Malayalam actor Parvathy Thiruvothu hit the ground running when she declared that Shahid Kapoor’s Kabir Singh and its Telugu original, Arjun Reddy, clearly glorified violence against women, while Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker did not. Parvathy spoke to film critic Anupama Chopra at her recent actors’ roundtable where Arjun Reddy actor Vijay Deverakonda was also present.
Other than Parvathy and Vijay, the chat show was attended by Alia Bhatt, Ranveer Singh, Ayushmann Khurrana, Deepika Padukone, Vijay Sethupathi and Manoj Bajpayee.
The actors spoke on a number of issues, but on the issue of messaging of a film, Parvathy was forthright that the responsibility lay with the director and writer to ensure that a film did not advocate violence against women, misogyny or patriarchal approach to society.
On the issue of whether a film has a moral responsibility of not advocating such behaviour, she said, “If I have to like the film, then it will definitely not have that. There is a very fine line, reflecting what’s there in society, showing what misogyny is and glorifying it. It is entirely up to the writer and director to how they glorify it. So when a man is being misogynistic, is being abusive, and you show it in a way that incites applause from the audience, then it is glorification. At the same time, you make the audience think whether he has done the right thing or not, then there you are collaborating with the audience, then there is cinema, then there is a dialogue. The other one is just like spoon-feeding you, and saying that this is okay.”
{{/usCountry}}On the issue of whether a film has a moral responsibility of not advocating such behaviour, she said, “If I have to like the film, then it will definitely not have that. There is a very fine line, reflecting what’s there in society, showing what misogyny is and glorifying it. It is entirely up to the writer and director to how they glorify it. So when a man is being misogynistic, is being abusive, and you show it in a way that incites applause from the audience, then it is glorification. At the same time, you make the audience think whether he has done the right thing or not, then there you are collaborating with the audience, then there is cinema, then there is a dialogue. The other one is just like spoon-feeding you, and saying that this is okay.”
{{/usCountry}}“I remember sitting in theatre and watching such films as a teenager, and squirming, but at the same time, everyone was clapping. So I was very confused - is it normal, is it okay?”
“It affected me in my personal life too. The reason that I am so against it - like my relationships, they became passive aggressive, I thought it was alright and I endured that for years till whenever the light bulb came on... This is why I believe a lot of girls get influenced. You are sitting for two and half hours in a dark room and you have this collective expression that you having... obviously subconsciously, kuch toh rehta hai na (some of that remains inside you).”
“This doesn’t mean that one has to intellectualise things, there has to be fun but without demeaning gender, without making it just a commodity for your lust, may be. I too feel lustful towards a character and not make that vulgar and dispensable.”
Parvathy also spoke about the desire to play sadistic characters and yet ensure that it was careful in not influencing audience in a wrong way. In that context, she mentioned how Joker was different from Arjun Reddy and Kabir Singh.
“Arjun Reddy or Kabir Singh both had the visual grammar of glorification, Joker did not. At no point did I feel at the character Joaquin (Phoenix) played (and think) ‘Arre yaar, I totally agree with you. You must kill everyone’.”
“We can watch a tragedy and leave it there, without feeling inspired to follow it. Whereas if you’re telling there is no passion in a relationship without slapping each other and I see the comments on YouTube (on that) where people are resonating and engaging with that, there is also, you can see, engaging with a wrong thing in a massive, mob-like manner. Where you’re inciting violence, that’s kind of murky.”
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