Ullozhukku is a story of how two women understand the plight of each other and accept them without any pride or contempt. Just as it is. A heartfelt beautiful drama of an unusual mother-in-law and daughter-in-law that we see in our pop-culture.
Anju (Parvathy Thiruvothu) is forcefully married to almost-bedridden Thomaskutty (Prashanth Murali), who has a brain tumour. The intense drama begins with the death of her husband. And, the drama keeps increasing as deceptive lies afloat slowly giving us more details through the minimal dialogue. Usually, we are habituated to see heavy loud dialogue in such emotional home-dramas. But, we see very subtle emotions with minimal dialogues taking the lead here.
Ullozhukku, written and directed by Christo Tomy, has many themes that play out without being too loud. The emphasis on loudness is because, for example, see how the nuptial night scene plays out, it can be categorised as a marital rape. But, on the surface level, it appears not as such. The word rape has the heft of violent force to it. But, in a marriage that plays out in a conservative patriarchal setup, the volume of ‘no’ is muted to the level of slight sighs. We come to wonder: is this how the marital rape in institutionalised marriage is normalised and accepted?
Shehnad Jalal’s cinematography in a stranded landscape of flooded countryside of Kerala gives the gloomy blues mood that the emotions of death and deception lingering in the house. The background score of Sushin Shyam is almost unnoticeable. He understands that he is not giving a theme-based Anirudh-number. So, he sticks to the basics of delivering the right thumping musical effects that fits the intense moments. He scores the right amount of music that keeps you not distracted and gets you hooked to the intense scenes.
There are more females in the movie than males. It wouldn’t be a crime to call Ullozhukku a females-centric movie. The males in the story are not underwritten, they are just on the peripherals– just like how female characters were since ages. It is not the villainous nature of female characters we see. It is the subtlety of moral complexities and their hypocrisies that we see. Anju was lied to by every woman, yet she becomes the biggest sinner for choosing her happiness.
Urvashi as Leelamma gave a really moving performance. The story might be of Anju and her entrapment in a semi-toxic marriage. But, the character that we connect and empathise more is Leelamma. She is an innocent novice mother to a man with a brain tumour. She has no larger intentions than her son and her family. Somewhere in the film, she accuses Anju of not thinking only about herself and nothing else. We also see Leelamma trying to understand her plight as a woman who is also entrapped in an unhappy marriage. She feels what it is like. She knows what her future will be. Therefore, she understands, not just “accepts”.
What value does acceptance have without understanding with empathy? Anju’s long term underemployed boyfriend, Rajeev, says proudly that he has ‘accepted’ her despite ‘sleeping with another man’.
The moment after this happens is something magical, it is not about the resolution of characters. The characters will resolve their conflict however the writer finishes the story. But, what it speaks is more than the character. What value does the proud acceptance have in a relationship without the understanding empathetically?
The inevitable thought of what symbol does the flood stand out in the movie strikes very early. It is not necessary that the flood should have a poetic meaning in a cinematic setup. However, the human brain that has been wired to take note of patterns everywhere, can’t help but to create a meaning to it. And, it seems like the true meaning of the flood seems to symbolise the flood of lies and deception that Anju (Parvathy Thiruvothu) has been surrounded by. The flood level also increases as her problems increase. Finally, she reconciles with her regrets of life amidst the calm flood that she was encircled with.
Ullozhukku is now streaming on Simply South outside of India.
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