As an actor, Asif Ali has done certain movies that sort of addressed the grey space in relationship dynamics. Be it Kakshi Amminipilla or Kettyolanu Ente Malakha, there were debates about the politics of those movies as a segment of the audience found the stance towards women in those movies problematic. Aabhyanthara Kuttavaali, Asif’s new film directed by Sethunath Padmakumar on the periphery, feels like yet another grey topic where they are talking about the misuse of IPC 498A- a law that is supposed to protect women from domestic abuse. But unlike a Kakshi Amminipilla or Kettyolanu Ente Malakha, Aabhyanthara Kuttavaali just doesn’t want to hear the other perspective, and that pretty much makes it the cinematic equivalent of men’s locker room talk.
Sahadevan is our central character. He was married to Nayana. But after almost 10 days of marriage, Nayana goes to her house unannounced with her father, and a few days later, multiple complaints are lodged against Sahadevan, the prominent one being domestic abuse. What led to this scenario and how Sahadevan fought to get justice is what we see in this movie.
The theme of this movie is definitely relevant. We all may have come across at least one male out there who may be facing false allegations because the legal system favors women in certain scenarios. The problem with Sethunath Padmakumar’s movie’s writing is that it addresses a bigger problem from a very narrow perspective. It is like how some people talk about reservations – The people I know from backward communities are thriving, hence there is no need for reservations anymore. Every subplot Sethunath adds to the story shows a different version of a married woman who is trying to use her legal advantage to grab money from the male.
When movies are made around these sensitive topics, we sort of gauge the quality by looking at the gaze of the filmmaker towards the topic. SPOILER ALERT! I will have to list out some characters in the movie in the latter part of this review. So, there are almost four female characters in the film that Sethunath uses to strengthen his claim. One is our hero’s wife Nayana, who is asking for divorce unreasonably. Then we have the case of an aged Muslim couple. They arranged their son’s marriage to a girl from a poor family, and when their son died, their daughter-in-law filed a case against them asking for money and the house. Then we see a man not being able to see his child because his wife and her family have fed this idea into the head of that child that the husband is a madman. Then we see the hero’s close friend going to see a girl for a possible alliance, and she is only bothered about his money. Almost every woman in Sethunath’s world is either an opportunist or useless. The junior advocate who supports Sahadevan is also portrayed as an incompetent person who doesn’t know how to present a case or drive a car.
As everyone has been saying of late, Asif Ali’s eyes have this ability to portray the helplessness of someone so effectively on screen. And that really helps the movie in making us empathize with the hero to an extent. While the naivete is presented neatly, Sethunath is making his hero say long speeches in the court, and I felt the length of those dialogues without any full stops was making Asif cautious about the lines. The leading lady, Thulasi, doesn’t have much to do here. At times, the pitch of her saying her lines was literally a bit loud, and I thought the heroine being deaf could well be one of the plot twists. Anand Manmadhan and Azees Nedumangad are the friends of the hero in this movie, and there was a lot of pointless humor at the beginning of the film featuring these two.
Rukmini, who was a part of Pavi Care Taker, is playing the other female lead, and she was fine in her character. Jagadish is playing the role of the petitioner’s advocate. While the introduction of that character made an impression that he might make the case complicated by defending his client, the character eventually gave up way too easily. Neeraja Rajendran and Balachandran Chullikkad played the parts of Sahadevan’s parents. Sidharth Bharathan, Harisree Ashokan, Vijayakumar, etc., are the other names in the cast.
Aabhyanthara Kuttavaali, in totality, feels like a wasted opportunity. It could have easily created a debate around the misuse of laws that were implemented to protect women. But by making a movie that feels entirely one-sided, it restricts itself to men who had to face false allegations. The movie is similar to those drunk scenes in films we see where a friend consoles the one who went through a breakup by saying every girl out there is a selfish, opportunist. If you are in need of that kind of consoling, this is your movie.
