Both
Sreenivasan and Chinnu are punching bag material for the bullying society
around them. Yet, there exists a huge contrast in their characters.
Sreenivasan, on the one hand, is in turmoil with his physical identity and
nurtures an enormous inferiority complex. The director makes this clear when he
falls prey to the wig sellers, hides his marks in English or when he timidly
sits down as the dashing English teacher makes his way into the staff room.
Chinnu,
on the other hand, is at peace with her identity and space in this world. She
eats what she likes, is socially fluent and is secure with her fat identity.
She is so at peace that even Sreeni’s call of ‘Thadichi’ has literally no effect on her. She later makes all this clear in
a facebook video where the script writers choose to deliver this direct message
to the audience.
If
Sreeni’s turmoil is internal, Chinnu is dragged into this storm of body shaming
and world of insecurities by outside forces of insensitivity. The film
brilliantly depicts this face of insensitive society through the students that
laugh at calls of ‘Motta’ and through Safiya
(played by Grace Antony) and her hair fixing company that preys
on the insecurities of the other to reap profit.
The
director contrasts this beautifully with the sensitivities of the protagonists
that know the pain of body shaming and chooses their words carefully. Chinnu’s
reference of the ‘hair cap’ rather than the wig and Sreeni profusely
apologizing for calling Chinnu a ‘Thadichi’ reveal how the twin protagonists
develop deep sensitivities on the basis of their own experience.
The
most brutal face of a callous society reveal before us in the film through the
faceless body shamers in social media. Although a minority section of our society,
it does painfully reveal to us that many do find joy in vile abuses targeting
another’s appearance. The movie here artfully conveys the message that ‘what
may be comedy for you may be hurtful for the receiver’ and this is where ‘thamaasha’ becomes ‘emotional violence’. It poignantly
depicts the victims of such abuses (through Sreeni and Chinnu), their terrible
mental state and inability to enjoy the smallest pleasures in life, of
friendships, travels and food that they are entitled to, just like any other
human being.
The
movie through Sreenivasan lays out the common syndrome of ‘what the other thinks’. We see it in several instances, where he
disowns his wig, acts like he is talking to his student in the bakery and tries
to cover up his English mark. Rahim’s character
(played brilliantly by Nawaz Vallikunnu)
comes as an antithesis to Sreenivasan when he advices him to live without
heeding to the cribs and questions of the other in society and to live for
himself.
It is
Chinnu however that takes Sreenivasan into her wings and makes him soar above
the inferiority complex and insecurities he has nurtured for so long. It is
through her as a living example that Sreenivasan understands the futility of
appearances and related insecurities so much so that he himself says that
‘there is nothing worthwhile in one’s hair’. When Sreenivasan makes the same picture that
caused much shame and anxiety his display photo in the den of the cyber
bullies, we witness a tale of transformation to a place where he is at peace
with his bald identity and friendship with a fat woman.
Thamaasha
not only depicts body shaming and bullying but also inspires the courage in
victims to call out and fight body shaming whether in the real or the virtual
space. It espouses a politics of fraternity, solidarity and humanism that must
be embraced for these fringe vile voices to be submerged. We see this
collective spirit of resistance embodied by Sreenivasan, his brother Kamal,
Chinnu and the many students and teachers in Sreenivasan’s college. This must
be the inspiring spirit that we as a society take home from the theatres once
the end credits roll.
Vinay Forrt transforms into Sreenivasan with every muscle with even the littlest of his hairs doing the acting. Chinnu Chandni is a delight in
essaying the role of her namesake. Rex Vijayan’s back ground score and music
seems to be in an inseparable marriage with the movie, with the track ‘Padi
Njan’ as beautiful as the birds that fly into the sky from the waters of Nila.
Ashraf Hamza tells a tale of our times, at times subtly and
at times loudly that calls into question the mentality of a society that
mistakes shame and abuse for fun and laughter. The time is now that we sit up,
take notice and course correct from this path of emotional violence to live and
let live.
