Contemporary Bollywood (Hindi) to Tollywood (Telugu) and Mollywood (Malayalam) amongst others — all our “mainstream” film industries and their culture of storytelling is located around a macho male superstar. This actor is not an artiste but a superstar without any nuance, not allowed any deviation from a script that is built around a triumphant masculinity. So, it’s a rare joy to witness a superstar like Mammootty reveal the artiste within him, by playing the role of a gay man in Kaathal, a Malayalam movie streaming on Amazon Prime.
Released on November 23 2023, Kaathal that means “the core”, stars Mammootty as Mathew Devassy who lives with his wife Omana, daughter and father, all comprising a prominent church-going Christian family. A picture of respectability, everyone plays the role assigned and expected by society.
Omana, essayed by the actor Jyotika, is a dutiful daughter-in-law dedicated to her aged father-in-law, a wife who is constantly tending to the house and family that she has married into, and clearly a friend to her college-going daughter. Set in any idyllic town of Kerala, the elegant mundu-wearing, apparently straightforward and decent Mathew, (who can believe that Mammootty is 72 years old!) is chosen as the candidate for a “left” party for the local elections. He is a shoo-in to win the election. Or will he? Is Mathew really who he shows himself to be?
For there is a secret that is at the core of Mathew’s personality and envelops the family. Mathew is gay and is in a relationship with his lover Thankan (beautifully portrayed by Sudhi Kozhikode). Mathew’s secret also cloaks the film with sadness. Laughter and lightness are scarce in the family and hence in the film. Can there be any happiness amid deception?
Two months before the elections, Omana has finally decided that she has had enough. She files for divorce on grounds of “cruelty” — here the inability of Mathew to fulfill his “marital obligations”. As she explains in court, they have had sex four times in a 20-year marriage.
The strength of the movie is its restraint. As Omana explains, she files the suit for divorce to save them both from this never-ending loneliness. You see that play out through some delicately crafted scenes. As Omana stands up to testify in court, she hands her purse to Mathew to hold. A mundane yet intimate act between two people who have been sharing a home for 20 years.
As Omana and Mathew drive back home together, after a hearing in the divorce court, they sit in silence. The silence is not just caused by the filing for divorce, but also by the revelation of the core of their relationship to be what it is — a gay man married off to a woman, who was forced to sacrifice her youth for this marriage of convenience. This thick silence is quite different from the companionable silence that long-term couples enjoy.
There are a few scenes in this film that stay with you, for they reveal the magnitude of fear in a life in the closet. Mathew is the political candidate unable to acknowledge his lover Thankan of many years, as the latter stops by the campaign office to pick up fliers. As the two lovers avoid acknowledging each other in the small party office, the party workers look at them with a mixture of pity and disgust. Thankan walks back to his car and tenderly runs his fingers over the flier that has a picture of Mathew on it.
The court scenes are intended to be enlightening, about sexuality, about fear and about the role the law plays in subduing people’s aspirations. When Omana is asked in court why she waited so long to file for divorce, her lawyer explains that if she had filed earlier Mathew would be accused of committing a crime as Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, 1861 that punished and criminalised “unnatural sex” and gay people with 10 years to life imprisonment was only eradicated in 2018. So, she files for divorce when the law would not criminalise Mathew upon her revelations.
The film helps appreciate that the law matters, criminalising queer people stigmatises them and forces them to lead a double life. By extension, denying queer people equal rights like marriage or partnership benefits means that the Mathews and Omanas of the world will continue to have happiness stolen from their lives. But we live in 2024, and here’s a film about a gay man and his heterosexual wife, both of whom have a long overdue release from the despair. Eventually Mathew’s father Devassy (strongly played by R S Panicker) testifies on behalf of his daughter-in-law, accepts knowledge of his son’s sexuality and forcing his son to marry a woman despite knowing that he was gay. Mathew comes out, solidifies his friendship with his now ex-wife and proceeds to help her find prospective grooms. The film also suggests that Mathew wins the elections.
The absence of any scene, or interaction of any sort, between Mathew and his lover is a core weakness of the film. What is it that makes Mathew and Thankan tick? Surely, it cannot just be sex? For, sexual encounters are freely available to all — gay and straight people. What draws the two men together? Is there humour? Is there love? Is there intellectual compatibility? Why are we drawn so strongly to another human being? Kaathal disappoints deeply on that count. Contrast this to the relationship depicted by Tabu as the RAW agent and her female lover the Bangladesh actor Azmeri Haque Badhon in the delightful film Khufiya. The film wasn’t scared of showing what draws the two women together.
Kaathal is a triumph for Jeo Baby, a skilled director, aided by a strong cast and a captivating script written by Adarsh Sukumaran and Paulson Skaria. Produced by Mammootty, Kaathal is film-making as it should be — a movie that stays in your heart. You agree with parts, disagree with parts, and feel a range of emotions from suspense to sadness. It’s not perfect. But, it does what a good film should do, makes the viewer think.
In my case it not only made me think, but also hold the hand of the person I love and give thanks for what we have an abundance of in our life — joy. More constitutional rights would also be useful.
The writer is a senior advocate at the Supreme Court
Released on November 23 2023, Kaathal that means “the core”, stars Mammootty as Mathew Devassy who lives with his wife Omana, daughter and father, all comprising a prominent church-going Christian family. A picture of respectability, everyone plays the role assigned and expected by society. (File Photo) 
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