An uninterrupted monologue is most often the privilege of the male protagonist in Tamil cinema. A rebellious outburst against an oppressor delivered on a trigger, it generally marks the moment when the hero is about to launch his revolution. Imagine Sivaji Ganesan’s court speech in Parasakthi (1952) or Rajinikanth reacting to Meena’s insult in Muthu (1995) or more recently, Dhanush taking on the villain in Velai Illa Pattadhaari (2014).
A welcome addition to this glorious lineage is the impassioned and rebellious monologue of an unnamed housewife in this year’s Magalir Mattum or Ladies Only.
“Naanga enna summaava irukkom?” (Are we sitting idle at home?) asks the woman as she launches into a high-pitched, breathless, and angry monologue directed at all the men who devalue her role in the household. Though she is not the hero and does not appears on screen again, she gets to deliver the dialogue that sets the tone of the film that traces the journeys and agonies women, a theme that can no longer be ignored.
From a time when even self-proclaimed feminist films needed to be propped up by famous male actors and elaborate back stories, Tamil cinema has come a long way in 2017.
It has been a year of many feminisms, of women and their stories insistently taking centre stage and demanding their space. It has been a period when filmmakers took note of the gaping holes they left of women’s stories. But more importantly, it has been a year when stories of women came to be accepted as financially viable. Star vehicles are no more aadavar mattum (men only).
The pivotal role in Magalir Mattum is played by Jyothika, whose character is a documentary filmmaker who masterminds and executes an all-girls trip with her mother-in-law’s school friends (played by Urvashi, Saranya Ponvannan and Bhanupriya).
Upon her return from her marriage-induced hiatus, Jyothika had declared that she would only participate in films that treat women with respect and importance. Along came Magalir Mattum, with the kind of feminism that smacks you in the face, demanding to be noticed, emerging from behind the walls that constrain women’s lives. It treats women as women – warts and all – giving space for their needs, angers, imperfections, vulnerabilities, and desires. Even as Jyotikha’s Prabha walks around as the torchbearer of liberation, the film is the story of every woman, seeking little acts of progress, everyday.
At the other end of the spectrum is Madhivadani (played by Nayanthara) in Gopi Nayina’s Aramm (2017). The character, an honest Indian Administrative Service officer who serves as the district collector in a drought-hit village, is the hapless representative of an incompetent establishment. But make no mistake, she is still the hero.
In the course of her efforts to save the life of a young girl who has fallen into a borewell, she stands up for the people, takes on a powerful mafia, commands a police force and makes difficult decisions – much of it without the melodramatic portrayal of achievement shown in films with male heroes.
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