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This Tamil language anthology series gives us a look at how the same emotions might be expressed differently by men and women thanks to social conditioning.
Some time ago, I was reading different opinions on the murder of Dee Dee Blanchard. It occurred to me that treating crimes (murders) of passion as lesser crimes than premeditated murders might be biased against women.
Women are not taught to be loud about their emotions. They are told that they cannot be impulsive. They are not socialised to have direct, physical reactions like slamming someone’s face into the ground out of anger.
However, just because someone is quieter about their emotions, and cannot afford to react as impulsively, it does not mean that their responses are any less emotional. Just because an act involved more planning, it does not mean that the person who did it was necessarily thinking clearer than someone who did it impulsively.
And these gendered differences in the expression of emotions are not limited to anger. Unfortunately, not every single episode does this. But on the whole, Navarasa does end up showing how men and women often tend to display the same emotions differently.
The most obvious example of this is Roudhram, the episode on anger (each episode focuses on a specific emotion). The main character is male, and he expresses his anger impulsively by physically assaulting another man. However, there is more to the story. How does the main character’s sister respond? Is her anger any less scary than his, even if expressed differently?
And then, there is Ethiri, which I expected to be a stereotypical story of a woman showing compassion towards a violent man. However, I could not have been more wrong. Both of them are shown to display compassion as well as the lack of it. One of them might do it more obviously, and yet the message is clear.
Summer of ‘92 barely seems to have any significant roles for its female characters, and yet Lakshmi’s joke is the last line in the movie. Her quiet sense of humour comes through despite the male protagonist’s loud comedy being the focus for most of the episode.
Thunintha Pin is another episode that focuses on its leading men (there are two of them). And yet, Muthulakshmi’s confidence in the face of hopelessness is courage, even if she’s not engaged in a literal war unlike the male protagonists.
Payasam focuses on a seriously envious man who is attending a wedding, and how he ends up doing something really petty as a result. His widowed daughter by contrast, is extremely gracious. And yet, do we hear a hint of something more in her voice when she asks if the cook recalls making the same payasam (a type of sweet dish) for her wedding?
If Netflix does end up releasing a Volume 2 of Navarasa, I would love, love, love for all of the episodes to really dig into the intersectional gender dynamics of emotional expression, instead of most of the episodes focusing on men with only a little bit of space left behind for the women (even if they did shine in that little bit of space).
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People say that women are the greatest enemies of women. I vehemently disagree. It is the patriarchal mindset that makes women believe in the wrong ideology.
The entire world celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8, 2024. It should be a joyful day, but unfortunately, not all women are entitled to this privilege, as violence against women is at its peak. The experience of oppression pushes many women to choose freedom. As far as patriotism is concerned, feminism is not a cup of tea in this society.
What happens when a woman decides to stand up for herself? Does this world easily accept the decisions of women in this society? What inspires them to be free of the clutches of the oppression that women have faced for ages? Most of the time, women do not get the chance to decide for themselves. Their lives are always at the mercy of someone, which can be their parents, siblings, husband, or children.
In some cases, women do not feel the need to make any decisions. They are taught to obey the patriarchal system, which makes them believe that they are right. In my family, I was never taught to make decisions on my own. It was always my parents who bought dresses and all that I needed.
14 years after her last feature film Dhobi Ghat, storyteller extraordinaire comes up with her new film, Laapataa Ladies, a must watch.
*Some spoilers alert*
Every religion around the world dictates terms to women. The onus is always on women to be ‘modest’ and cover their faces and bodies so men can’t be “tempted”, rather than on men to keep their eyes where they belong and behave like civilized beings. So much so that even rape has been excused on the grounds of women eating chowmein or ‘men will be men’. I think the best Hindi movie retort to this unwanted advice on ‘akeli ladki khuli tijori ki tarah hoti hai’ (an alone woman is like an open jewellery box) came from Geet in Jab We Met – Kya aap gyan dene ke paise lete hain kyonki chillar nahin hain mere paas.
The premise of Laapataa Ladies is beautifully simple – two brides clad in the ghunghat that covers their identity get mixed up on a train. Within this Russian Doll, you get a comedy of errors, a story of getting lost, a commentary on patriarchy’s attitude towards women, a mystery, and a tale of finding oneself, all in one. Done with a mostly light touch that has you laughing and nodding along.
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