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Viduthalai Part 1 shows in the cat and mouse game, one thing that is to be noted is how innocent women are involved and hurt in this chaos.
The term “terrorists” arises when a group of men works against the Government, at least so in movies. The recent Tamil movie, Viduthalai Part 1 works on the one line where an ordinary police driver indulges in imprisoning a most wanted criminal.
Is he really a criminal or one who helps his village people as a hero, is it a different debate?
The movie is set in the 1980s period time. In the cat and mouse catch game, one thing that is to be noted is how innocent women are involved in this chaos.
When the police need to find a lead on the main target, their first step is toward women. They are carelessly beaten, stripped, and humiliated only to get the truth from them. Isn’t there any other way to collect evidence and find the wanted men?
Why should it always be the women? Here the women are from the tribal community. So does that mean it is easy for the officials to torture them? It is not just young women. The violence is imposed on even women above sixty years of age. Why, just because she is a woman?
This is just a movie and yes, violence is a part of it. Can it be brushed aside that such things cannot happen for real? If so, does it reach the limelight of other people?
This movie is partially based on a real incident that can send shudders when read even today.
The “Vachathi case” happened for real in 1992 in the Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu. A massive crime that involved hundreds of police and forest officials entered and ransacked the entire village. The damage done to their properties can be reversed, but the sexual assault on eighteen women?
They wanted to get information about the sandalwood smuggler, Veerappan, and so was the raid.
Cases were filed in court, and it took long years for the officials to get convicted and the victims to get their compensation. Can money bring peace into their lives? Can money return wash away the harm done to them?
On March 4th 2023, Madras High Court judge P Velmurugan visited Vachathi, ahead of an impending verdict in connection with the incident completing thirty years. One among many of the women in the village reported that they all want to forget the happenings and move on, but situations like this force them to keep narrating the past.
Perunthayi, one of the oldest women in the village, curses the government officials who attacked them to this day. A woman even in her late 70s, Perunthayi, claimed that she had confronted forest department officials who were allegedly smuggling sandalwood and selling it to traders. She also believes that her actions led to the government officials raiding the village as a way of “seeking revenge.”
The judge interacted with some of them in the village and all they wanted was a future for their generations. While the past can never be changed, steps for the future need to be in place. Many of them had to start their lives from scratch.
The only thing they need now is support for their children’s education and employment. Their vision is clear and straightforward. Pain and suffering make a woman even stronger.
There are many questions here that will remain unanswered forever. Movies are made based on the past. Can movies be made featuring their future where they have risen to better levels in their lives?
The women from the village need to and want to move on, they are pushing away their past. But society will remember the incident forever. The scars left behind don’t heal. That never does stop them from rising again.
Let “Vachathi” remain as history, and this time let history never repeat itself.
Image source: Official trailer of Viduthalai Part 1, edited on CanvaPro
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Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
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