Thou art So Beautiful

Over the years, we have known Kamal Haasan to be someone of immense ability to act. Some of us acknowledge, although to a lesser extent, that he is a great all-rounder. I personally have been a fan of his screenwriting and directorial abilities. But if there was one important film of his that I somehow managed to miss over the years, it was his 1995 film Sathi Leelavathi.

Sathi Leelavathi is more popular due to the fact that the film was later remade in Hindi as Biwi No.1 (such a catchy title eh?) starring Salman Khan and Anil Kapoor, which in turn, became one of the biggest hits in Bollywood at that time. Having watched Biwi and later recently having watched the original, the least I could say is that the remake is a travesty to the original.

There used to be days when I would ask randomly to my friends what Sathi Leelavathi is about, and the reply I would get is that it is a ‘nice comedy movie’. That’s probably what the Bollywood producers had in their minds when they remade the film, thinking that the film is just a nice comedy movie. How much farther from the truth can they be?

Admittedly the film, many believe is loosely based on the 1989 American comedy She Devil. But frankly, I’m tired of all this nonsense. Just because the film borrows the basic plotline from a Western movie doesn’t make it a bad film.

Take Anbe Sivam for instance- would you dare argue that Planes, Trains and Automobiles (the original upon which Anbe Sivam borrows plot from) is a better film that Kamal’s version? No, by a million miles. Nothing is original in this world, and all of us take inspiration from one thing or another. Just because it isn’t completely original doesn’t mean the film’s quality needs to be disregarded.

And nor did She Devil get anywhere close to Sathi Leelavathi. The writers for this film fabulously lift the Hollywood plotline and transform it into a plot that is relevant to the current Indian society, and by this I do not mean adding fight scenes and masala mixes (like how Shankar borrowed Endhiran’s plotline from Bicentennial Man adding masala elements, and oh, how conveniently did the proud Tamil fans and reviewers ignored THAT fact eh?) but instead making the plotline realistically relevant to the current society.

Sathi Leelavathi, just like many of films which has the brand Kamal attached to it, is an underrated gem.

Consider this few important scenes:

A elderly woman (mami) advises Leelavathi (Kalpana) that even though machines have been invented to do jobs for us in every part of the house, no machine has been invented for one’s bedroom pleasure. She points out boldly to Leelavathi that whilst many women take pains to look after themselves prior to marriage, they leave it all once marriage happens.

This raises such an important issue of the healthy sex life and also takes a swipe at the Indian women’s tendency to put on weight after marriage (which, I believe, is a phenomenon that is hard to miss). It points out Indian women’s lack of understanding regarding the importance of staying fit whilst participating in a healthy sex life in order to prolong the marriage.

The song ‘Marugo’ involving Kamal and Kovai Sarala’s characters healthily depict a couple’s healthy sex life after marriage, and how important they consider sex life to be even though they are now parents to a child who is entering teenhood. Notice also how Kovai Sarala’s character is independent enough on her own even though she came from the village. There is a scene in the climax where she would drive off, leaving Kamal behind, where he would rue why he taught her how to drive.

As it is common in the often-chauvinistic Indian society, the so-called traditional housewives are rarely ever thought how to be independent enough, as it is with the case of Ramesh Aravind and Kalpana’s marriage. This scene shows the other side of the coin, where an educated doctor takes the effort to cultivate his wife into an independent woman. While Kalpana rarely even leaves the house on her own and tends only to housework, Sarala’s character is shown shopping on her own, and also heading to Marudhamalai alone without her husband (during the climax).

There is also that scene where Kalpana confronts Ramesh Aravind for cheating on her. She laments her size, saying that she became fat because she was busy tending to housework all these years, and that she would have kept fit if he had told her that she keeping fit is also important to their married life. She was doing things that she ‘assumed’ would be important for him and would make him happy, only to see him get involved with a younger, good-looking woman mainly for sexual satisfaction. This scene depicts another element that is lacking in many traditional marriages, communication. A guy can’t expect a woman to take care of his parents, children, and home hygiene while staying fit at the same time. It is important to communicate and indicate what are the expectations for such marriages from the beginning.

There is also a scene where Kalpana will coldly generalize men, by saying men would feel okay if they were to cheat and find pleasure elsewhere, but it would pain them to see the woman they are involved with be with another man. Well, this phenomenon is not something new isn’t it? It exists till today in this society. Like the famous saying goes, there is a word for ‘bitch’, but there isn’t a word for manwhores.

