Women Over Weekend

The long weekend was unexpected.  I didn't even know it was a holiday on Monday, until the last moment.  For a moment I rued over the fact that I wasn't in the mainland.  If I were, I could have planned for a nice getaway, were my thoughts (even though it hadn't happened in Bengaluru while being posted there, post-covid).  There were no friends to hang out with; two colleagues who used to be regular chums to spend time with, had moved away from the islands recently.  Another friend was away holidaying.  It meant I wouldn't have any company over the weekend.  

I looked at the things I could do - read, write, jog, workout, clean up the messy bedroom, etc.  I did some.  I wrote a story (which upset quite a few), I clocked some 25 km of walking and running, and read several articles.  The bedroom though, only got messier! Yet, there was still a lot of time on the hands (even after wasting many hours on the social media).  I surfed the multiple OTT platforms to see if I would want to watch anything.  I could not find anything exciting.  Then, I decided to fall back on the recommendations of friends (that were made mostly eons ago, but I was looking up them now).  Sathya had watched, 'Hidden Figures' (2016) and she wanted me too to watch and let her know how it was.  Everyone and her aunt was raving about 'Laapata Ladies' (plus some people were coming out of woodwork too, to claim that their work was plagiarised).  Then there was something I had forgotten to watch despite many recommendations and people going ga-ga over, 'Kaathal the Core'.  I decided I will watch them all.  I even threw in a Kannada movie for a good measure. And, a Jennifer Lopez starter, ‘Atlas’ into the melee. While 'Laapata Ladies' and ‘Atlas’ were on Netflix, the other three movies were found on Amazon Prime. 

One interesting fact about all the movies I watched was, they all either were women-centric (where a woman was the protagonist), or had a woman in a prominent role.  Not in my entire life had I seen so many women-centric movies together ever, over a weekend.  This was a first!

'Hidden Figures' tells the story of women in NASA and their role in putting the first American into space - not just any women, but black women.  It was the time of segregation and the kind of hardships these women - told through the lenses of Katherine Gobles, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, mathematicians and manual computers who dare to dream big - and how they overcome is a great tale of empowerment.  Even though the movie is based on real life people and events, it takes several liberties in tweaking the actual incidents to create drama.  Theodore Melfi has directed this drama that primarily focuses on the story of Katherine Gobles, and her contribution - and the trials and tribulations she faces for being a woman and a black woman at that - towards placing the first American astronaut in space.  

When a position of a computer (before the arrival of personal computers, people who excelled at computing quickly worked in the scientific organisations as computers) arises in the core team of the space mission at NASA, Katherine gets called in, and soon she becomes the indispensable one for the calculations need advanced knowledge of analytical geometry.  How she continues to stay relevant even after the IBM machine makes its presence felt forms the crux of the story.  Elsewhere, Dorothy who leads all the Black women computers is fighting her own battle of survival and progress; she wants to be officially recognised as the supervisor, a position that is reserved for White women.  At the same time, Mary is taking on the powers-that-be to break into the male bastion of 'engineers'; she wants to enroll into a degree and for that she goes to the court of law.  These are the figures that we do not learn about, and hence the word 'Hidden' in the title.  

The movie is heartwarming, uplifting, and devoid of needless drama, and focuses majorly on the story it wants to tell, without too many deviations.  The acting is competent, and so is the recreation of the atmosphere of the 60s.  What doesn't fit well in it is the saviour complex that the White Men suffer - and how Kevin Costner's role had to be enhanced to show him as the saviour of the Blacks and their dignity in a sequence or two.  It sure adds to the drama and makes for great viewing, but it does a disservice to all those women who truly fought for their rights and freedom.  Also, the lives of these women away from work looked too perfect to be true - everything rightly falling in place, and not a worry to fret about apart from their rights.  Regardless, I still totally recommend watching this movie.  It was just a little over 50 years ago that Blacks were still fighting segregation.  There would be lessons for those anti-reservation people of India too.

'Laapata Ladies' directed by Kiran Rao (Aamir's ex wife) and produced by Aamir Khan didn't last long in the theatres, but has been making a lot of right kind of noises ever since its debut on the OTT.  People have raved about it, the song 'O Sajni Re' has become very popular for making reels, and suddenly Kiran Rao is just more than Aamir's ex wife too.  

