevalent centuries before.

This is where Thappad and Amritha (Tapsee Pannu) outshines. One can definitely draw a parallel between Sleevachan and Vikram. Both are hardworking, respected in society and very caring towards their family. The circumstance in which both of them did their mistakes differs but ultimately it gets down to a single point, which is dignity. Even though it’s instinctive, one does not have the right to violate the dignity of others irrespective of gender. A slap is not simply a slap, it is a symbolic act of saying that “I can do to you whatever I want and you have no other option rather than to take it”. There is a scene in which the character Subodh says, “When you’re truly in love, I mean truly in love… a little physical aggression is an expression of love”. Sounds pretty familiar right ?! if you can’t recall, just search online the interview of Sandeep Reddy (director of Arjun Reddy). Vikram fails to understand the intensity of his mistake initially but in the end, it is also shown that he genuinely apologises to her just like how Sleevachan broke down in front of Rincy towards the end. The interpretation of whether Amritha would have changed her mind if Vikram had apologised initially is something the director doesn’t want to explore and hence we will leave it aside for the moment. Amritha realises that she had been compromising a lot only after the slap. That is the point where she starts thinking about her dignity. She realises that she can’t love a man who doesn’t value her as an individual. On the course of her ordeal, we even get to know that her nearly-ideal father couldn’t even realise how his wife was suppressing her feelings. That is the problem of our social system, with time, it gets deeply imbibed in our minds that individuals don’t realise they are actually supporting that socially regressive system directly or indirectly.

In the ending scenes, when Vikram apologises to Amritha, a part of us do wish that Amritha should get back with Vikram and move forward…maybe that is the climax that many wished for but that is definitely not the climax that it deserves. That is the point where Thappad becomes right and Kettiyolanu Ente Malakha becomes wrong because after all, this is Cinema..something that has the power to influence millions…

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