Leela, the title of the movie and name
of one of its central characters obviously has a special scent of carnality
around it. However the movie is not completely about what its title suggests. Besides
it is also about the present society’s hypocrisy, lifestyle and unhealthy
trends toward cultural degradation.
Our central
character Kuttiyappan himself becomes
a satire on the modern society. The queerness with his behavior, place of
living and mannerisms tell us a lot about the present society.
Leela will
be Ranjith’s first movie to use extensive symbolism. (Also because it is based
on a literary piece) We know that cellphone is no more a material. It has
become something on which people have invested a huge bundle of their
secrecies, cares and worries. So this gadget is a unique thing of this century.
People find it really hard to separate themselves from it. Whenever it beeps,
vibrates or rings they jump on it. Almost always people are busy with this gadget
that it has become another organ of human body. Kuttiyappan mocks this that he fixes his cellphone near to his
hand. Kuttiyappan’s mentioning of
Dinkan with other Gods is a perfect mockery on the educated boastful atheists. Dinkan, an abandoned character from a
children’s comic is now adopted by young atheists as their symbol. However the
philosophy of atheism which had always gone to criticize organized religions
became part of yet another religion through the adoption of Dinkan as their
symbol.
Sex has
become a ritual. Something that has lost its meaning because of the importance
given to body over heart or love. That is the reason why Kuttiyappan is asking the girl to light a lamp before starting what
the girl thought for which she came there. The first thing he asks to this girl
is to imagine that he ‘is her father’. This alludes to the present situation
where women feel no security at their own families. He also asks her to cry
over his death. Later he comes to know about the poor conditions of the girl.
It brings him to some of the fundamental questions regarding morality and
survival.
His search
for elephant is his search for women who have fallen preys to men’s sexual
fantasies, who have become yet another product that has huge selling value. Marlin
Manroe, themost celebrated Hollywood actress is their representative for men’s voyeuristic
fantasies. On his search for elephants Kuttiyappan
meets an environmental activist who rubs some intoxicant in his hand. What
could be his worries? About trees being cut down, deforestation and climate
change? A cigarette lamp hangs in front of Kuttiyappan’s
jeep’s mirror suggesting the society’s addiction to smoking and drugs.
People are
familiar with and have accepted Kuttiyappan’s
behavior. They no longer find any contradiction in his behavior with the
accepted behavior of theirs. They have accommodated Kuttiyappan as yet another weird guy who thinks seriously about the
depths to which the society has fallen to…They are too busy to take anything
seriously.
When somebody is dead Kuttiyappan goes to attend his funeral.
Later he tells us that it was not from drinking alcohol that the person died
but from excessive consuming of unhygienic food. This can also extend to fast and
junk food culture. Not so big issues like the price drop of rubber and two
young kids imitating George and Kora of Premam (2015) worrying if their dhothies will stay in place, find
place in the movie. A single scene of this sort suggests how kids are
influenced by movies and how easily they assume the roles of their elders.
Every
society has a tendency to forget its past. This easy oblivion is that society’s
clever escape from its fake moral consciousness. This is what Kuttiyappan wants to mock through the
old women whom he takes to roundabouts.
Finally he
decides to do something against at least a single injustice. Kuttiyappan derives his inspiration from
none other than Mahatma Gandhi under whose statue we read: ‘first they mock you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then
you win’. Not so late Kuttiyappan’s
dead aunt, a woman who might have gone through the oppressive rule of the
patriarchy comes in the guise of an angel (an ugly looking angel). She
represents a past generation of women who went through the same kind of sexual
and domestic torture as that is presently experienced by their later
generation…
The determined Kuttiyappan
pauses his symbolic fight with the society for some time(he makes it clear that
active violence is not his way of doing things, unlike Charlie of Charlie (2015)) and decides to do some
act that will wash out sins of his and that of the entire patriarchy he
represents. Hence next we meet Kuttiyappan
in a government hospital. The untidy atmosphere of the place tell us a lot
about our health systems. Pilla (an aged householder) follows Kuttiyappan hoping that he will get a
chance to have a sexual relationship outside marriage. He also hopes that he
will get a young girl to satiate his sexual desires. Dasappappi follows Kuttiyappan
in the hope of arranging somebody for Kuttiyappan
and if possible, to find somebody new to his dirty business…
An old woman Kuttiyappan meets on his way to find an elephant sings a children’s song about an elephant; another
allusion to objectification of women.
It is very
interesting to note that Leela’s character
does not utter a single word in the movie. She has been silenced from the very
moment she was misused. The fact that she is silent throughout the movie tells
us a lot about the intensity of her suffering. After hearing Leela’s suffering we notice Pillechan becoming more and more worried
about his daughter who is of Leela’s
age. He is now far from his fantasies of enjoying a young body. Pillechan who represents old men having
their sexual fantasies about young girls is touched by his conscience for the
first time after hearing Leela’s
story.
Though
there are women like Usha (a character Kuttiyappan
meets in the earlier part of the movie to help him and his companions in their
search for young girls) who cause downfall to their own side, injustices done
to women by men go beyond all limits and transcend little foils from the part
of women. Thus, Leela, representative
of phallocentric cruelty, gives her consent to the animal (to whom she is
objectified) to take her life realizing that a woman is never safe in the hands
of men. The final image of Leela is
of her dead body carried in Kuttiyappan’s
aunt’s lap which cannot help but recall us of Pietà, the famous sculpture by
Michelangelo depicting the Virgin Mary supporting the body of the dead Christ.
This movie is a noticeable attempt that will help viewers watch and appreciate
films of literary merit. More films of this sort must be welcomed to enrich viewers’
ability to appreciate films.
-Anjoe Paul-
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