Set in a fictional place (somewhere in the Hindi heartland where all possible Hindi dialects, accents, practices mix and make a heady cultural mix) in the early 2000s, the movie tells the tale of a mix-up of newly married brides, and one of the brides arriving wrongly at one destination, while another frantically trying to reach where she is supposed to be at! Along the way it sheds light on the regressive practices of ghunghat (veil covering the face), denial of education to women, and denial of agency.  

Rahul is getting back to his village post his marriage with Phool.  It's the big wedding season and there are several similar newly-weds in the train, and he gets off in the dead of the night with the wrong bride - discovered only when she lifts her veil and says she's Pushpa.  This leads to a frantic search for Phool by Deepak and his friends.  Meanwhile, Phool who discovers that she's been left behind makes railway station her home and finds kindness among those other inhabitants, and hopes to find her way back to her sasural.  The protagonist though is 'Pushpa' who has wrongly entered the household of Deepak. Who is she and what are her motives? These are slowly laid bare by the time we reach climax.  

'Laapata Ladies' is an absolute feel-good movie that tells the essential story of the need to empower women in India. And, the story-telling is first-class, and so are the acting chops by most of the cast.  Even though 'Pushpa' does not look the part as a rural girl, she does a commendable job, and so do Deepak and others. Of course, the movie is far from being realistic. Hardly anyone is evil or bad here (save for one); even the corrupt police want to be helpful and play the 'good samaritan' role. It is a movie where the girls on the run find protective people to shelter with, and do not have to face any of the brutal circumstances that might happen in reality.  Barring that, this is a little gem that cannot be missed. 

'Kaathal - the Core' is a Malayalam movie that released last year and created waves - for the subject it handled. Jeo Baby has directed this movie.  He had made waves with his first outing, 'The Great Indian Kitchen' too, which dealt with patriarchy in middle-class Kerala households in a very Margaret Atwood-esque way (though of course the ending isn't like her books).  (Margaret Atwood because he didn't name any of the characters in the movie). Expectations from Kaathal were surely high because Mammootty not only acted as the lead, but also produced the movie.  

Mammootty is Mathew Devassy, a taciturn but affable man in his middle ages living in a small Kerala village.  He is a member of a Communist Party, and is asked by the party to contest a local by-election, as the ward seat falls vacant.  Jyothika plays Omana, his wife.  They have a daughter who is studying in the city.  The household is completed by Mathew's old father (who also is a man of few words like his son).  The director places the church at the very centre of the movie and it plays a very firm character; the songs in the movie take off from the choir.  Omana is shown as a devout Christian, regularly attending the masses, and lighting candles, and praying before every meal.  

The seemingly 'perfect family' picture is broken when the news spreads that Omana has filed for divorce, on the grounds that Mathew is a homosexual.  Is the accusation of Omana true? Even her own brother sides with his brother-in-law!

All the drama in the movie comes from the people around the household.  The party workers, the churchgoers, and the supposed voters.  The household though maintains its calm, outwardly.   The movie later becomes a court drama.  Several unpleasant questions are asked, and many marital secrets tumble out of the closet as the case unfolds at the Pala Municipal Court. Mathew tries to speak in monosyllables, Omana refuses to twist facts for the sake of an easy win, and just when she appears to be losing, she brings in a star witness that tilts the case in her favour. 

The movie is set nicely amidst an election, where the hero could become something bigger, and the court case comes as an embarrassment that could make his plans go awry.  When characters express Omana could have filed the case at another time and not now, even the viewer might side with that opinion, as someone rooting for the appealing Mammootty. But, the film hurtles towards the climax where Mammootty seeks forgiveness from Jyothika (and Devassy from his son for having forced him to marry).  

Kaathal surely is a landmark movie for treating homosexuality with compassion and not either as a disease or a condition to be pitied about.  It stays absolutely equanimous in its treatment of the subject and steadfastly avoids being melodramatic.  Some of the scenes hit home hard. Acting is first rate.  My grouse? A few for sure.  The movie treats Mammootty's character with kid-gloves, and tries to gloss over his follies.  It becomes even more evident when you hear Jyothika tell him why she fought the case. Nor does he once say the word 'gay' or 'homosexual' - that felt strange for a man who agreed to play the role.  And, not many emotions are visible anymore on Mammootty's face after too many facelifts and botox treatments.  If you haven't watched it yet, don't miss it.  

I also said I watched two other movies.  'Atlas' of Jennifer Lopez, and a Kannada movie called, 'Dauther of Parvathamma'.  Both totally forgettable, and avoidable fare.  Now, I am wondering what to watch next.  Any suggestions?