Subsequently, in another scene, Priya’s lover Raju would say that he is ready to accept Priya back if she repents on her mistakes. He remarks that just like how Leelavathi is accepting enough to get back her husband even he had slept with Priya, the same applies for Raju. Such characters, I would boldly say, are a rarity in our society. Men who would admit and swear by equality are hard to find, let alone men who are accepting enough of loved ones.

‘Love is about accepting one’s flaws’- one particular dialogue in the film would say.

When I finished watching Sathi Leelavathi, I knew people were wrong to call it a ‘nice comedy movie’, but instead it is a socially important film with a very important message that we often tend to ignore.

This brings us to my new bone of contention, Manmadhan Ambu. It is no secret that whilst the film wasn’t a flop, they are many who are not satisfied with the movie because they consider it not to be funny enough. And some say the comical second half breaks off the good first half.

MMA carried with it similar marbles like the film I talked about earlier. The entire Kamal Kavidhai portion neatly describes men-women expectation and bias that is so prominent in today’s society.

There is the opening scene of the movie when Madhavan would suspect Trisha of two-timing him, and would ask her why is there an interconnecting door between her and Surya’s caravan. She would retort by saying ‘for the same reason there is a button on my blouse and a zip on his pants, for convenience’s sake’.

Have we ever come across such mature dialogues in Tamil cinema before?

When Urvashi tells Kamal of Ramesh Aravind’s health status, Kamal sits at the middle of a road in Paris and says ‘nadutheruvile nikuren maa’ (I’m standing in nobody’s land, symbolizing that he is hapless in the situation)

Notice also the lyrics of the song Dhagudhu Dhattam:

Dei Paanakara, Kozhi Thotta Sami Ke Enna Dhaanam Pannare,

Dei Paanakara, Ira Vakil Caaril Poi Beeram Pannare.

(Hey rich man, you are donating money to a priest who has touched the chicken (priests are supposed to vegetarians and clean people, implying corrupted priests who feast upon flesh)

Hey rich man, you travel in a posh car and you negotiate prices with a poor man

(In Kamal’s own words, when a rich man is renovating his house, he would opt for marble flooring. He would be ready to pay the money no matter how much the contractor quotes the price. The same rich man later can be seen at a wet market, fervently negioating the price of a vegetable- which would cost him peanuts anyway. It tells of the hypocrisy among the upper middle class in India)

But then again, if Kamal were to make a movie entirely of these marbles, would the masses be satisfied? It’s fair to say the man has taken enough financial battering whenever he dared to be different (see Hey Ram, Anbe Sivam, and Kurudhi Punal, all arguably his best films). The masses have indicated they needed laughter, and he inserted them towards the end of the story.

You can’t have it both ways. You can’t demand a great story and a laugh-riot at the same time. Watch boss Boss Engira Baskaran if you want the latter. Obviously that film didn’t have a story. MMA, just like Sathi Leelavathi, had a story, a very solid story. Both tackled important issues. But as usual, Tamil cinema fans, like they have done so many times before, have missed the whole point.

Movies like Endhiran, despite giving financial ‘thonti gahanapathigal’ (bellies), will not carry the cinema industry forward all on its shoulders. For all of its graphical glory, Endhiran is not the ‘mature’ movie that we really need to make the world take our industry seriously.

Hollywood has had their shares of Terminators and RoboCops, why would they consider Endhiran a threat, or even an effort on par? The Kollywood obsession with getting ‘on-par’ with Hollywood will get us virtually nowhere.

We were too busy looking for telling movie, but like the famous saying goes, what you were looking for all along usually is what you failed to see in front of your eyes. Catch some of Kamal Hassan’s films on telly sometime and bother to open up your brains and hearts and intellectuality while paying attention to details.

You will realize, what gems were we looking for? We have had movies that proved we can take a Hollywood movie and do a remake that is even miles better than the original (Anbe Sivam). We have great movies that weave fiction into reality (Hey Ram). We have had movies that tackle the demon-god realm of the human mind (Raavanan). But we didn’t see?

We don’t need 300 obscene fat crores to make the world notice us. Even 4 crores is enough. But the problem is, we, like a greedy fat man who can’t look beyond his belly to see his own feet, can’t seem to see our own completeness as an industry.

That’s not victory, that’s failure.

What you think is just a nice comedy movie might very well have been the best quality film you have seen. Only if, you actually understand what quality means in the first place.