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Release
date:
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Kerala: November 22, 2019
Delhi: November 29, 2019
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Director:
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Nisam
Basheer
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Cast:
Language:
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Asif
Ali, Veena Nandhakumar, Manohari Joy, Basil Joseph, Jaffer Idukki, Raveendran
Malayalam
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Commercial
Malayalam cinema has for a while now been dominated by an ugly, toxic
masculinity, with storytelling that normalises domestic violence, packs casual
misogyny into comedies, portrays
men as omniscient, omnipotent beings and glorifies male aggression. Kamal’s Aami in
2018 was a rare mainstream film that expressed discomfort with a man’s
selfishness in his marital bed, but it avoided outrightly condemning him.
In a less mainstream space, last year’s direct-to-online release Ottamuri Velicham (The Light In A Single Room) had no such qualms – while telling
the story of a woman being brutalised by her husband, director Rahul Riji Nair
made no bones about his belief that his hero’s sense of sexual entitlement
towards his wife amounted to rape.
Kettiyollaanu Ente Maalakha (My Wife Is My Angel)
examines another aspect of this social malaise. When a male child is
brought up to treat women as lesser beings, it is not hard to imagine how
his mindset will be shaped by an India where sex education still remains
largely taboo, where very few families have open discussions on sex,
and where many boys get their earliest lessons on the subject from other
(twisted or equally ignorant?) boys and/or the exaggerations of
pornography. Kettiyollaanu Ente
Maalakha is about the effect our society has on another kind
of man: a fellow who has been raised to respect women but whose
interactions have been limited almost entirely to the mother and four sisters
he loves.
Asif
Ali plays that young man, Sleevachan, a busy 35-year-old farmer in a mountain
village in Kerala who has long avoided marriage. When he decides to get himself a wife one fine day, it
is not for himself at all but because he does not want his ageing mother to be
alone at home while he is out at work. Sleeva is a hard-working chap and
well-liked in the community. He soon finds a bride and thence arises his
trauma. Having volunteered to walk down the aisle with Rincy (Veena Nandhakumar), he panics because he is
clueless about physical intimacy with a woman and overcome by a debilitating
shyness.
When
Sleeva confides in a priest, he is told that once he and Rincy get close he
will instinctively know what to do. Errm, but what about
the...uh...mechanics of intercourse? This conservative rural community follows
a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy on sex. The crude misinformation from
Sleeva’s misogynistic drinking companion serves no educational purpose though it is the most graphic
that anyone gets with him.
In many ways, Kettiyollaanu
Ente Maalakha is pathbreaking. It deals with a grave theme but
has a light touch, features a mainstream male star and does not disguise
its mainstream commercial aspirations. In a country where most people have warped
ideas about consent even between strangers, and the general assumption is that
marriage grants a man a life-long licence for sex with his wife whenever,
wherever and in whichever way he wants it, her wishes be damned, director Nisam Basheer and writer Aji Peter Thankam have the vision to deal with the issue of a woman’s consent within marriage.
(Spoiler alert for this paragraph) Kettiyollaanu Ente Maalakha goes a step further and underlines the point that consent must be
given at every instance – just because a wife is well disposed to her husband
and has initiated physical contact with him on previous occasions, does not at
all mean that he is allowed to force himself on her. When such force is shown
to be used in the film, it is clearly called “rape”. (Spoiler alert ends)
When it starts out, Kettiyollaanu
Ente Maalakha does not offer any indication that it will take such a
serious turn. It is at first gently amusing and endearingly real as
Basheer establishes the close bond Sleeva shares with his large
extended family and the bonhomie among the villagers. When the going gets grim,
the director ensures that the narrative does not trivialise the issues at hand.
The reins do slip from his hands a couple of times – both instances
involve a comically nosy old woman: such people of course exist in real life
and such circumstances are likely to arise, but the point is the presentation
itself in both cases is jarring in comparison with the sensitive tonal balance
maintained in the rest of the film. That said, these shifts in tone pass off in
seconds and it is clear they are not intentional.
