{"id":960,"date":"2019-03-16T16:05:03","date_gmt":"2019-03-16T10:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/?p=960"},"modified":"2019-03-16T16:05:03","modified_gmt":"2019-03-16T10:35:03","slug":"ispade-rajavum-idhaya-raniyum-wants-us-to-empathise-with-a-toxic-violent-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/2019\/03\/16\/ispade-rajavum-idhaya-raniyum-wants-us-to-empathise-with-a-toxic-violent-man\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ispade Rajavum Idhaya Raniyum\u2019 Wants Us To Empathise With A Toxic, Violent Man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ranjit Jeyakodi\u2019s film is perfectly in line with recent \u2018toxic male\u2019 films like \u2018Arjun Reddy\u2019, \u2018Kaatru Veliyidai\u2019 and \u2018Taramani\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a scene in Ispade Rajavum Idhaya Raniyum<\/em> (IRIR) where Gautham (Harish Kalyan), an angry, violent man, helps Tara (Shilpa Manjunath), a kind solemn woman, escape a scene of violence. He asks her, \u201ceppo paathaalum crime scene-laye irukkiye<\/em>\u201d (how come you\u2019re always at crime scenes?). Nothing captures the tone and intent of the film as well as this scene does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three times that Gautham and Tara met each other became violent\/crime scenes mainly because he made it so. Yet, he is nonchalant, even eager, to blame it on her. Throughout the film, Gautham blames his mother, \u201cponnunga<\/em>\u201d (as in, generally, women) and Tara specifically for his bad behaviour. The film wants us to listen to him, empathise with his predicament and understand his story. And gosh, is it an ugly one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IRIR is the story of Gautham trying to prove that he\u2019s the least horrible of the men in this world, and wanting a badge for it. Every time he behaves badly, there is another man exhibiting worse behaviour. When Gautham beats up a man in the middle of the night, the man runs away and abandons his girlfriend, making Gautham the gentleman. When Gautham goes to the heroine\u2019s house and throws stones at her window, her father comes out and makes personal attacks at Gautham\u2019s mother. When he physically attacks Tara\u2019s friend, there is a \u201cmad man\u201d in the background singing \u2018women are all evil\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only reason Gautham is the \u2018hero\u2019 is because Ranjit Jeyakodi, the film\u2019s writer-director, creates a world where every other man is significantly worse than him. For good measure, Gautham\u2019s friends are always making crude jokes about women and relationships on the side. (If you know what\u2019s so funny about MaKaPa calling everyone Kumar-u, please let me know).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that sense, IRIR is perfectly in line with any of the recent \u2018toxic male\u2019 films you might have seen\u2014Kaatru Veliyidai<\/em>, Taramani<\/em>, Arjun Reddy<\/em> and the likes. And just like in all of these, in the end, the hero redeems himself, having to face absolutely no consequences for his actions other than taking a bike ride across picturesque mountains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the film ends, Ranjit wants us to believe that Gautham understands the folly of his ways and knows how much trauma he has put Tara through. If this were true, why bother with so much screen time, dialogue and empathy for an abuser?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s accept that IRIR\u2019s intention was, in fact, to show a light on Gautham\u2019s toxic ways. A far better way to do this would have been to concentrate on the story of Tara, a young woman deftly juggling education, family pressure, an impending marriage arranged when she was a child, an inter-class relationship and the unbearable Gautham. It is she and Gautam\u2019s mother who bear the burden and guilt of his obnoxious behaviour.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I must be fair, until the intermission, IRIR isn\u2019t a boring film, even if every scene is some form of regurgitated soup scene with Gautham\u2019s voiceover. Kalyan keeps you hooked, playing Gautham with a mix of nihilism and vulnerability. He brings Gautham to life as a broken man, a teetotaller among drinkers, jobless among gig economy workers and lonely among friends. For a man like Gautham, love for a woman like Tara is preordained. She is kind to him in a world where he thinks everyone hates him. Her kindness is new to him and unsettles him as much as it exhilarates. She is the perfect masochist for the sadist in him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, after the interval, the film becomes unwatchable. There are seemingly unending conflict scenes, and the only form of resolution is when Tara comes back and they have makeup sex. The conflicts in this movie don\u2019t really escalate, they just repeat. Scene after scene, he treats her badly and she walks away, only to return parroting the same dialogue about always being by his side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this were an SJ Suryah love story, he\u2019d have told us whether or not the lovers come together in the end \u2014 love stories are pretty obvious, aren\u2019t they? But Ranjit Jeyakodi wants to retain the suspense, he doesn\u2019t want us to know if Gautham and Tara end up together. But much of this suspense is cheating. There are several scenes where there is suspense just for the sake of suspense. The scene right before the interval, for instance, leaves us waiting for an accident that might potentially kill Gautham. Yet, when we return, the film just goes on like nothing happened. Every time we see Gautham repent for his past behaviour, there is some bit of cheating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the film, Gautham walks away without consequences for uttering the most insulting\/abusive lines. In one scene, he publicly humiliates Tara for hugging someone and grabs her hand. When she says he is hurting her and tears up, he yells at her, \u201ckanlaye vechutruppingala<\/em>\u201d (do you always keep it in your eyes). The audience around me roared in understanding applause\u2014that women use tears as weapon. The film is full of scenes like these which give Gautham the chance to humiliate, abuse, gaslight and destroy Tara. His near-murderous experience and the Himalaya tour after that is just not enough consequence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IRIR\u2019s \u2018hero\u2019 is a toxic, violent man who deserves to be in jail. In an interview<\/a> before the film\u2019s release, director Jayakodi dismissed questions about depicting toxic masculinity, saying he doesn\u2019t consider these issues while writing. He should have read and engaged with at least some of the pieces written about earlier \u2018toxic male\u2019 films and then, maybe, he wouldn\u2019t have failed as much as a writer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously published in Huffington Post India<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ranjit Jeyakodi\u2019s film is perfectly in line with recent \u2018toxic male\u2019 films like \u2018Arjun Reddy\u2019, \u2018Kaatru Veliyidai\u2019 and \u2018Taramani\u2019. There is a scene in Ispade Rajavum Idhaya Raniyum (IRIR) where Gautham (Harish Kalyan), an angry, violent man, helps Tara (Shilpa Manjunath), a kind solemn woman, escape a scene of violence. He asks her, \u201ceppo paathaalum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-huffpost","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tharkuri.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}