and she leads him on a merry chase. And that kind
of thing is simply unheard of in a big star’s
film let alone his 50th one. This gun - toting femme
fatale drinks like a sailor, has a scheming mind that
would have made Machiavelli proud, and is not averse
to one – night stands with cute guys even if
she might be planning to stab said guy in the back
later in the day.
Venkat Prabhu’s bombastic style of filmmaking
made this character palatable and fans barely noticed
her vices because they were engrossed with Vinayak’s
follies and his big payoff for the same. However,
what is interesting is that Vinayak despite being
guilty of the same things that Sona does gets to survive
and live life King size with his ill – gotten
gains whereas Sona is reduced to a pathetic sex pot
who has lost her sheen attempting to barter her body
away in a last ditch attempt to save her shapely behind.
And the ignominy of it all is that she winds up getting
shot anyways but not before Vinayak has copped one
last feel.
That of course means that not much has changed even
in films that dare to be different. Our society has
always been more accepting of the peccadilloes of
its men whereas women who step out of line wind up
gang raped or murdered or are made to suffer terrible
humiliation. Nikita Thukral, famous for her appearance
in Saroja was recently slapped with a ban effective
for three years that would prevent her from working
in the Kannada Film Industry for an alleged affair
with actor Dharshan. The charge was that she had disrupted
his family life! Dharshan of course did not get even
a token slap on the wrist for allegedly screwing around
outside his marriage and thereby screwing up his own
personal life. Following a widespread media outcry,
the ban was lifted. But this ugly episode still managed
to underscore the sexism and its implications that
makes life so hard for women in our society. Unfortunately
our films also play their part to keep this blatant
practice alive and kicking lest women suddenly develop
the temerity to simply do their own thing.
The heroine always has to be virginal and a role model
for all the impressionable girls in the audience or
like an unwritten rule in horror films made in Hollywood,
she is going to die or worse. Whereas it is cool for
a man to be a faithless jerk and enhance his status
as a prize stud motivating every wide –eyed
boy in the audience to grow up and become a chain-smoking,
booze – swilling, frotteuristic menace.
Sona from Mankatha at least was a femme fatale and
nobody mourned her passing on the big screen as men
did not like her manipulative ways and women tended
to be bothered by her hotness. But in 7G Rainbow Colony
when Sonia Agarwal’s Anita is hit by a truck
the morning after she loses her virginity one feels
sorry for her. Ditto Priyamani in Paruthiveeran who
did not even go the distance but merely said aloud
her willingness to do the deed as it might get her
knocked up and force her family to unite her with
the man she loves.
Kaakha Kaakha was yet another film that deserves mention
for the lengths the director went not to tarnish Jothika’s
pristine white Maya. A wedding was squeezed into the
film at a wildly inappropriate juncture when a sociopath
is on the warpath trying to keep his promise to kidnap
and kill Maya. But this was probably deemed necessary
to allow the lovers to consummate their relationship
in a socially sanctioned way. Maya dies anyway but
this love story still remains ‘beautiful’
and there is nothing ‘sordid’ about it.
In Deiva Thirumagal, director Vijay went the distance
to maintain the purity of a female character who wasn’t
even there in the film! Confused? The character of
course is Vikram’s wife, Banu. Like the picture
of her that wasn’t, there is very little that
we are told about her character. We gather that she
is a rich girl who is into social service and she
threw away her family and life in order to be with
a child – man whose mental age is 7. But this
man – child named Krishnan clearly does not
respond to women the way adult men do and this is
evidenced in the scene where he is sitting behind
a smoking hot Anushka on her bike and is completely
absorbed in the raindrops blissfully oblivious to
her raging pheromones. How then did he and Banu manage
to have any kind of relationship that involved romance
and sexual activity? And what sort of woman sleeps
with a 7 year old? The director preferred to leave
such things hidden behind a conveniently blurred photograph.
In I Am Sam, a homeless woman spends the night with
Sean Penn’s character but Vijay probably decided
that our audiences are simply not ready for that kind
of scenario. It’s a pity because that would
have made sense whereas this half – baked love
story is a black mark against an otherwise heart –
warming film.
Aaranya Kandam with its matter of fact tone was truly
a coming of age film about a female predator who beats
the men at their game using only her sexuality and
brains in that order. And neither she nor the other
morally ambiguous characters were judged in any way.
Aaranya Kandam was simply a delectable slice of human
nature. But then the film is one of a kind as there
never has been a film like it and it seems unlikely
there will be another like it. It is a pity because
in the mean time we still have to deal with films
that package old conventions in new clothes and sell
it to us as morality or awesomeness.
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