J4H a microcosm of the Indian or the Kerala society, is the funnier sibling or the lighter and for me a better version of The Great Indian Kitchen (TGIK). Vipin Das directs Basil Joseph and Darsana Rajendran in J4H that picks up the issue of patriarchy and its effect on the average Malayalee woman. J4H gets its protagonists and the supporting characters right. All of them are strongly rooted in the milieu in which the narrative unfolds and you tend to identify with the characters and their thought processes, not sure though, why the writer - director decides to make it a comedy that waters down the seriousness of the issue it tries to raise, to some extent.
J4H is about Jayabharati (Darsana Rajendran) who is born into a lower middle class family and is made to compromise on all her dreams, hopes and aspirations by her parents citing financial difficulties; her not so smart brother gets the benefit of being born a man. Jayabharati finds an ideal man in her teacher (Aju Varghese in a brief cameo) but sadly he doesn't practice what he preaches. When her family comes to know about her affair gone sour, they decide to marry her off to Rajesh (Basil Joseph), who runs his own poultry business and lives with his mother (Kudassanadu Kanakam, a complete natural in front of the camera) and divorced sister, Raji (Sheethal Zacharia). Rajesh has a king sized male ego and is the product of patriarchy. He resorts to violence to drive home his point and doesn't mind beating Jaya for the silliest of reasons. Jaya seeks help from her parents and brother and when her cries fall on deaf ears, she decides to handle it all by herself. Where this lands Jaya, Rajesh and everyone around them is what the rest of the narrative is all about.
Jaya's helplessness and the apathy of her parents and what drives Jaya to take the matter in her own hands are picturized effectively. After Rajesh realizes that Jaya is not what he thinks she is, Rajesh goes on a his planks. There are few impactful scenes in the second half - Rajesh's outburst at the poultry farm in the presence of his staff and saying how man without woman is incomplete and that a woman can live without a man, and almost at the fag end, Darshana, lying outdoors, whistling her heart away. Rajesh asking Jaya to choose what she wants, but ending up ordering what he prefers, needing a friend or support to guide, while Jaya making her own decisions, parents asking Jaya to adjust while Rajesh for all is an innocent good guy. Interesting fact is that few shots are shot twice, with a shorter version and the real version, to show the discriminations.
Nobody is perfect in this world, and J4H depicts this very thing in myriad ways. It takes on toxic masculinity, toxic parenting, body shaming, and so on without looking like one of those progressive movies made for the sake of being so. The narrative definitely has its heart in the right place and is extremely well- intentioned. The movie does not hesitate to call out the patriarchal mindset that runs very deep in the society. J4H could've become another "greatest hits" compilation of every problem women encounter, but it manages to bring up each issue at the right time. Manju Pillai steals the one scene that she appears in though the proceedings in the court look very staged and dramatic. It's interesting to see the perceptive on the three qualities that a female wife need to have.
No comments:
Post a Comment