Thappad

Thappad

The prelude to the aria that is Thappad, is a dizzying runabout of a homemaker's humdrum daily chores. It serves to establish the roles each character has established for themselves. The husband played by newbie, Pavail Gulati is wonderfully self-obsessed and completely oblivious to anything but his own needs.

The wife played by Tapsee Pannu ( as if we didn't know! Ha ha!) is on the other end of the spectrum. She is hyper aware of the needs of all those around her and revels in being needed and being able to be of service.

The nuances that are written into the script are sheer brilliance. Consider the opening montage introducing the main characters to us. The wife being driven about, the girlfriend being received with love and finally a super successful lawyer finding freedom in hanging out a car window. The conversation that ensues between all of them, sketches skillfully the back stories of the lot of them.

The movie is far from being a chest beating commentary on the patriarchal nature of our society or even an abrasive feminist take on the "Rights of Women."

It is a simple narrative on the respect and dignity that is the right of every individual whether a female or a male.

Or in the words of Tapsee's, Ammu- it is needing to be respected and loved.

It is only as I am writing this that I am realising what a weak storyline it actually is, and then I am marveling at the weave of this storyline which held me captive for all of 142 minutes.

The Thappad itself is over in a fraction of a second, and then comes the aftermath. This is sans any foot stomping or screaming or slamming of doors or even mere accusatory glances. The aftermath has thunderous echoes of the Thappad with people avoiding the topic, not looking at each other or moving away. No one wants to start a conversation about it. It is all alluded to rather obliquely. Much like we Indians behave during a solar eclipse. No one wants to look up and see the sun getting eclipsed. We all start resorting to rituals and acknowledge the eclipse only by assigning it surreal powers. So also the post mortem of a Thappad.

Ammu shrinks into herself and has no outlet except her own routine. And this she does whilst going into a shell and becoming a mere shadow of her former sunny self. And still she receives no acknowledgement of the incident from either her husband or the women in her orbit. She is just told that this happens, let it go. No one wants to know what is happening with her and why is her smile missing.

She breaks finally when she realises that it is upto her and her only to reclaim her dignity. And she does it again with a quiet angst in the middle of a food store.

Her father played by Kumud Mishra understands her pain and in a scene that is markedly different to how he reacts to his daughter's humiliation, he dresses down his son for his treatment of his girlfriend. That alone is enough to make your blood boil. And one suddenly realised that, firstly this is what he should have done to his son-in-law and secondly his reaction now is probably exaggerated because if what happened to his daughter. And it was only Kumud Mishra who could have played this out, with each part of his body conveying his helplessness and his rage.

Anubhav Sushila Sinha, as he is labelled in this one, is on sound footing. And to my mind it seemed that he could not let this one go without stating his poltics, and so we have Kumud Mishra quoting Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, "Jo tathast hain, samay likhega unke bhi apradh." Roughly translated that means,
"Those of us who are on the fence and are not taking a stand today, shall also be judged for our crimes by time/ history."

Just beautiful! And a comment on our times today and on Ammu's plight, who just wanted Love and Respect from life.
It is possibly what would have happened to Rani from Queen if she had gone ahead and married the snivelling snot she was engaged to.
Ammu too, similarly says that no one loved me, they loved a wife, a daughter-in-law and a daughter and forgot that they had to love the person too.
Tapsee plays this out beautifully and very differently from Manmarziyan's Rumi. And I am in awe of her talent.
Ratna Pathak Shah, Tanvi Azmi and Dia Mirza are well placed, as are Ram Kapoor and Manav Kaul. Worthy of a mention is Maya Sarao, Ammu's lawyer and of course the superbly fluid Geetika Vidya Ohlyan. I loved , loved her. If she impressed you in the superlative Soni, she will blow you away in this one.
Do not miss this one. #movies

And ruminate on what Dinkar said....