Two women oriented Malayalam films that released on the OTT platform, generated strikingly different responses. Kho-Kho had us rooting for the physical education teacher Maria Francis, enacted superbly by Rajisha Vijayan. Meanwhile, Sara's, a film about a young woman associate director pursuing her dreams to direct a film on her own, left us waiting for the flick to just end.
Jude Anthany Joseph's light-hearted take, on mighty issues like women's choice regarding pregnancy, child care, and societal pressure to fall in line, may have its motives in the right place. But the movie failed to create a connection. It failed to establish any kind of empathy for the female protagonist. Sara seemed like a self absorbed, selfish, silly girl who got away with it all. The film begins with the girl going into an empty classroom and attempting to steal a kiss with her then boyfriend. Then she makes the declaration that she doesn't plan to get pregnant.Soon the story shifts to Kochi,where she is an associate director . She seems to always throw her well-being manicured hands about, while explaining things to lesser mortals. She comes across as the typical rich, spoilt brat who has always had it all and doesn't really have to struggle much. The struggle is definitely there, but it is not convincing enough and Anna Ben fails miserably in getting us to root for her.
She lives in a stylish apartment, dresses in the trendiest of clothes, shops in malls and sets up home with her husband Jeevan, played well by Sunny Wayne in a fashionably sophisticated apartment. The film fails miserably and Srinda, quite a talented actress, is wasted in her role as a long-suffering forty some woman with four children and an over sexed, boorish husband.
Rajisha Vijayan and Mamitha Baiju in Kho- Kho delivered a very convincing and sincere performance in the taut and well edited sports movie. The story struck close to the heart and Rajisha Vijayan's Maria Francis was someone with whom we developed a bond. The problems encountered by her in a remote government girls school with basic infrastructure and uninterested teachers was something that we could relate to very easily. It doesn't mean that we cannot relate to a young fashionable woman wanting to direct a film on her own.
I feel the film failed to appeal because the focus was more about creating too many impressions and delivering too many messages. Jude Anthany Joseph seems to be suggesting that popular Mallu flicks have passed the stage of depicting stolen kisses and moments of hidden intimacy and have female characters rating the sexual performance of their boyfriends. Great! We have arrived!
But is empowerment only about rich, spoil brats, living in uber trendy flats, writing scripts and getting their films made so easily. Smug, snobbish, snooty Sara has it all. She directs a super hit film and has the adoring father and husband duo looking on benignly, at her and her achievement, which has, more or less, been delivered to her on a platter. Does she have the abortion or not? The director prefers to leave the million dollar question hanging. He cannot afford to endorse abortion so that his protagonist can direct her first film. So he glosses over it conveniently and leaves it hanging.
We also have Sara rehabilitating a yester year actress in the process. Phew! It was fatiguing. So much done by Sara without a strand of hair dropping out of place. Slick, sophisticated and absolutely bloodless Sara's!
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