Malayalam debutant director Fasil Muhammed, 28, has delivered an absolute banger of first film, Feminichi Fathima (2024) — and it hasn’t even hit the theatres yet. For a film that address social issues, something so grave as patriarchal oppression, and appears to be serious in tonality, Feminichi Fathima is far from being bleak or melancholic. It is a fun film and leaves you laughing and clapping at the same time. In our society, where feminism gets a bad rap, satire is the best tool to drive home the point. Muhammed stakes claim to the term and gives it a positive spin. Feminichi Fathima is at once sensitive, hilarious and urgent. The film’s style reminds us of the comic socials of a bygone era and yet is contemporary.
The film is about resilient homemakers — wives and mothers — and their silent, subtle everyday resistance at home. Fathima’s husband, Usthad, who can’t get off the bed to switch on the fan and would beckon Fathima each time no matter how busy she might be in household chores, is more of a figure of pathos and ridicule, albeit more as a comical trope than being villainous and hate-worthy, as he tries to exert his control and God’s will over his wife. But it is to the filmmaker-writer’s credit that Usthad, a religious figure in the community, isn’t a cardboard caricature of a villain, he is shown as a victim of his circumstances who has been wont to do things as he has seen being normalised around him.
The film revolves around a mattress — the sole thing of comfort in an otherwise hostile environment. Fathima does backbreaking household work day in and day out. Her older son has a problem of wetting the bed, because of which Fathima needs to keep washing it. When she leaves it out to dry, dogs come and pisses on it. A dog’s touch is najis (impure). So, she has to wash it again or dispose it off. But does she have that little power over her own mattress? Whether to bring it indoors or dispose it off without her husband’s permission? What about her own backpain and an equal right to a peaceful sleep? The Tamilian scrap collector woman (Raji Menon) seems more liberated than Fathima can wish for. The mattress, one’s loss and another’s gain, becomes the site of feminist struggle, and eventual movement of resistance and assertion, in Fathima’s world.
The film is the story of Fathima’s coming into her own, and a catapulting of her self-confidence, and a march towards financial independence, with a little help from fellow women, social media and chit funds, from within the confines of her home by changing one’s suffocating environment and the stale-old, ossified world views that breed there. And doing all that quietly. Both the leads, Shamla Hamza as Fathima and Kumar Sunil as Usthad deliver solid acts, keeping the script’s funny bones intact. Even the characters with smaller parts stand out in their own right.
The Kochi-based director is also a film editor and screenwriter, taking up freelance projects. Prior to his first feature, he directed the OTT web-series Tuition Veedu. Feminichi Fathima had its world premiere at International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) last year, where it picked up five awards — a phenomenal feat — including the Jury Prize, FIPRESCI Award for Best Film in the International Competition, NETPAC Award for Best Malayalam Film, a special mention in the FFSI K.R. Mohanan Award, and the Audience Poll Award. But that is also a problem, for he can’t do a world premiere now at any of the top A-lister global festivals. But film is travelling to international film festivals, starting with Kyrgyzstan.
On the sidelines of the 17th Habitat Film Festival in Delhi, May 16-25, where was screened to a packed house, Muhammed spoke to Moneycontrol about the film and more. Excerpts:
What inspired you to make a film on a feminist topic/theme?
I had decided I wanted to make another film but I was not getting any producer’s backing. But I was adamant that I want to make my own film. For that, I first looked for a story. And the first thing that came to me about this film was the title of the film. I wrote a script for it which didn’t work. So, I took a break and went to stay with my sister. And, there, I changed the entire script. I got a line of dialogues from her. The film’s story is inspired from her life. So, I rewrote the whole story. The mattress and the child being on the mattress was not there in the initial script. The mattress episode made it tighter and gave it a serious, political undertone. I haven’t thought of feminism in the deeper sense but the basic of equality and independence is what is explored in the film.
Have you seen it in your community?
I have seen it a lot around me. In my society, my neighbourhood, everywhere. This is not just in a Muslim family. In Kerala, this happens in every family from any community. This is patriarchy basically.
But the film is based on a Muslim family based in the coastal Malabar region of Kerala…
I shot it close to where I live, from my hometown Ponnani in Malappuram district. I am a person from Ponnani and I am a Muslim. As a Ponnanian Muslim man, there are certain things which I have seen and think about, I can explore those themes with a greater degree of intimacy and knowledge. That’s why I selected this background but, in general, this story happens across religions and communities.
How did you, as a man, understand the woman’s perspective?
It’s very simple. I grew up at home with my grandma, mother and sister. I grew up with women around me and I observed them. I will continue telling women’s stories but I don’t like saying: this is men’s story and this is women’s story. I will make stories that I like, stories that have good ideas.
How would you define feminism?
What you see in my movie is my feminism. That every one has equal rights and opportunity.
