When the dual avatars of Durga are unveiled!!!

Putting an end to all brouhaha and speculation, the much-awaited S Durga has emerged triumphant to the limelight. Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s third film followed by the award-winning Oralpokkam and Ozhivu Divasathe Kali has created a whirlwind beginning from the pre-censored title ‘Sexy Durga’ to the eligibility of public screening in Indian theatres. Now, it is time for the reel to reveal the story couched in the combo feeling of reality and belief. Sometimes it takes a new environment; sometimes it takes a piece of literature or a film to propel people to ponder over more deeply about things of real flesh and blood. This Malayalam film delineating the tragic plight of Durga and Kabeer throughout a fearsome night has garnered accolades, acclaim and applause across the globe for a realistic rendition of the phases cum faces in a woman’s/man’s life. The honors comprise Hivos Tiger Award in the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2017, Golden Apricot for the Best International Competition at Armenia’s Yerevan International Film Festival, and Best International Feature Narrative in Guanajuato International Film Festival, Mexico. Albeit the film was screened at various film festivals of great renown, it has gone through severe ordeals especially for the release in the director’s home state, Kerala.

“What is in a name?” asked, William Shakespeare, the autumnal face of English literature centuries back. This query sounds relevant and recurring as far as Sexy Durga is concerned. The transition from ‘Sexy Durga’ to ‘S Durga’ might not invoke and provoke the inner instincts of enlightened India’s citizens. If ‘The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner’ is rephrased as ‘The Song of the Old Sailor’, readers may fail to understand the pangs of the sailor. Things and thoughts can change with a name, can’t they? S Durga after hitting controversies is all set to hit the theatres with Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s consistently inconsistent way of storytelling.

Sasidharan through his artistic freedom of expression within the limited duration kindles limitless thoughts in the psyche of his spectators. The eponymous heroine Durga sets out very late in the night to catch a train to Madras with Kabeer. It is quite explicit from the screen and scene that they are in a deserted area for a script less journey. They are desperately in pursuit of an escaping track. They manage to take a lift in a car with two men and this journey makes the crux of the film. Here it begins and here it ends. The men who offered them lift begin a question-answer session with the couple in search of their fresh woods and pastures news. Kannan Nayar who acts as Kabeer introduces himself as a Keralite and Durga as his wife as well as a North Indian. This instils uncertainties in the minds of the men in the car and the policemen who probed while checking the car. This query can even arouse the ‘love jihad’ sentiments among the audience since the couple is a Muslim- Hindu duo. The film portrays the trembling night of garudan thookkam (Eagle Hanging), a ritual performed in Kerala’s Durga temples in parallel with the grotesque night of the couple. In this Hindu ritual, men who dress up as mythical Garuda impose masochistic pain on them and dangle from a shaft attached to a mobile vehicle, hooked to their back skin. They might be in an endeavour to please or praise the deity. On one hand, the film glimpses at the tribulations of men whereas on the other hand, it focuses the attention of cinephiles to a lady who has to undergo lot many tests of that endless night. Rajshri Deshpande who plays the role of Durga speaks in Hindi which is comprehensible only to her counterpart Kabeer. The spectators become sceptical whether the language articulated by Durga or any woman cannot be understood by all. When Durga expresses her need to urinate, it becomes a matter of ecstasy for the people who offered the couple a ride. Nature’s call for Durga to pass urine is celebrated by the male hegemony as if this act were capable of inducing sexual gratification. Is the helplessness of a woman throughout the entire film that sexy? The two female images of same names encounter a haunting night of cruel kindness and brutal happiness. The objective correlative of the film with an appalling night pulls everybody in willing suspension of disbelief. Although Durga and Kabeer try to get out of the car four times and find some other protection, they are left with no option other than this one and only car. It is their sheer helplessness that prompts them to get into this vehicle despite their taunting, indistinct talks and laughter. The film ends on an optimistic note that both the hero and heroine are not harmed physically. The mask technique, the boisterous laughter of the car gangsters and the intermittent sound of ambulance give the sense of an emotional rape though. When something bad or unpleasant happens in one’s life, that night/ day will leave an eternal impression in one’s mind. No age can wither such an indelible image. Sasidharan’s Sexy Durga’s leaves such an unfathomable night of reality with the commendable depiction far away from the oft-beaten tracks and the awe-inspiring subversive images of garudan thookkam.

Cinema has become the rich heritage of man and we see the recordation of the heart- beats of the entire human race in celluloid form. How do we articulate a modern being which creates a world beyond us and opens a world for us? The very query points us to the cinema, a medium that is never static. It is constantly in motion and not at all in an inertia. Cinema always has the calibre to create alternatives and space just like the montage juxtaposing the plurality of voices, space, images and time. It can generate new and continuous dialogues not only between people but also between history, past and future. We can look at this line of time.  Our tail is bloody and we have a head that will eat up whatever needs to be eaten up to avenge the wounds of history.  Head will devour its own tail in course of time. It will be encountered in the very near future. Between the head and tail lies our present.  Cinema has the charisma to present all these possibilities. Filmmakers will bestow another space, dialogue, time and it will give you another future as well as many futures. Cinema is thriving in an air circumscribed in the heated discussions on freedom of expression, censorship, political interference and art house cinema. The moment of dissent is a part of our grand tradition of positive. A positive of plurality, a positive of multiple resonances, a positive of patience where thousand flowers bloom. A positive of parampara to survive the centuries of samaya, the mahakaal. We have to understand how forms of art in themselves become means to dissent.

The world we dwell is a world of intolerance. The dire need of the hour is to speak out not silently and subtly but loudly and clearly. Sanal Kumar Sasidharan knows the ways and means to tackle this hurdle. He is not helpless as a filmmaker. He has a commanding art, a tool to combat the kind of control of the time and space. In a way, S Durga is mirroring the common man of flesh and blood like us. The time to dissent is now. The oft-quoted adage ‘better late than never’ exemplifies the need to dissent. Cinema acts as an influential weapon to question and answer. The Canadian poet Leonard Cohen’s Anthem bestows a note of optimism.

“There is a crack, a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in”.

This crack or little opening must be wholly pressed into action. Let this anthem glimmer hope to the humanity to create minds and movies like S Durga without the fear of expression.