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.
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