How B 32 Muthal 44 Vare, a Malayalam film about breast-shaming, has become the talking point in Kerala

 

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Even though women end up bearing the brunt of it, Sharanyam says men, too, are not spared body shaming. Her film tells the story of five women and a trans man — with varying bust sizes, as the name of the film indicates. For trans man Ziya, played by Anarkali Marikar, her bust is a burden, while Iman, portrayed by Zarin Shihab, faces job insecurity due to her “inadequate” physical features. Malini, played by Ramya Nambessan, has undergone mastectomy and is on an emotional rollercoaster due to differences with her husband. “Each character takes you through a different journey. It explores how a woman faces certain problems only because she is a woman,” says Nambessan.

Reviews have hailed the Malayalam movie for articulating what is a universal feminine experience without making it overtly preachy. Director Jeo Baby posted a video on social media, urging everyone to watch the film. “Even children should watch it as it shows what we should teach children and how,” says the director of the critically-acclaimed film, The Great Indian Kitchen (2021), in the video. In another post on social media, actor Maala Parvathi said, “The strength of this film is the rare sight of women becoming the strength of other women…”

“I wanted it to be both an entertainer and socially relevant. A socially relevant subject will reach out to the public only if it is an entertainer; otherwise it will cater only to a small section of the society,” says Sharanyam, who has earlier worked on music albums, documentaries, corporate films and political-campaign films. In 2021, when she heard about a funding project by the Kerala government to support women filmmakers, Sharanyam submitted her script and was elated when she was declared the winner for 2020-’21, after several rounds of selection procedures. With her cast and crew comprising about 30 women, Sharanyam finished her shoot in three weeks flat.

While the reviews have been mostly heartening, the film has also invited some negative comments on social media. But Sharanyam says she is not surprised by it. “They cannot accept a woman director in the first place. On top of that, they cannot accept a woman director talking about her body or that of other women being subjected to the male gaze. The patriarchal view is the comfort zone for men. They don’t want to break that,” she says.