Watched a Malayalam short film on gender rights made in 1993 by KP Sasi called Ilayum Mullum, which literally translates into “The Thorn And The Leaf”. Basic concept behind the title is that whether the leaf falls on the thorn, or the thorn falls on the leaf, it’s the leaf that gets harmed. Based on a true story, the film depicts the mental turmoil faced by women forced to submit to the laws formulated by a patriarchal society that denies them the right to live life on their terms.
The Story – Four friends – Shanta, Parvathy, Sri Devi and Lakshmi – spend their days together and work as weavers at the same workshop. They are independent and intrepid, which makes them admired by some (mostly the few downtrodden, but still spirited women of the still patriarchal society of the village in Kerala’s interiors), but hated by many more in the male-dominated village. Constantly harassed, the women can only turn to Krishnan, the ferryman, for support and can only find peace together, immersed in the beauty of Kerala’s backwaters. Shanta drives away a suitor, enraged by his behaviour, Parvathy gets married and her real misery begins, the town leader harasses Lakshmi on a bus. The women do most of the work in the village, and the drunken gamblers who form the majority of the male population have their own ways of punishing those women who dare to voice their opinion. Toddy is splashed on the girls as they walk past, and rumors are spread about their supposed drinking habits and their loose morals. When the town lashes out against the friends, deserted by their families and Krishnan, there seems only one way out – suicide.
The movie has various lines incorporated in it which clearly bring out the extent to which the women were, and, in some parts of rural India, still are, forced to curb behaviour that came naturally to them in order to show their inferiority to the men they interacted with in the course of their daily routines, such as “Women mustn’t hold their heads up and walk, they must look down when they walk”, “Girls must lower themselves to the earth and mutely accept what is meted out to them by their husbands” and “Girls mustn’t laugh loudly”. Overall, the pathos of their situation is brought out in a very realistic manner that would invoke sympathy in the most hardhearted of souls.
Some thoughts – Its really in the hands of the women to end the evils of this system, isn’t it? A woman who inculcates a healthy respect for women in her son at an early age, can help alleviate the consequences of the system to some extent – somewhere along the way, it’ll improve the way he behaves towards women and his treatment of them. And despite feministic claims of equality, most women still tend to prevent their sons from doing household chores, and think of their daughters as those who must learn to bear this burden.
Ultimately, the struggle for women’s human rights must be about making women’s lives matter everywhere all the time. In practice, this means taking action to stop discrimination and violence against women by women. Initiatives world over have been put into motion to bring about a change. It is now upto the women to accelerate this phenomenon by shedding all forms of stereotypes and starting on a clean slate convinced and armed with their right to equality.