Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Anel Meley Pani Thuli by debutant director R Kaiser Anand fulfils its main objective, which is to encourage survivors of sexual crimes to speak out and take action. The film opens with Madhi (Andrea Jeremiah) regaining consciousness in the middle of the night. She finds herself abandoned and half-naked in a deep forest, and realises she has been raped.
The film cuts back to the past. The narrative takes a very established route to paint the wonderful and happy life Madhi lived before she was attacked. She is an independent woman, yet endowed with conservative feminine traits. She lives alone in Chennai, far away from her parents in her native village. She has a well-paying job and her fiancé, played by Aadhav Kannadasan, seems to be like a man with liberal values. Madhi is good at her job, she is also empathetic towards her colleagues. She can stand up for her coworkers when they need and punish them when they do something wrong. Madhi comes across as a well-sorted person. Her life seems just perfect.
The film does a solid job of portraying the threat of rape that always hovers over Madhi. She fights back against a man who has been harassing her co-worker. And we instinctively sense that the man in question could be a threat. She fires an employee who steals at work. Again, we sense that Madhi is exposing herself to a security risk. But what we do not understand is that she does not do anything out of the ordinary. She just goes about her life and does her job. When a man makes enemies, we think he might get beaten up. But, when it’s a woman, the threat of physical violence becomes even more intrusive. The film sheds light on how rape has become a means to control and dominate women.
This film is blessed with the gritty, no-frills, straightforward storytelling of filmmaker Vetrimaaran, who has also bankrolled it. It also deals with some of Vetrimaaran’s favourite themes, such as police high-handedness. Madhi’s ordeal multiplies when she enters a police station in hopes of finding justice. With a big reveal, the film becomes much darker than it already is. And we share Madhi’s feeling of being trapped
Azhagam Perumal and Ilavarasu do a great job in the roles of the cops, who start out nice and soon reveal their evil nature. Andrea delivers a memorable performance as a rape survivor
This film reminds us that despite all the progress we have made as a human society, we are depressingly ill-equipped to deal with sexual violence. We still blame the victim for the crime. We still hold a woman’s modesty higher than her self-respect and dignity. We are still unable to create a comfortable situation for the victims of this crime to speak out. As a society, we have failed because we make women believe that their body is their greatest weakness instead of their greatest strength
Anel Meley Pani Thuli explores this profound rot in our society without taking on the responsibility of being artistic. The film meticulously depicts the ordeal of a rape victim and the system and culture that makes it possible. But it has no cinematic quality; everything is direct and unambiguous. This film is purely for educational purposes.
Anel Meley Pani Thuli is streaming on SonyLiv.
Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
