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Thursday, April 25, 2024
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MALAYALAM S DURGA
EDITOR'S PICK
'S Durga': Doesn't cause any offence to anyone except perverts
(Review By Subhash K Jha ; Rating *** ½)
The first 15 minutes of this jolting experiment with truth and nails seems
completely unrelated to the rest of the film.
This is what you get when there is no formal screenplay. S Durga(S by the way,
stands for 'Sexy' but shhhh!) was shot over one night on a barren highway with
no script . The film is a marvel of improvisation. Director Sanal Sasidharan is
not afraid to plunge into the abyss of the unknown as he explores the sexual
dynamics of caste, gender and religious discrimination on a scarily dark
desolate stretch of a road less travelled.
In some unexpected way, the highway becomes a metaphor for the socio-cultural
imbalances in our society where the bullies often posing as custodians of the
country's moral values take over the destiny of ordinary citizens.
And so it happens with the couple Durga (Rajshree Despande)and Kabeer (Kannan
Nayar) who are on the run.
The girl is Hindu and North Indian. And the boy is a Muslim from Kerala. Yup,
this is the forbidden frightening world of ‘love jihad' as seen through the eyes
of a director who suffers with the couple and is able to transmute their feeling
of growing dread to the audience.
As the couple hitches a ride with four sinister ‘strangers' (billed simply as
‘strangers') the intuitively improvised narrative gathers its cumulative
strength by letting the couple's destiny hang in abeyance.
We never know till the end what will happen to them. When we leave the couple we
are given no assurance that they will be safe from predators and perverts. But
we do know that the strangers who have given them a ride, are taking them for a
ride that is most likely end in a horrible crime. Will the girl be raped? Will
they be murdered? Or will the couple be robbed and allowed to escape with their
lives?
As the scriptless voyage into the unknown reaches an end, you will find yourself
sending up a prayer for Durga--who is sexy because she is not doing what sexy
people normally do in films, namely act wounded vulnerable and hysterical under
stress--and Kabeer--who is Muslim and in the company of his Hindu soulmate on a
desolate highway…can it get any scarier? Can we ever hope for a balanced social
order when two young adults can't feel safe together?
"S Durga" is not an easy film to watch. Its aura of uncertainty makes you
uncomfortable and quezy.It is thoroughly unpredictable and frequently out of
control.
The cinematographer(Prathap Joseph) goes with the couple's fears and
insecurities capturing, not the outside world that creates these negative
thoughts but the emotions that flow from within the couple as they try to remain
calm under stress.
The thing about "S Durga" is, nothing happens to the couple. Not really. Till
the end they are unharmed. And the social transgressors who offer them a ride
keep reassuring the couple that they are safe in their company.
But are they? Director Sanal Sasirdharan constructs a spiral of terror without
actually surrendering to the rituals of horror.
Speaking of rituals the film opens with a lengthy uncut recording of an
elaborate Hindu ritual where the fanatic worshippers of the Mother Goddess
inflict masochistic pain on their selves just to please the deity. The things we
do in the name of the gods, I tell you! And the Goddesss whom we whip ourselves
for into a bloodied pulp can't be called sexy.
Self-punishment is attractive only when we do 50 shades of grey. This film goes
into a thousand shades of black.
Watching "S Durga" you may feel at times like a wayward traveler who has lost
his way while trying to escape from a situation of oppression. In doing so, the
film creates yet another level of ineluctable terror.Tyranny, oppression and
persecution are inescapable in a society where children are taught to look at
the opposite sex with curiosity and other religious communities with caution.
It's not love jihad we should fight. It is the aversion to love-and not just
romantic love-- that needs drastic revision in our social order. S Durga in its
unrehearsed improvised way tells us why love is such crime on the highway to
hell.
One of the much talked about Malayalam film "S Durga" is slated to release on April 6, says the director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan.Since the film has gone through a lot of controversies earlier for its screening at the International Film Festival of Indian(IFFI) last year, asked about his feeling on the pan-India release of the film, Sanal told IANS, "Feeling great. Now the controversy and hardships are over; it is time for people to watch the film and see what was the reason for the unwanted controversies."Read More
Durga, a north Indian migrant and a Keralite youth named Kabeer are running away on a midnight. They are waiting for a transport to the nearest railway station to catch a train to a distant place. Two small time gangsters, transporting arms, offer assistance to the couple. The hapless 'Durga' encounters a cross section of the society through the rest of the night. Parallel to the journey of Durga another mysterious event intercuts in the film. In a Kerala village, devotees perform 'Garudan Thookkam', a ritual art form submitted as a reward for the problems solved in the abode of Goddess Kali, who represents Goddess Durga's personified wrath & embodied fury.
