Moral policing has been portrayed only as a passing sarcasm in Malayalam movies till date. Though Joy Mathews took the courage to present it as the central idea in his movie ‘Uncle’, it missed the mark. However, Varathan explores the topic with all ferociousness, dissects it’s multiple layers and empowers the audience with a zest, not to succumb.
Masculinity and patriarchy, their origin and reign are discussed in contrast with each other in the movie. The male protagonist featured by Fahadh Fasil with ease have transcended into the ‘layman’;an embodiment of all natural fears and incapabilities buried deep within the subconscious, finally evolving into the epic man.
The movie kicks off by jilting the comfort zone of the couple Abi and Priya and urging them to take a break in a plantation bungalow where the wife spent her childhood. The property belongs to her father, who becomes an alter ego to the character Abi. The couple is thrown into a whirlwind of perils the moment they start their awaited holiday.
The victimisation of the couple owing to the moral policing of the villagers is the central concept of the movie. The journey of Abi through the events that follow is prototypical of the journeys of all men who traversed against giant odds to protect their family.
And Priya is undoubtedly the epitome of immense inner strength, a true champion of femininity who is the driving force behind her better half.
The movie treats eve teasing with intolerance and as a breech on a woman’s privacy -- a taken-for-granted situation that is unacceptable. On the other hand, an incident of molestation underwent by the female protagonist is not treated as the end of her self esteem with a pitiful violin tune.
The movie's interval break is when Abi covers the bathroom window pane with a paper against a few peeping hooligans. This is exactly where the filmmaker's brilliance unravels.
The covering was a suggestive of the self imposed restriction from the filth of the society because of the inner anxiety about ones own physical and mental incapabilities that operates in the subconscious. This particular scene instigates the audience for an evaluation into how patriarchy is culturally imbibed.
Men who are also the victims of social stereotyping, predominantly ‘chivalry’, projects it by imposing restrictions on women because it is easier to control the so called ‘weaker’, than to fight the evil as the fear of failure exists.
When Ozhimuri talked about the fear of mother figure as a reason for patriarchy, Varathan explicitly portrays the fear of physical or emotional weakness as the reason for the same.
These revelations in movies are pertinent at this point of time as portrayal of areas like ‘manhood’ and ‘masculinity’ is sparse.-- lest it may get drowned in a wave of feminism. The fight against patriarchy should start from the roots where the answers on ‘why’ and ‘how’ lies.
When the movie reaches its denouement, the circumstances have churned Abi from a patriarch to a real Man, a god figure. He has amassed strength to fight it out with the hooligans.
The final 20 minutes of fight sequence gives the audience nothing less than goosebumps. The maker has intentionally choreographed the fight, not as a conventional hyper real fantasy but as realistic as possible.
Here the hero does not fly up to breathtaking heights or fight in the air, instead he turns the household objects into tools.
The right intervention of Priya at a point where Abi was loosing his grounds, demands special mention because it reflects how the ‘feminine counterpart’ acts as the inevitable complement in a relationship, rather than a dependent or the one ‘to be looked after’.
It is a rare success for a movie to create an experience for the audience to embrace it. This movie was exactly that. A viewer who comes out during the interval is a patriarch who is frightened of every stare the strangers around cast on you. You just feel like cloistering yourself and your near ones to ensure safety.
But the same person coming out after the movie becomes completely liberated. One seems to be no more afraid and gets a zeal to fight back. The viewer has deconstructed the patriarch within, irrespective of gender. Thanks to the director for not cladding Priya in ‘more’ clothes to end the temptations of the villagers and thanks for not making the couple escape into the crowds of the city. However the father figure remains the real Hero!
