Dorothy

Watched the movie, Dorothy (Tamil). It is a story of life long friendships, twists and turns as people grow up and change, cruelty of casteism, patriarchy, toxic masculinity, misogyny and gender discrimination. It touches on all these without making it preachy, weaving it into a surprising human story, delivered by a strong cast. In it, a character says something like – “we have been created like this, to test the humanity of others” – I felt that it is like a mirror to the society, when our face shows the hate or derision towards those who are different, who is actually being judged. When I was in school/college, I had genuinely felt my generation might be the last to care about casteism in Indian society, but how naïve it was. In Keralam, maybe a lot of it has receded to just behind the curtain, but the monster is still very much there, still acts as enforcer when it matters. I would like to believe we are becoming better as a society and such movies are still needed.

I was wondering if Tamil has more progressive movies than Malayalam of late. Did an inventory of the ones I had watched in last few years.

In Tamil – Super Deluxe (who would take such risk, as Vijay Sethupathy had taken in this? A movie that could just shake one up), Pariyerum Perumal (painful one to watch, but I think there is thousand times more pain in real life), Asuran (violent one, but as a fan of Dhanush, liked this one), Karnan (another one with Dhanush), Jai Bhim (the last scene of the girl reading the newspaper with one leg over other is still in memory), Visaranai (I couldn't finish this, it was that painful), Kadaisi vivasayi (a strange one, with a strange role for Vijay Sethupathy), Vaazhai (why do I have to say all these were painful, it is just the range of pain that is in them), Paava kadhaigal (a few hard hitting stories and memorable performances).

In Malayalam – The Great Indian Kitchen (a landmark film, I think this could have helped so many people to stand up), Kaathal: the core (Mammootty’s resurgence with a series of such films, who could imagine him playing a homosexual, even though it was done in a subtle way without affecting his image maybe), Puzhu (here though, the handbrakes came off, Mammootty’s portrayal of a casteist patriarch was as ugly as it needed to be), Kismath (doomed love affair of a dalit girl and a muslim boy, beautifully shot, acted and a heartbreaking ending).

Some say movies are for entertainment and don’t need to preach/teach with it, but guess as an art form, it has responsibility too. Hope to see more such bold risks taken.