Do you see the ‘us vs them’ Hindu-Muslim narrative mushrooming in Kerala, too, which has been a far more syncretic state than the rest of India? Do you see women asserting themselves in your community, because the majoritarian narrative imposes the notion that all Muslim women are oppressed?
I haven’t thought about it like that. There is a shift. Once upon a time, women and Muslim women may have been suppressed and had to face challenges. But now, the situation has changed. In Kerala, [Muslim] women are coming out just like men. They are doing many of the things that men also do. They are getting financial freedom and that is the basic thing. There has been a lot of change. In my family, my sister is a doctor. Her daughter told her, she doesn’t want to get married now, she wants to study and get a job. She’s 19. The new generation thinks like this. You can see [Muslim] women coming forward, and you can see that on social media. Several of them facing the camera and making reels. So, there is a shift in social norms.
Characters like Fathima seems like a thing of the past, listening to her husband obediently, without a fight initially. Are there still women like that now, around you?
Yes, there are. But now they are realising things because of social media exposure. They see diverse experience.
Your film has a very ’90s feel to it.
The basic core of every film is the script. If you have a good script, the technical aspect isn’t a challenge. I believed in my script. I wanted to make the film with a small camera. My next movie might be a bigger production.
How did you come up with the title?
One day, while I was on social media, a reel came up with Muslim women dancing. One of the comments on it called them feminichi (feminists). There it is used as a negative, but I put a positive spin on it. I saw the reel as women coming out and enjoying themselves, as a very positive thing. The two words come from opposite ends — Feminichi and Fathima — and form a positive.
My family, my mom and sister also watched the film. They are like Fathima. And they are thinking about it.
What was the response of male friends and/or conservative men like Usthad?
My male friends enjoyed the film but I don’t know how they take this reality. I will know when the film releases.
Sajin Baabu, also a Malayalee Muslim filmmaker who in his debut film Biriyaani (2019), took a critical approach towards patriarchy and orthodoxy within the community as an insider. Are you doing something similar?
I am not against the religion. The problem is with the thinking. You have to change with the times. Otherwise we won’t be able to go forward. The younger generation is different in today’s time. You cannot follow the rules of the old order and old-age norms, because if you do that it will cause more suffocation. You have to give more space to people.
Compared to, say, the wife-protagonist of Jeo Baby’s Great Indian Kitchen (2021), which sees feminist assertion through a serious lens, in your film Fathima doesn’t have the option of leaving her in-laws’ house and, instead, we see a kind of empowerment where her environment begins to change. How did you think of deploying satire to drive home the point?
I didn’t think of making this film as one of those that wins awards at festivals, although it did. My motivation was to keep the audience engaged. Keeping that in mind, I wrote the script and kept the satirical elements in it to not make the story sad and bleak. I didn’t want anything loud. It had to be very subtle. I wanted to show that the thinking of people like Usthad in society is the problem, so, the script took up the challenge of changing these thoughts.
Last year, we saw a lot of male-centric Malayalam films (Aavesham, Manjummel Boys, Bramayugam, Premalu), but we also saw male directors making female-oriented films like Aattam and Ullozhukku. Do you feel there is less audience for the latter kind of films?
I don’t think about that so much. There were a lot of audiences (for Feminichi Fathima) at IFFK (International Film Festival of Kerala, 2024). There is an audience for every kind of film, including for my kind of films. Everyone is accepting of all kinds of films. However, I will see the response once my movie releases in the theatres.
Making a comedy or satire is not easy, how do you instruct people on the set, especially a character like Usthad?
I don’t say, ‘oh, now, this is a comedy scene’. There is a lot of rehearsal and improvisation involved. So, that there’s spontaneity and fun also. It’s the situation which makes something comical.
Are all these non-actors in your film?
All are non-actors, except for Fathima (Shamla Hamza) and Usthad (Kumar Sunil). The others are all my neighbours and friends. I didn’t train the non-actors. I didn’t ask them to act. While shooting the film, I would say: you do this, and based on that I would give them further instructions. So that they would be natural on the camera.
Was the crew new as well?
All of them are freshers. My DOP Prince Francis, sound by Sachin Jose, music by Shiyad Kabeer, art by Agney. We were a small crew of only five members at the location. Crew members stayed at my home. And I like to do editing, directing, writing by myself. All of it. I co-produced Feminichi Fathima with two friends.
Who’s your favourite filmmaker?
(Malayalam filmmakers) Sathyan Anthikad and Sibi Malayil. And (Iranian filmmakers) Asghar Farhadi and Majid Majidi, whose works I have watched online.
Which is your favourite Malayalam film?
Sathyan Anthikad’s classic Sandesam (1991; which was a satire on contemporary Kerala politics).
Are you a Mammootty or Mohanlal fan?
Mammukka (Mammootty).
What is your next project?
I want to make good movies. I have three more subjects, I am working on them. Nothing is final.
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