Gentlewoman Movie Review: Gentlewoman starts off as a tale about a gentle woman. She wakes up. She makes coffee. She has her bath. She wears her saree. She cooks. She packs. Her husband wakes up, prays to God, and gets ready for work. He reads philosophy. On the outset, he is that perfect husband. But scratch just a couple of layers, we understand that he has made her a creature of habit. She wakes up, makes coffee, has her bath, wears her saree, cooks, packs, and also has to stand in the balcony and bid him goodbye as he leaves for work. But what does he do for her? Well, never once in the film does he do anything for her. And this is not registered by an elaborate scene, but just a simple callback that is effective and subtle. Probably why when director Joshua Sethuraman suddenly decides to get all preachy and rub our faces in the film’s ideology with verbose monologues, and random conversations that feel out of place in this world, it feels like a let-down.
In many ways, the initial beats of Gentlewoman is reminiscent of The Great Indian Kitchen, but interestingly, Joshua adds a layer with every repetition to give us a better understanding of the psyche of the man and woman in question. Aravind (Hari Krishnan) is a regular guy, and gaslights his wife Poorni (Lijomol Jose), who is a willing participant of this con. Does she know Aravind is lying at times to keep her happy? Or does she accept the lies because she knows thinking otherwise would spoil her own mental peace? They are just three months into the arranged marriage, and both of them are putting their best foot forward. Aravind points out to Poorni’s friend that he thought there was nothing more to know about her, but it is clear there is a lot more. And this lot more includes various facets of her character that gradually unravels when Aravind goes missing, and newer players get involved in the mess. And one of these new players is notable painter Anna (Losliya Mariyanesan).
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The mess becomes too tangled after a point despite Joshua treating Gentlewoman as a rather slow-burn relationship drama that has the right amounts of thrills, and peppered with humour. However, the fun angle, courtesy a few police officers trying to investigate what happened in the lives of Poorni and Aravind, never really takes off because the performances by the supporting cast aren’t up to the mark. With the histrionics not complementing the narrative, we are left with holding on to the goodwill generated by the performances of Lijomol, Losliya, and Hari. The film wants to be a social commentary on the manipulative nature of society, the difficulties to get out of stereotyping by the powers that be, a compelling tale of two women living mirror image lives and a dark and twisted thriller. However, in his attempt to be all this and much more, Joshua misses out on the basics, and resorts to verbiage.
It is also disappointing that despite the stakes actually being really high, after a point, we don’t really bother about how the story would unfold. We are taken on a completely different tangent, and it doesn’t really work effectively because we are asked to look past the crimes in question. Balancing morality, ethics, and criminal activities don’t really bode well for the film, which has a rather straightforward intent. The film needed to be a lot more twisted, and go bonkers with the idea instead of pulling back the punches long before it can register an impact. The makers also want to create a moody atmosphere in the handful of locations the film is shot in, but the over emphasis on the limited lighting and vibe act as a downer because at one point, I just wanted to reach into the screen, switch on the tube light, and allow the house to be a normal one and not a well-designed frame that is just too perfect to be real.
There’s a beautiful scene in Balu Mahendra’s Marupadiyum where Revathy’s Thulasi talks to her husband’s lover Kavitha (Rohini) for the first time. We see Thulasi pleading and crying to Kavitha, and requesting her to not separate her from her husband. Thulasi is so earnest and pitiful, and yet… all we hear from Kavitha’s end is the click noise of the telephone when she puts down the receiver. In a beautiful scene in Gentlewoman that almost mirrors this sentiment, we have Lijomol’s Poorni tell her husband’s lover Anna, “If I wasn’t educated or didn’t understand how the world functions, I would have come to your place, pulled you around by your hair, and asked you to leave my man alone.” This is a wonderful exploration of the mental makeup of Poorni, who is a complete woman in the truest sense of things. It also allows a brief glimpse into the mind of Anna, who is given a lot of dignity considering her position in the equation. Their conversations that could have gone into interesting places, are at a loss of depth, and they don’t exude the necessary tension after a while. It also doesn’t help that the dialogues become generic, and we start craving for those beautiful quieter and tender moments where Joshua and his team of competent actors scored heavily.
But Gentlewoman makes a compelling case for how easy it is to slot women into various categories as and when it pleases the comfortable narrative of the powers that be. Again, the film isn’t focused on incessant male bashing without a reason, and instead points out how solidarity is the fuel that runs this world. It talks about how a man’s support system protects him from any untoward thing happening to his societal image, even if he is doing vile things. However, the same isn’t accorded to a woman, and society is eager to brand every woman that veers away from the expected norms. Change is inevitable, and it is clear that, on many fronts, we are actually regressing as a society. But if there is one thing that we have learnt over the years is that the world will judge everyone, especially women even if they are submissive, obedient, and loving.
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Gentlewoman might have been a lot of things, could have been a lot more things, but ends up being a film that reminds people that societal expectations, set by some random people, cannot become the norm for a woman, or for anyone. So why bother being a Gentlewoman when the alternative is to break out of the shackles and revel in the freedom that is common for one and all. Why bother?
Gentlewoman Movie Cast: Lijomol Jose, Losliya Mariyanesan, Hari Krishnan
Gentlewoman Movie Rating: 3 stars
Gentlewoman Movie Director: Joshua Sethuraman
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