A Hero Who Cries: How Fahadh Faasil라이브 바카라 ‘<em>Varathan</em>’ Cures Toxic Masculinities Of Malayalam Cinema

We have been discussing masculinities for a while: from the virulent nationalist political masculinity to the toxic misogynist men of popular culture, contemporary debates entrench within them aspirations of being the right kind of male. The current moment of activism around film industry is as much about this inflated male, as it is about women speaking out. 바카라 웹사이트In this context, Amal바카라 웹사이트Neerad라이브 바카라바카라 웹사이트Malayalam movie, released last week,바카라 웹사이트Varathan바카라 웹사이트(outsider),바카라 웹사이트is a rightly timed one. It is about various dichotomies that we바카라 웹사이트deal unknowingly바카라 웹사이트within ourselves. It is also about shattering the myths of these expectations.바카라 웹사이트

The movie opens with a shift from바카라 웹사이트Dubai,바카라 웹사이트the commercial capital of the new-world,바카라 웹사이트after the failure of the hero,바카라 웹사이트Aby (Fahadh Faasil),바카라 웹사이트in impressing his바카라 웹사이트interviewers. Subsequently he is assured by his IT professional wife,바카라 웹사이트Priya바카라 웹사이트(바카라 웹사이트AishwaryaLakshmy), to take his time in being바카라 웹사이트successful, experimenting a little. Taking time바카라 웹사이트is an interesting concept in the movie, because the entire spatial dislocation is woven around the framework바카라 웹사이트of바카라 웹사이트this temporality. The usual myth of바카라 웹사이트the바카라 웹사이트city being fast and furious and바카라 웹사이트the바카라 웹사이트village being slow and peaceful is woven, debated and finally mercilessly chopped off within this temporal imagination.

In the due course, the plot바카라 웹사이트shifts바카라 웹사이트to the village바카라 웹사이트in바카라 웹사이트a huge leap from the hustle and buzzle of Dubai to a hill station in Kerala. The encounter is between바카라 웹사이트the바카라 웹사이트city and the village,바카라 웹사이트the바카라 웹사이트modern and the feudal and finally masculinity and바카라 웹사이트the바카라 웹사이트so-called effeminate.

What is interesting is in all these conflicts is that nostalgia is not a vantage point, as it has been brushed off mercilessly by a hero, who hardly knows how to pronounce the word,바카라 웹사이트gruhaathurathvam (nostalgia in Malayalam)바카라 웹사이트The movie plays around the idea of inside and the outside quite a bit. Right from the title, Varathan, a derogatory term that speaks of the outsiders in Kerala, the movie throws open important questions related to this fencing. (connect with Kerala라이브 바카라 intolerance to immigrant communities.)바카라 웹사이트At the same time, the movie experiments with the idea of the private and the public quite a bit and resolves it to the modern바카라 웹사이트notion of private lives of individuals. Trespassing is a culture in Kerala, where people assume a right to speak about, judge, interfere and constantly engage with other people라이브 바카라 lives. This social world thus is a world of male fantasies all the time imagining transgressive escapades with women, at the same time living under the constant demand of a regulating public바카라 웹사이트gaze. Therefore,바카라 웹사이트the double standard is between the constant gaze towards the private lives of others and the tight borders we keep to fence the outsider “out.”

The village/city dichotomy with which the popular cinema had worked so far, is ruthlessly torn to pieces for a vilified version of the countryside. If Amal바카라 웹사이트Neerad라이브 바카라바카라 웹사이트action heroes used guns and swords in the past, here the chopping is more of a breaking down of the symbolic order Malayalam cinema has so far circled around.바카라 웹사이트The rest of the story- line is about how a woman is systematically victimized and바카라 웹사이트then바카라 웹사이트assaulted in the beautiful landscape of a pristine, unviolated space. But there is more to read.바카라 웹사이트It is quite a tradition to attribute masculinity and femininity to바카라 웹사이트cities and villages in popular representations. City is often the masculine space, so full of movement, development, competence, modernity and moreover a space for the hero to assert his masculinity. The village,바카라 웹사이트however feudal it is, is also바카라 웹사이트a space of tradition, feudal values, lethargy, and often inability (the typical feudal heroes of anti-reservation movies, getting lost in the city is a part of our cinema-imagination.)

