Having watched two films: Matrubhoomi and Dus, I was wondering which one to write on. I decided to write on something worth writing about. And I chose to write on Manish Jha’s Matrubhoomi. (So, that gives you the review on Dus!)
Matrubhoomi:
Titled as ‘A Nation without Women’, this story is fictitious with a serious satirical edge. The following is how it goes:
A girl is born. In a nation dominated by man, where female infanticide is a social-practice, a girl is born. The father and the relatives are disappointed. They sacrifice the infant to the gods (by drowning her in a vessel of milk) praying for a male infant by next year. When every educated family celebrates the birth of a child in their house, many illiterate families witness a gruesome murder of an innocent infant on similar occasion, because… a girl is born.
A man and his five sons are frustrated each and everyday eating the insipid food cooked by a low-caste servant boy. Moreover they are frustrated regarding their unsatisfied ‘basic instincts’. And what will such men, who haven’t ever interacted with women, know about understanding and respecting them. They are just in search of something which will satisfy their needs and satiate their frustrations.
How long does a woman’s freedom keep her happy? I don’t know about the contemporary liberal society, but for the only woman existing in this story, Kalki, the duration of her happiness in freedom is too short. The men’s eyes have been cast on her. And her money-lusted father marries (sells) her to the five brothers. There begins the plight of a woman in the male-dominated world.
Everyday they enjoy the delicious dishes she cooks and satisfy their ‘basic instincts’ each brother on a day of the week. Their father sleeps with her on the remaining two days. There is nothing she could express other than weep at the corner of the room, until the youngest of the brothers makes her smile a little.
Like a flower in a thorny bush, he is soft at heart and kind in manners. Before loving her as a woman, he respects her as a human. Kalki falls in love with him. He gives her the freedom she loves. But as I have questioned: how long does a woman’s freedom keep her happy? He is killed by his envying brothers.
When she tries to run away, once, she is tethered and raped by every one. Further when inter-caste clashes happen, some of the low-caste men seek vengeance on the high caste by raping Kalki (who belongs to a high caste house). As the molestation continues, Kalki gets pregnant. And everyone, her husbands and those low-caste men, claim it to be their child. After the men on both sides fight and kill one another, a girl is born. Yes! A girl is born into a nation free from male-chauvinism.
My Perception of the Story:
Writer, through this story, may be wanted to infer the fate of Draupadi, had she been married to five Kauravas than the five Pandavas. (Considering that, though Kauravas are good rulers and warriors, they are male-chauvinists). But this is just one phase of the story.
The climax refers to an unrealistic solution, where girl-birth is welcome to this world only when all the men (male-chauvinists) are killed. Or may be the writer wanted to express that there is no realistic solution for this problem.
Anymore perceptions are welcome from your side. (Readers of this review)
On and Off the Screen:
Director-writer, Manish Jha, made no mistakes with his script and direction. His screenplay is the best part of the film. Slick and compact, it doesn’t give the audience a chance to yawn. It is his intelligence as a writer, not to include many sex-discrimination issues; if he had included some more issues, the flow of the story could have got more complex.
The technical department has done a good job. Cinematography by Venu is wonderful and background score by Salim-Sulaiman is awesome. There was one tune from the background score (also heard in TV trailers), which haunts me even now as I write this review.
Personally I cannot rate Tulip Joshi as a great actress, though she looks very authentic as Kalki. But one compliment she deserves is her professionalism to be like pure clay, which greatly helps the director to mold her perfectly to Kalki. Sushanth Singh, Sudhir Pandey and others were good in their respective roles.
Recommendation: In the theatre, there were six people with me, who watched the film. In such scenarios, I don’t know how to recommend this film to anyone.