Alamelu Janaki

I was not ready for Dorothy . I cried, continued to cry as I watched the film. Not that kind of crying that comes with a sentimental scene, where you wipe away your tear and move on. I simply couldn’t. I felt very uncomfortable, anxious and eventually content. I am trying to comprehend all of it. I have encountered this sort of violence before- in literature and cinema that stubbornly refuses to let us look away. When I first read The Begetter by Imayam, I was a college student. It was a part of my syllabus and I had to present it to the class. I read the night before, I couldn’t sleep. A lump in my throat refused to move.   The honour-killing episode and the violence inflicted consciously by the society broke something open in me. It wasn’t the violence that affected me but the terrible familiarity of it. The way such violence can be made inevitable, sanctioned and even ordinary within the structures that produce and sustain gender inequality.   The next day while ...

    “Valai” will eat you alive. In an interview with Barathwaj Rangan, the director   Mari Selvaraj told that the film “valai” is like:     “you consume normal water and you die”. That’s how simple and perplexed it is! The film is not just a slice of life of a downtrodden family, it is also the nature of life and the vicious cycle of power itself.     It is more than a week since I watched the film, I can’t get over it. I feel there is a rusted knife slowly piercing my stomach inch by inch.   The film transports you to a beautiful world of a boy’s coming of age. His life is calm, beautiful and pretty much sticks to the routine. Things change as he develops resilience and decides to retaliate against things he detests. in contrast, the equation between him and his teacher is sheer delight. The innocence of his unadulterated love for his teacher is rejuvenating.   As the little boy’s wings equip him to fly, he is clipped down by hun...