Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey vs Darlings vs Thappad: Goose, gander, sauce

That Kerala is trying to shed its misogynist image and is succeeding in doing this somewhat via the medium of cinema is there for all to see. The old stereotype macho Mallu man is increasingly flopping at the box office, as the state tries its best to establish its pro-women credentials. The latest film to make a point is Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey.

Director Vipin Das’s film picks the unglamorous subject of domestic abuse and manages to satirise it better than the Hindi outing Darlings did. Both films attempt to present wife-beating in normal believable settings, and shuffle the comic part to when the wife hits back. How much humour can such situations provide in a country where domestic violence is a casual reality, is the question. Making the slap-happy husband a cartoonish villain whom the superwoman wife eventually vanquishes can have its downsides – because it could meander into fairy tale land.

Thappad, directed by Anubhav Sinha, narrowed it down to one slap. It was easy to stand by Amrita (a role that actor Taapsee Pannu did complete justice to) as she came to terms with the inherent lack of respect accorded to her in that one moment of her husband’s stress, as others tried to dismiss it. The easy route of apology and forgiveness was available, and many have taken it before to buy peace and obey family expectations, but Amrita took the uphill route. Her husband’s last words to her, therefore, rang true. He misses her, wants her back, and this time he wants to make sure he knows how lucky he is every step of the way. She doesn’t jump at the offer, thankfully.