Naalu Pennungal - 2007
(Four Women)

The film distills to a rare purity four tales of village women in south India. Their titles are elemental: The Prostitute, The Virgin, The Housewife and The Spinster. In each, a woman submits to a role society decides for her. Each role offers a paradox of freedom and bondage in nearly equal measure.

When I began to read and re-read Thakazhi, I found out that it would be better to focus on his short stories. And while selecting them, most of the short stories happened to the little known ones

In the first story, Kunju Pennu accepts a proposal from Pappukutty and enters into an informal marriage, giving up her profession as a prostitute to do so. Both are desperately poor and live outdoors on the pavement, but they believe in the honour of their new status. That honour is shattered when police catch the couple in a compromising position one night and drag them to court on obscenity charges. Their only defence? They are husband and wife.

In The Virgin, Kumari's parents are happy to marry her off to a man from another village, but disgusted when he returns to visit and eats every last morsel of food they can offer. These scenes are both comic and alarming. After the meal, her new husband leaves, never to return. Kumari must face the shame of the situation, but also the ironic fact that her husband's only gift to her was the one thing he should have - by traditional right - taken.

The last two stories play out in a similarly trenchant fashion. A housewife is unable to produce a child. An old school friend offers himself to her as a surrogate stud, and his moustache is no doubt tempting. But what of the consequences? And in The Spinster, Nandita Das gives a heartbreaking performance as a woman, whose younger sister marries before her. With spinsterhood fast approaching, she eventually moves in with her sister and husband, but that causes more problems than it solves. She soon opts to face the world on her own.

Direction & Screenplay: Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Story: Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai
Cast: Nandita Das, Geetu Mohandas, Padmapriya, Manju Pillai, Kavya Madhavan
Cinematography: M J Radhakrishnan
Editor: B Ajithkumar
Music: Isaac Thomas

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