This feminine /바카라 웹사이트masculine version of spaces is바카라 웹사이트shattered when the dislocation happens from the city to the village, as in the village we do not see many women. It is a male world, mostly바카라 웹사이트circling around repressed sexuality and voyeurism.바카라 웹사이트There is a conscious바카라 웹사이트(?)바카라 웹사이트absence of women바카라 웹사이트in this space, and the only women who are available, are objects of the바카라 웹사이트masculine assertions.바카라 웹사이트The critique has a larger framework, when we think of Kerala mostly as a suburban locality, that does not have much to do with large cityscapes. Cities of Kerala thus are more or less suburban villages.바카라 웹사이트

It is here, the question of sexuality becomes a statement that can be connected to the concerns raised by feminists and feminists in Malayalam바카라 웹사이트cinema of바카라 웹사이트late. We have the depiction of a woman who is abducted, violated inside a running vehicle, and is portrayed as coming back to fight with바카라 웹사이트vigour바카라 웹사이트and courage. This is not바카라 웹사이트a바카라 웹사이트serendipity in the plot. Hats off to Amal바카라 웹사이트Neerad바카라 웹사이트and his team for this brilliant representation!! The violence is not visually shown, but is again brilliantly portrayed by the바카라 웹사이트leading female바카라 웹사이트 actor바카라 웹사이트Aishwarya바카라 웹사이트Lakshmy. The trauma is in her expressions, and in the controlled script, where she utters바카라 웹사이트the violence she felt inside the moving vehicle바카라 웹사이트and in her vehement desperation of washing her body parts after getting home. The representation of sexual assault바카라 웹사이트or rape is quite바카라 웹사이트a change from바카라 웹사이트the바카라 웹사이트cliche바카라 웹사이트as the director shows a way of representing바카라 웹사이트rape taking away the risk of creating a sexual spectacle.바카라 웹사이트

Denunciation of voyeurism is not new to Amal Neerad. His film, Kullante Bharya, part of the anthology AnchuSundarikal, centres around voyeurism. So does IyyobintePusthakam, where voyeurism and its follies are dealt with. The camera that follows the heroine like a voyeur is brilliantly done, juxtaposing the horror and thriller elements with lights, shades and jump scares, portraying the uneasiness of a woman constantly being treated as an object of this look. Most often the camera is behind the action, following the characters, especially when it comes to the heroine. We get a glimpse of this, from the moment they land in Kerala in the cab, where the driver turns the mirror to see Aishwarya. This strikes a chord in any woman who has travelled in Kerala in an auto or a cab, to be an object to this ‘pleasure of looking.’ The scarecrow that is turned towards the house is an experience of living a woman라이브 바카라 life in Kerala.

바카라 웹사이트A hero who cries, not just by the inability to act, but by the pressure of expectations to rise up to the situation, is a rare substance in a popular바카라 웹사이트movie. The tears do not come from his victimhood, but바카라 웹사이트are바카라 웹사이트products of centuries long expectations we place on men and masculinity.바카라 웹사이트The바카라 웹사이트conflicts within the central characters, reflect the바카라 웹사이트tension between the myth and the reality, between conforming and being different. The heroine who constantly reminds her husband that he can take his time to be successful and earn, is torn between popular expectations and her personality. That discomfort comes out when she faces her mother라이브 바카라 jibes about her jobless husband. At the same time the final blurting out on the image of the lost father underlines this dichotomy. There is always that father (and even the grandfather) who is present in the house, as the symbol of the protective masculine patriarch whom she invokes at a crucial moment바카라 웹사이트through the statement바카라 웹사이트“had my father been here, I would not have ended up this way.”바카라 웹사이트The pressure to give바카라 웹사이트in to this patriarchal order is thus the constant conflict in the movie. The tension between the aspired and the actual in the movie is this conflict.바카라 웹사이트

What is interesting바카라 웹사이트in the plot바카라 웹사이트is바카라 웹사이트that바카라 웹사이트the resolution is not about how her husband termed as effeminate by many grows바카라 웹사이트to become the so-called masculine.바카라 웹사이트I have seen many reviews to that effect, where the movie바카라 웹사이트is read as yielding바카라 웹사이트to the popular demands of masculinity. I would still like to take the movie challenging the conventional formats of masculinity, as the바카라 웹사이트final scene of crushing the cockroach by the hero need not be the idea of the coming of age of the masculine ideal. The movie leaves it open, the hero is still jobless, he is still the one바카라 웹사이트who makes tea. But there바카라 웹사이트is a gate that says,바카라 웹사이트‘trespassers바카라 웹사이트will be shot,’with the바카라 웹사이트picture of a man and a woman who intend to live together for hundred years.바카라 웹사이트It is a relief to see the new directors like Rajiv Ravi, Ashiq Abu,바카라 웹사이트Dileesh바카라 웹사이트Pothan and many other younger-ones moving away from the myth of larger than life heroes. There is a possibility of Malayalam popular culture being cured of toxic masculinities.바카라 웹사이트바카라 웹사이트