With a crisp run-time of 100 minutes, you might feel like there isn’t much happening in the film but that’s where Kottukkali wins – it tells you to sit back but taunts you with haunting narratives that aren’t explicitly ‘told’ but rather observed – quite similar to Koozhangal.
The film is a road trip to a priest’s temple, to ward off the evil spirits that have possessed Meena and in the journey, we discover that what Meena is fighting is actually the shackles of patriarchy. She is confined, pinned down and trapped in a chauvinistic and conservative society that forbids her from exercising any kind of autonomy.
The problem with most feminist films is that its solution to patriarchy is too simplified. Take Barbie, patriarchy is far too complex and ingrained for it to be eradicated just by turning men against men. But this is where I feel, Kottukkaali won as a film – its open ended climax is rather gutsy and striking – it tells you, the audience to inspect themselves, because who are we, if not the society?
PS Vinothraj has done an excellent job in presenting a fresh perspective on the feminist question in India which is neither isolated nor free from religious, casteist, socio-culture and economic discrimination. With women who question the mother’s upbringing for letting the daughter become “astray”, men who gossip about the girl’s character to sauce up their drinking session, a priest to ward off evil spirits on women who’ve fallen in love, a father who promises to murder his daughter, a fiance who slaps and kicks the life out of his betrothed, his sisters, his would-be mother-in-law and men who throw around women-centric cuss words with absolutely no inhibitions, the director builds a realistic gist of the society an average woman faces when she exerts some amount of liberty.
Kottukkaalli has no background music, and relies only on the live sounds – which become integral to world building and don’t feel empty in any scene. Long, monotonous and symmetrically composed shots that resemble Koozhangal’s way of storytelling, speaks volumes on the mind-numbing society that we live in. Soori has once again proved that he’s a brilliant actor who can nail subject-heavy roles and Anna Ben has done a exemplary work – she looks distressed, unfazed and stubborn in all scenes but the subtle smile, curling her lips in the corners when she needs to express a tinge of pride or satisfaction is remarkable. Anna Ben as Meena has one dialogue in the entire film but that speaks volumes on the patriarchal system that oppresses women in the name of tradition, culture, religion and discipline.
The one scene in Kottukkaali that will stay with me for years to come, is when the auto needs to be reversed but Meena refuses to descend from it so five men, with all their strength and fierce robustness lift the auto with her inside it. Meena puts on an unswerving smile, relishing and watching the world revolve around her, as the center.
And that’s what’s important – on the way to battling patriarchy, your closed-ones will turn against you, women will turn against you and your parents will turn against you but to be as adamant and valiant as Kottukkaali, is what’s important.
Rating – 4/5
