Opinion In a violent and polarised world, Malayalam film ‘Saudi Vellakka’ represents a cinema of kindness

Saudi Vellakka focuses on the misery of an old woman and her long-drawn-out court case. A large part of the film also revolves around the courtroom and offers a critique of the judicial system where cases continue to drag on for years while people await a closure. In the film, the old woman hits a child in a fit of rage and repents it. This event then becomes the pivot around which the remainder of her life revolves. It can clearly be said from the film that this woman hasn’t had a very rewarding life. In fact, though the film doesn’t offer a flashback or make any attempt to reveal her past story, her present life is an indication of the many hardships she must have had to endure.

Her only son, an auto driver in Kochi also abandons them during this time furthering the pain of the old woman. Towards the end of the film, her neighbour and well-wisher also mentions that she has always failed in life and they cannot afford to let her lose in the fag end of life. She must win. Winning, however, is not defined or portrayed in material terms. As a viewer of the film, one also knows that life will not change for the old woman, whatever the court verdict. The film takes a rather interesting turn towards the end where, unrelated to the verdict, there is a marked change in the family that had once accused her of pure villainy for having hit their child. The child, now a grown-up man, wants to take the old woman home. His family, initially resistant to accepting the abuser, has come around and offers care to the old woman who is now recovering in a hospital.

Besides the central characters, there is also a demonstration of kindness from several others involved in the process – the neighbour, lawyers, and a bus conductor amongst others. An expression of kindness is not a stray event. It is nurtured and executed by a collective which is how it ought to be for kindness to be life-sustaining.

Saudi Vellakka is clearly not the first film to remind us about the necessity of kindness. Several others have come before and there will be many more in future. Yet a film like this couldn’t be better timed. Perhaps this is also a good reminder of what cinema could do to restore kindness in a deeply violent and polarised world.

The writer teaches literary & cultural studies at FLAME University, Pune