Sivaranjiniyum Innum Sila Pengalum
Tamil (SonyLiv)
Director: Vasanth S Sai
Cast: Kalieswari Srinivasan, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli
3/5
Three different women from three different decades, all strung together by the common thread of toxic masculinity. ‘Sivaranjiniyum Innum Sila Pengalum’ is a frustrating watch for all the right reasons. If two women in the anthology wage their daily wars in the kitchen (which is oh-so-normal in the great Indian ethos), the third one is a comparatively “free” female till she decides to keep a diary.
Vasanth S Sai’s Tamil film makes almost the same noises as The Great Indian Kitchen (Malayalam). She may be a homemaker, an athlete or a central government employee, but the most important vocation of all women is to “take care” of their men and keep them comfortable. Coffee, newspaper, specs, towel, LIC certificate… everything has to be handed over to them with robotic precision come rain or shine or the damn school bus.
The children in the film, however, pop all relevant questions — why don’t the rules apply to men? Oh, well.
The first in the anthology (set in 1980) is Saraswathi (Kalieswari Srinivasan), whose man proudly acquires wife-beating rights after marriage. Treated as a doormat, the woman has no escape from domestic drudgery. The ever-wailing baby comes across more behaved than her monster father.
In the second story set in 1995, Devaki (Parvathy Thiruvothu) plays an independent woman. Or so we think. She has a central government job and a husband who has no qualms riding pillion with her. But the “liberal” partner shows his true colours after Devaki tells him that her personal diary is, well, personal.
Things don’t change a bit a decade later when Sivaranjini (Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli), the sprinter-bride, wants to run. All she gets to run is, no surprise, the kitchen.
None of the women, except Parvathy, show any visible signs of protest. But all the three earn their liberating moments in the end. The anthology keeps suffocating viewers till they want to shake things up. Go ahead.