Review: Paava Kadhaigal (2020)
Paava Kadhaigal is a four-part anthology, that explores facets of “honour” with the help of a brilliant cast.
Directed by Sudha Kongara, Vignesh Shivan, Gautham Vasudev Menon, and Vetri Maaran, these four films will surely make you feel a mix of emotions – whether it is weariness or a sinking feeling which accompanies violence of women.
Sudha Kongara’s “Thangam” is a vivid portrayal of difference, extreme intolerance, and tragic outcome. It is a brilliant, unusual take on the idea of “honour”, a recurrent theme throughout the anthology series. Set in 1981, it follows the life of Sathaar, played beautifully by Kalidas Jayaram, who is saving up money for a gender-reassignment surgery. The setting of the film, makes us wonder how difficult it would have been for Sathaar, who refers to herself in the feminine. For me, other than the story and stellar performances, the piece that stole the cake, was the beautiful background score ‘Thangamey’, sung by the brilliant Murugavel.
The second short, directed by Vignesh Shivan explores the theme, driven by caste and class. Starring Anjali and Kalki Koechlin, this short explores the story of a pair of twin sisters in love with people their heavy-handed father wouldn’t approve of. A lesbian angle is explored, acting as a way out for one sister. The other has a darker fate in store.
The third segment “Vaanmagal”, directed by Menon, features him as a father of two daughters. This short is an unflinching look at the sexual assault of a young girl. It is the loss of innocence more than anything – ‘a bird that is ready to fly and take wing in a sky full of vultures.’
According to me, Vaanmagal gets the broader definition of ‘honour’ right. In one scene we see a woman being celebrated on attaining puberty with a pompous ceremony and celebration. However, on the other hand, we are also shown the ‘honour’ and ‘purity’ a woman is conditioned to carry within.
Vetri Maaran, who directed “Oor Iravu”, the final one, features a pregnant woman, played by Sai Pallavi, being invited back to her village house for a baby shower. Maaran has very skilfully buried a lot of things that he wanted to explore, under the carpet in the form of dialogues. Towards the end of this short, we get a line: Edhuvume maaraadhu. (Nothing will change.) Vetri Maaran makes us wonder if this is pessimism or just unvarnished reality.
Along with the theme of “honour”, I wonder if the four directors were also asked to give their takes on the colour red. In the opening sequence of the anthology, a beautiful animation portrays the colour in various ways. In the series, though, red is the shade of a shawl (or maybe a prayer mat) in Sudha’s episode, the colour of a little girl’s dress in Menon’s, it is the colour of blood in Maaran’s, and finally, in Vignesh Shivan’s Love Panna Uttranum, it’s a shade of light that falls on Anjali’s face. This anthology portrays honour also in the form of violence on women. Some of the violence on display is hard to watch. Redemption does come, eventually, but at the cost of subtlety.
Watching this, left me only with one question - How long will this brutal entitlement to women’s bodies and minds go on, in life and on-screen?
