Polandine Patti Episode 20

We continue our discussion of The Sea with the films: Chemeen, Amaram, Moonam Pakkam, Mosayile Kuthira Meenukal, and Akasathinte Niram.

Download Episode Twenty.

Episode Twenty Highlights:

Spoiler Alert! We try to remember to alert listeners to spoilers, but just in case, know that we talk about the films in-depth, so be sure to watch them first if you’re concerned about spoilers!

[00:00:30] Katherine notes that we seemed a bit, well, at sea in Episode 19 – for her, she felt she didn’t have a firm grasp of what the sea represented in the films we explored.

[00:00:55] Katherine also points out that Harsha mentioned that none of the filmmakers or writers of the films in Episode 19 were connected to the communities they were set in – so Katherine wonders how faithful the representations were.  She felt we did get a glimpse of how people who live on coastal waters work and live. (with some reservations about some of the stereotypes).

[00:02:08] Harsha notes that with older films, sometimes there are technological or stylistic details that are inaccessible to her.  She understands that for Chemeen in particular, it represented a big change for Malayalam movies.

[00:02:23] For Harsha, the other movies we talked about are basically fantasies about what people who live by the sea are like.

[00:02:45] In the films we’re exploring today, Harsha feels more of the people’s humanity, as well as seeing how the sea plays a key role in people’s lives.

[00:03:10] When both of us are struggling with the discussion around the films, what is it about the films (and maybe our understanding of them) that causes that?

[00:03:20] Katherine notes that this is the first time she found all the films we’re talking about today with subtitles, and that it’s the first time she’s loved all the films we’re examining.  Though she notes she found Moonnam Pakkam on Hotstar with subtitles in Canada, but it doesn’t seem to be there any longer.

[00:03:53] We very often talk about films we don’t like because they do suit a theme we’re exploring.  At the same time, we’re trying to cover a cross-section of Malayalam movies, we’re not just looking at films from 2010 onwards that resonated with us.  We’re thinking of movies across eras, and perhaps also the way people responded to them and thought about them.

[00:04:32] We sometimes talk about movies (like The Great Father, as an example), and it’s not really an endorsement to go watch them.  We do like discussions about films we don’t like, even if we give the occasionally warning about them.

[00:04:57] We don’t want people to think that all Malayalam cinema is good, or that it always has the right perspective.  We just want people to know that the cinema comes from a culture and in a lot of ways it’s representative of that culture.  Sometimes it has misogynistic and/or casteist views, and we’re always trying to represent that fairly.

[00:05:24]  We feel this is important, too, when someone is new to Malayalam cinema – they sometimes try to search out the best, and that’s great, but sometimes the best flies under the radar, and sometimes things that get a lot of attention may not be worth your time to watch them (in our opinion).

[00:06:35] Harsha decided to take a deep dive into the internet talking about RRR (note that we recorded this when RRR frenzy was at its height).  The film had incredible reach (even as Harsha recognizes the movie wasn’t made for her).  She recalls the time when Magadheera was released, when a show called The Soup would take clips from the film – the craziest moments – making fun of it, but also recognizing how awesome it was.

[00:07:56] A lot of context has gotten lost from the discussions around RRR, including ideas around nationalism and caste.  And that’s probably to be expected when you’re watching just one film from an industry.

[00:09::10]  This loops back around to our discussions of Malayalam cinema – perhaps we want the fans of these movies who have been getting into them since 2018 or so (when they arrived more frequently on streaming) to understand that maybe what we’re doing is sharing a view for them.  They may like what the cinema has to offer, but we can help when you think it’s time to think a little bit deeper about them.

[00:09:38] At the time, Katherine hadn’t watched RRR yet – as Harsha points out, she wanted the hype to die down so she could give it a fair chance.  At the same time, it’s interesting for an Indian film to gain this kind of attention.

[00:10:15] The fan space around a film like RRR can be uncomfortable because it’s often very white male centric, with a distinct lack of curiousity about what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes, or flip the perspective and see things from someone else’s point of view.  There’s sometimes a distinct lack of empathy, and that’s not how we like to watch movies.

[00:11:20] We are two women talking in a space that is, generally, very male centric.  Our aim is to add a different voice and a different perspective.

[00:12:30] Harsha is, however, happy for the buzz around NTR Jr. — she knows the kind of life he’s had, being the son of a mistress, it was nice to see that for him.

[00:12:55] Katherine hopes that the attention on RRR will eventually spark some people to become curious and go further.  Just don’t think that RRR represents the entirety of Indian cinema.

[00:13:45} Harsha apologizes to the Telugu speaking listeners.

[00:14:37] We turn to the films about the sea, and remind people there are spoilers.

[00:15:19] The order of films today came from Katherine, and seemed logical to her after watching all the films.  We’re starting with the 1991 film Amaram, directed by Bharathan.  It’s the first Bharathan film we’ve talked about!  Harsha notes we’re also talking about a Padmarajan film in this episode:  in her words, “What a treat!”

[00:15:46] Amaram was written by another heavy hitter of Malayalam cinema, Lohithadas.  It’s a classic film in the repertoire, and should definitely be watched.  It’s about a fisherman who is a father raising a child alone.  She’s the apple of his eye.

[00:16:25] He is very focused on her education and wants to make her a doctor.  She passes her exams with flying colours, and is on her way to get the education her father wants for her.  But her father discovers she’s in love with her childhood friend and neighbour, and when she’s given an ultimatum to choose, she decides to get married.  This leads to all kinds of repercussions in the coastal community, between the father and daughter, and between the father and a woman he has a relationship with.

[00:17:42] Katherine loves the film, and notes it’s on YouTube with some funky subtitles (which are better than no subtitles).  She loves it in part because it’s a contrast with the films we watched in Episode 19.  You get a firm grasp of the community, and there’s an insistence on the part of Mammootty’s father character that his daughter is not going to be one of the women who take the catch and sells it.  She is smart, and he wants better for her, but part of his reasoning is that there’s no doctor in the community.

[00:18:33] It’s often difficult to attract doctors to communities like this (Katherine mentions a couple of Canadian films on that very subject), and it’s also important in this case because the girl’s mother died soon after giving birth, because there wasn’t a doctor to attend to her. 

[00:19:05] The film gives an insight into the concerns of the fishing community, but there’s also this idea that one generation wants to work hard in order to educate their children so they’ll have a better life.

[00:19:33] Katherine felt a little frustrated that the daughter chose to throw her opportunity away (at first). The young man she decides to marry pushes back at the idea that she should be educated: isn’t enough that they love each other and they’re together?  But in the end, she does go back to school.

[00:20:03] A problem that Harsha always had with the movie is this teenage love aspect.  Her father, too, has some odd ideas as well – he tells her if she’s with her college friends, and she sees him and he’s in his work clothes, pretend not to know him.  Because he wants her to go beyond, and almost cut her ties with this community.

[00:20:30] That’s unhealthy, and his daughter cries because she wonders if he thinks that if he’s in dirty clothes, would he stop being her father?  He wants to keep her in this bubble where she’s well-educated and around people who are well-educated.

[00:20:54] Raghavan is a strong tie for her back to the community, and he is all like, why do you need to be educated?  Why do you think you’re better than us because you go to college?  He’s like an archetypal teen-aged boyfriend who wants to stay at home and live the same life his parents did, holding back his girlfriend.

[00:21:41] Harsha feels it’s the wrong choice she’s made to marry him, especially as she did so because he emotionally manipulated her.  It