The significance of Kettiyollaanu
Ente Maalakha lies in its position on prevalent social notions of
consent in perpetuity in the matter of sexual relations, the
acknowledgement that marital rape is common in our society and the sight,
however improbable it may be, of almost an entire community being opposed to
it. Improbable the latter certainly is, but not impossible, and I will take a
suspension of disbelief any day over the poisonous misogyny that big-budget
men-centric Malayalam cinema has thrust on us for too long now. Remember
that just weeks back the repeated impregnation of an unwilling wife by her
husband in Aadya Rathri was brushed
aside jokingly as a mark of his love for her rather than what it is: marital
rape.
Sleevachan’s
innocence does take some time to sink in because even if his friends were
unusually reticent, it
requires a stretch of the imagination to believe that the couple
of jerks who he also hangs out
with never volunteered details of their sexual
encounters. Improbable, but again not impossible.
There is more ignorance out there than we realise. Look around your own social
circle and ask how many seemingly knowledgeable, sexually active men are aware
that condoms and birth control pills are not 100 per cent effective, ask how
many couples think having unprotected sex “just once” cannot result in a
pregnancy. It happens even in more
sexually permissive societies than ours. A Sleevachan could,
therefore, exist.
(Spoiler alert for this paragraph) The episode that requires some consideration
is the one in which Sleeva behaves uncharacteristically with Rincy. Is such a
dramatic momentary lapse possible? Yes, if you take into account the “manaprayasam” he spoke of to his
priest, the combined weight of social expectations, peer pressure and wrong guidance. (Spoiler alert ends)
Kettiyollaanu Ente Maalakha is not perfect. At one point
there is talk of counselling for Sleevachan, but no sessions are shown and
the screenplay seems to take the line that human instincts ultimately were
indeed all that was needed. Given the circumstances, the film also opts for the
safest possible ending. And it is important to point out that though its choice
of theme is commendable, Kettiyollaanu too
is a man-centric take on what is intrinsically a man-woman issue. The woman here is not
marginalised, but she is certainly secondary. Nothing illustrates this better
than the scene in which Sleevachan sits before Rincy finally confiding in her
about his confusions, and the camera focuses on him while showing her from only
the forearms down. Really? Expected better from you, Team Kettiyollaanu.
Despite
this, the film remains pathbreaking because
it takes a stand against behaviour that Indian cinema at large and Malayalam in
particular usually ignores or trivialises. Kettiyollaanu Ente Maalakha’s courage and humanity are what
recommend it most, though its naturalism, bird’s eye view of local customs and
top-notch acting come close.
Asif Ali is off the charts with his interpretation of a
rustic, romantically awkward youngster. After Uyare, this is his career best performance. What an exceptional
year for an actor who too often has wasted himself on generic, largely
uninspiring films.
Veena Nandhakumar is phenomenal too as a new wife whose
confusion over her husband’s initial oddness belies a quiet confidence.
My
pick of the credible supporting cast is the beautifully
dignified Manohari Joy who plays
Sleevachan’s mother.
William
Francis’ music is a bonus, smoothly kneaded as it is into the narrative. That
folksy number about Sleevachan’s marriage is lovely.
DoP
Abilash Sankar, whose neglect of a woman in one scene I just mentioned, plays a
crucial role elsewhere in the
delicate, non-exploitative handling of sexual violence. This is why Kettiyollaanu Ente Maalakha is so
important – because male behaviour that is considered commonplace in our
society is treated here as exactly what it is: a crime. In doing so, Nisam
Basheer and Aji Peter Thankam have contributed to an essential
conversation in a non-esoteric fashion, however debatable certain aspects of
their storyline maybe.
Rating (out
of 5 stars): 3.25
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CBFC Rating (India):
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U
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Running time:
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135 minutes
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This review has also been published on Firstpost:
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