COUSINS TO COUNT ON
Menon’s fourth film, Bangalore Days
— a warm, feel-good dramedy — is centred on
the journey of cousins Divya (Nazriya),
Kuttan (Nivin Pauly) and Arjun (Dulquer
Salmaan). .The bond they share is positively
luminous
Divya is the youngest, and ambitious.
Nevertheless, she agrees to an arranged
marriage with Das (Fahadh Faasil). It is to
Kuttan and Arjun that she confides her
travails — from getting cold feet on the
morning of her wedding, to opening up about
her emotionally unavailable spouse. Even the
breakthrough in her marriage comes due to
her cousin’s intervention.
Kuttan is the most “sorted” one in the
group. Despite working in a Bengaluru IT
firm, his heart is firmly in his village in
Kerala. He is so endearingly naïve that he
goes crimson when he witnesses a couple
kissing in public. Kuttan also comes across
as an empathetic soul and has a quiet
strength in him that is very comforting. He
understands Divya and Aju more than they
perhaps realise.
Arjun, on the other hand, is the
stereotypical child of a broken home. He is
a loner, rebel, short-tempered — and a
sympathetic glance from his elderly
relatives can rile him. In Menon’s world, he
is almost treated like a pariah in the
family. That’s why Arjun only reaches out to
Divya and Kuttan from among his relatives.
Divya never really shakes her status quo at
any point. Though she pledges her gold
ornaments to continue her education, she is
also working to make things right in Das’
life — including forging a relationship with
his deceased girlfriend’s parents to bring
him redemption. And interestingly Das
doesn’t raise a finger to make things easier
for her, shutting himself out from her
completely, thereby putting their marriage
in jeopardy. It is only when he is forgiven
by the parents of his late lover that he
gets drawn toward Divya. Yet another story
of a woman facilitating a man’s
coming-of-age journey, which is present in
the relationship between Arjun and Sara as
well.
Sara is refreshing if you look at how a
woman in a wheelchair isn’t made into a
pitying figure. While one can’t rule out the
fact that she comes from a privileged
family, it is still nice to see how her
disability never impacts her self-esteem or
ambitions. Even in their romance, it is Aju
who is battling insecurities while Sara
seems to be in charge of her life. But
eventually, it is only when Sara’s mother
sees Arjun with his cousins that she feels
he is worth Sara giving up her scholarship
in Australia for.
Kuttan’s mother (Kalpana) is another superb
characterisation. A tired trope is
masterfully turned on its head with her.
When her husband abandons her, instead of
moping around, she quickly shakes off the
persona of a dutiful wife and
self-sacrificing mother and happily embraces
the opportunities of urban life. It is
Kuttan who finds his mother’s metamorphosis
hard to take.
In a sense, Kuttan, Aju and Divya are
grown-up versions of Vicky, Kannan and
Manikutty from Manjadikuru, Menon’s
debut. They have created their own world,
not letting class or caste come in their
way. Even when they are disillusioned with
the adult world, what remains constant is
their relationship with each other. Not
unlike the cousins in Bangalore
Days.
FEUDING FAMILY
In Manjadikuru, the sale of their
ancestral home (tharavadu) leads to
a family reunion. It splits open the power
dynamics and petty politics between siblings
and family members. We witness unresolved
disputes and grudges that have passed down
from generation to generation. Siblings who
live and work abroad trade barbs with those
who stayed back. The film captures the
subtle nuances of the class divide within a
family that comprises both blue-collar NRIs
and “highly skilled” NRI.
GRAND-EST OF ALL
Though it is narrated with undertones of
humour, the initial portions of Ustad
Hotel (directed by Anwar Rasheed
and written by Anjali Menon) are no laughing
matter. It introduces us to a conservative
Muslim household where women are primarily
caregivers, and a woman’s place is defined
according to the number of sons she gives
birth to. When his mother dies after
delivering baby Faizi — preceded by four
girls — we are told that perhaps her role
was no longer needed since she gave birth to
a boy. The daughters are sidelined by the
father who is hyper-focused on his son. But
when the son shows an inclination towards
what the father condescendingly calls “a
woman’s job”, they have a falling out.
The primary relationship in Ustad
Hotel is between Faizi and his
estranged grandfather Kareem. On the other
hand, Faizi’s romance with the feisty
Shahana is a mere postscript. Faizi’s
internship under his granddad defines his
personality and character arc. That old
adage of traits skipping a generation finds
expression in the film, and creates a sense
of poetic roundedness for the narrative.
Kareemkka’s theory that food should satiate
the mind as well as the body is taken
forward by his grandson. At the end of the
film, not only does Faizi finally understand
what drives him to be a chef, but he also
mends fences with his autocratic father.
NO SIBLING RIVALRY
Koode’s Joshua (Prithviraj
Sukumaran) is perhaps one of Menon’s most
poignant characters. Ever since he was
separated from his family and baby sister at
the age of 15, Joshua’s life was never the
same again. The trauma of being abused by an
uncle and being abandoned by his own family
have made him a recluse. It’s when he starts
hallucinating about his sister and strikes
up a heartwarming bond with her illusory
presence that the heaviness within him
starts to thaw. It leads to former bonds
being resurrected and Joshua’s life taking a
turn for the better.
Menon’s films hold out the promise of a
happy ending: Conflicts are resolved,
families find a way back to each other and
life starts to look up again. No wonder an
Anjali Menon film is always looked forward
to!
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