I watched 2 tamil movies, Mozhi and Ammuvagiya Naan, last week. I had read good reviews for both of them and been planning to watch them for a long time.
Mozhi is about the relationsip between an aspring musician, played by Prithviraj and a deaf mute girl, played by jyothika (in her last acting role). Prakashraj, as another aspiring musician and Swarnamalya, as friend of jyothika round out the movie's main cast. Jyothika grows up with her grandmother, as self-willed and independent, after her father deserts their family and her mother dies soon after. Her experience with her father also leaves her very suspicious of males, in general. Prithviraj happens to see her kick a drunken husband in public, for beating his wife and is impressed with her. He promptly falls in love with her and his ardour doesnt diminish a bit after he finds out about her deaf muteness. He works himself into her good graces, with lots of help from Prithviraj and Swarnamalya characters, even though she is oblivious of his true intent. When she finds out, she withdraws into a shell and refuses any consideration from him. The end of the movie is about how everything gets resolved and everyone goes home happy.
As far as actors go, Jyothika completely dominates the proceedings with her portrayal of the deaf mute character. As someone who hates her brand of acting(exaggerated roll of eyes, constant jerking motion of head in all directions to every situation), I was pleasantly surprised at how well she played the character. Towards the end, the 'bad' jyothika did come out once in a while but her overall performance was commendable, especially given this was her last movie. Prithviraj plays the normal hero role and doesnt have that much of a weighty character defined for him. Prakashraj, on account of being the movie's producer, tones down his irritating brand of acting and acquits himself well. Swarnamalya fits in like a glove in her role of the widower, who helps Prithviraj gain and maintain access to Jyothika's character.
Tamil movie treatment of disabled characters in general and ,deaf mute characters in particular, has usually been characterised by an extreme sense of pity and condescension, as evinced by hero mouthing the usual cliche dialogue of 'Vaai paesaadha, kaadhu kaelaadha ponnukku vazhvu kodukka poraen'(example would be cheran's porkaalam). Director Radha Mohan has taken care to clarify that point in this movie, making the male characters claim that they are not providing a helping hand out of pity as much as they are willing to share the future with their respective partners. In doing so, he has gone against exploiting, shamelessly done by directors of earlier tamil movies, disability and widowhood for melodrama.
The movie also makes fun a whole host of of tamil movie cliches. The opening sequence of rich girl falling for poor guy for the first 2 minutes, is delightful as both Prithviraj and Prakashraj make fun of the music interludes that would play in the background as the charade plays out on the screen. The opening scene also succeeds in upending the long lived tamil movie myth of suffering musicians, looking for recognition. Here, Prithviraj and Prakashraj characters are assumed to be reasonably well-off, enough to afford a flat and car in chennai. The pernicious stereotype of music hero struggling for opportunities to display his musical genius, is laid to rest at last(Ajith in Mugavari didnt have the harmonium dangling from his neck as Bhagyaraj from andha ezhu naatkal did, but he was just as grating). The portrayal of drinking(and subsequent puking) by Prakashraj is more in line with experiences of people growing up, compared to the the holier-than-thou attitude tamil movies take with respect to drinking. Even the whole concept of falling in love is dealt with in an offhand manner as Prithviraj lists out what generally happens when they have found 'The One'(A light will glow on the top of your head and music will play). Tamil movies of the last 20 years(since, Alaigal Oyvathillai and Vazhvae Maayam) have treated love as something equivalent to religion, as one worthy of extreme piety and unquestioning admiration. The sooner more movies debunk that notion, the better. The character development of some of the ancillary roles is done well, especially that of the maths professor.
On the negative side, the whole movie could have done with some more polish. The story was very well made but the sorroundings somehow looked as if they belonged to a TV serial. If it werent for the songs, the whole movie could have been made into a 13 week serial, as opposed to the current megaserials.
