Something strange is happening in Malayalam cinema. Strange, but good. There is a slow, definitive course correction happening in the industry and it is being spearheaded by young writers, directors and actors. For decades, representation of masculinity or the male ideal and the corresponding female ideal has been one-sided. The strong hero, physically and mentally, hogs the screen, bellows bombastic dialogues, beats up villains and protects his loved ones. But his most important duty is to put women in their place – be it his love interest, a vamp, or someone in power. Whatever the position of the female character, she is supposed to be subservient, soft-spoken, whimpering and crying messes who needs ‘the man’ to guide her protect her and make her accept her real position in society.
Remember Unnimaya of Aaram Thampuran, Bhanu in Kanmadam or Devika in Pathram? Three powerful roles played by Manju Warrier in the first phase of her career. All three characters were outspoken, brave and sincere. But in all three, the characters ultimately give up all that because Jagannathan (Mohanlal) decided to give Unnimaya a life, Vishwanathan (Mohanlal, again) forcefully kisses her or Nandagopal (Suresh Gopi) made her realise that she’s after all a woman. The takeaway here is that a woman’s outspokenness, bravery and even intelligence are just a facade and it’s all she hasn’t found the right man to set her straight.
Take the case of Vani Vishwanath, who was the go-to heroine to play the headstrong police officer or a bureaucrat to be told off, of slapped to sense by Joseph Alex or Patteri (both Mammooty). Or the take Aishwarya, whose free-spirited character Anuradha in Narasimham happily nods when Induchoodan says that he wants a wife who will happily, among other things, take a beating from her husband as and when he pleases to dole some out.
The audience, predominantly male, hooted and welcomed all these supposedly manly expressions screen. In a strange case of art imitating life and life returning the favour, young male fans lapped up this depiction of masculinity as the ideal. The writers and directors who saw such films making big moolah doubled down on critics and made more films with even worse show of masochistic masculinity and abject misogyny.
Mammooty, Mohanlal and Suresh Gopi built their careers and fan base upon these uber-masculine ideals. So have directors like I V Shashi, Shaji Kailas, Joshiy etc and writers like Renjith and Renji Panicker. Their predecessors Dileep and Prithviraj too followed the pattern. But the next generation, like Dulquer Salman, Fahadh Fasil, Jayasurya, Kunchacko Boban etc seems to be steering away from this pattern. Prithviraj also expressed regret over his regressive roles recently. And it’s not just the actors, directors and writers are also showing maturity in the portrayal of female characters in film.
Two interesting case studies are Anjaam Pathira and Anveshanam, both released in 2020. These two are investigative thrillers with women playing police officers. In a different era, these women would have ended up as push overs for the heroes. In Anjaam Pathira, Kunchacko Boban plays the lead, and Unnimaya Prasad plays the DCP in heading the investigation. Even though her character is berated by her superior, it only comes off as something that a junior officer would face in a high-pressure situation. The hero makes a misogynist comment against the superior nor does the camera linger on the curves of the female officer as is the case in most films.
In Anveshanam Liyona Lishoy plays a heavily pregnant police officer investigating the death of a boy. That was interesting characteristic because ‘getting a woman pregnant’ is the ‘manliest’ thing there is, right? We’ve seen umpteen movie scenes where the hero puts down the ‘outspoken’ heroine or a female character with the threat of getting her pregnant. These dialogues, which are thinly veiled rape threats, are sadly passed on as heroic.
In Anveshanam, when the police officer who is a woman and pregnant comes off as a slap at the face of male ego. And kudos for the director and writer to have come with such an idea. In this film too, we have a mainstream hero Jayasurya in the lead. But there is not a single scene that berates the officer doing her duty and that too in a no-nonsense fashion.
Not only action, but rom-coms, romance and family dramas in Malayalam have been offering dollops of misogyny sugar-coating it as part of ‘our culture’. One of the masters of misogyny in Malayalam film is the very talented Balachandra Menon. He is renowned for his family-oriented movies with a message, which were huge hits. But re-watching his movies now causes discomfort. The ideal man in the Menon-world commands the respect of his wife and every other woman, puts ‘arrogant’ women in their place through words or deeds.
It does not come as a surprise in an industry dominated by men in all the creative departments of film making including writing and directing. So, the worldview gets skewed because they recreated what they saw and believed was right.
Thankfully, most of the modern-era directors have consciously shed this stilted approach. Writers like Shyam Pushkar and Anjali Menon, and directors like Anwar Rashid, Aashiq Abu, Dileesh Pothan etc are diverting the general consciousness about femininity and the female voice. That being said, the spectre of uber-masculinity has not become a relic of the past. We still have directors like Hameed Adeni and Ajai Vasudev who still churn out macho hero movies filled with all the detestable elements of heroism. As long as there is a market for such films, this trend will continue. In short, real change must begin with the audience and the creative brains behind movies must work on showing how heroism can be different and better.
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