The movie portrays female characters the way very few tamil movies do, that of someone independent, fearless and wise. After all, the sangam treatment of ideal woman as one with the four attributes could partly be responsible for the despicable position of women in tamil society. As per this ideal, an ideal woman is one who has achcham(fear), madam(innocence), naanam(shyness) and payirppu(modesty). Looking at tamil movies, it is a miniscule number that go against this stereotypical characterisation of females in them. Even if they provide for their heroines to be brave, they would make sure she exhibited the other attributes in good measure(countless vijayashanti movies). Mozhi goes against the first three attributes while leaving modesty alone. After all, the tamil movie cliche sorrounding karppu(chastity) is the vilest of them all. However, compared to the huge pile of tamil movies that portray their female characters as extension of sangam heroines, Mozhi is a pleasant adventure.
The other movie, Ammuvagiya Naan, is about rehabilitation of a commercial sex worker in a monogamous marriage. Ammu, the protagonist played by Bharathi, is sold to a neighbourhood establishment a.k.a brothel owner by her poor and drunken father, after her mother dies after delivery. Ammu grows up in the brothel and once she attains adulthood, expresses interest in being a commercial sex worker. She charges high rates to her clients and generally thinks quite well of her profession and not as anything shameful. Enter Gowri shankar, played by Parthiban, a novelist looking for a new story after failing twice to win recognition at the national level for his novels. He is interested in finding about lives of commercial sex workers for his next work. He takes a liking to Ammu and requests her participation. She is amused and agrees to participate. After spending some time with her, he requests her hand in marriage and after some bumps, they get married. The novel gets published and is up for a national award again. One of the authors on the award committee is a regular at the brothel who had been rebuffed by Ammu earlier, on account of his extreme perversions. He demands his pound of flesh from Ammu in return for a favourable opinion on the novel. The response of Ammu and Gowri Shankar forms the rest of the movie.
The movie sets up the argument between monogamy and prostitution in terms of security. The director tries very hard not to judge the commercial sex workers(and he is mostly successful at it) and points out the lack of security for them, especially as they get older. Even when the movie shows Ammu's adopted mother, the owner of the brothel, accepting Gowri Shankar's offer of 45 lakhs in the form of his house deed as security for seeking Ammu's hand in marriage(otherwise called dowry), it self-corrects it later when she returns it back to him. In his view, monogamy seems to be the desired ideal in this world, that would provide the security and care while at the same time addressing the demands for sex. He uses the four attributes of ideal woman in a different manner compared to Mozhi. In this movie, Ammu is fearless,independent, not shy and not modest when it comes to sex. There is a scene when Ammu is growing up when she notices other workers lining up for clients inspection. She proceeds to join the workers and is disappointed when she is not picked.The director undercuts her assurance by using Gowri Shankar to highlight the fact that she is innocent, afraid, dependent and modest when it comes to 'real' life, the life outside the four walls of the brothel. He portrays Ammu's enjoyment of sex in the brothel arising out of her sheltered upbringing within the four walls. And it is left to Parthiban's character to educate her on the benefits of being a dutiful wife, doting and dependent on her husband. The immediate respect she gets as Gowri Shankar's wife, in front of the police officer, who a few days back, treated the workers in the brothel in the meanest way possible, is an illustration of that tactic. As is Ammu receiving harsh treatment in the hands of Gowri Shankar's sister who has her hopes on getting Gowri Shankar married to her daughter. The director maintains a consistent line of progressiveness in Gowri Shankar throughout,
making him stress the need for higher education for his sister's daughter instead of marriage.
The humour in the movie is very understated and usually has to do with misunderstandings arising from Ammu's past profession. To his credit, the director has kept clear of putting in an item number, given tamil movie directors have found ways to inject vulgarity even where it is not needed.
Bharathi who plays Ammu completely dominates the movie. She takes on the role with glee and delivers very well. She deals with different emotions of her character very well. Parthiban underplays his role and creditably performs as Gowri Shankar. The other characters, be it the sex workers or Gowri Shankar's relatives are portrayed with lots of sympathy and not at all as caricatures, except maybe Gowri Shankar's sister.
Ammuvagiya Naan is about how (tamil) society respects a woman that learns the importance of and adheres to, the four attributes of the sangam age ideal, notwithstanding the eons of time that have passed. And the more tamil movies take baby steps towards addressing the horrible imbalance in treatment of female characters, the more they compensate for it by sticking to ancient ideals of womanhood, reality be damned.
