We are living in a time where the modern male condition is going through complex crises. With the spread of left-wing feminism, the position of men labeled as an oppressor became more stable than before. Even when it is repeatedly said that we are going through a patriarchal world order, the current situation of a male who has to take the mandatory bearer as a part of the so-called dominance also has to be discussed seriously. Presenting a list of dos and don’ts to a woman is surely oppressive from a feminist and progressive perspective. But the fact that the same situation exists in the case of men is left to be forgotten by feminists intentionally or unintentionally. RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s statement came out recently that the divorce rate in India is increasing due to the increase in education and employment opportunities for women. A large number of criticisms have been raised on social media based on this argument which he put forward. This is definitely a progressive approach on the part of social media platforms. But the fact that our social system is still far from the tip of the doubt, where it is a necessity for a man to take up a job and it has to be considered natural for him to assume the responsibility of the family consisting of parents, spouse and children is a matter of urgent attention. The observations made by author Sarah Joseph while participating in the Mathrubhumi International Literature Festival from February 2 to 5, 2023 are relevant here. She said that what is currently being celebrated in the name of feminism is nothing but male hatred and this situation needs to be changed by studying the contradictions in the society objectively. Saying that feminism should be a concern of men rather than women, Sarah Joseph raised the question that whether it is the men of the family who are obliged to collect dowry for a girl’s marriage and who have to bear the pressure even without any chances for objection.
The Malayalam film ‘Jaya jaya jaya he’ released on 28th October 2022 directed by Vipin Das is one that problematizes the exploitation faced by women. The content of the film is the portrayal of intellectual, social, and physical oppression and the subsequent self-emancipation of women. The disciplinary training that starts from childhood, the family situation that denies the opportunity to get the desired education or profession, and the illogicality of traditional and customary marriages can be clearly seen in this picture. There are many reasons to think that this film will be remembered forever among the female perspective films released in Malayalam or Indian languages. But the movie ‘Mukundanunni Associates’ released on 11 November 2022 directed by Abhinav Sundar Naik presents a completely different side of the contemporary social relationship between men and women. The hero, who works as a lawyer, adopts extreme and violent means in this film to achieve a socially acceptable and successful life. This kind of character construction also involves a deliberate departure from the common cinematic dilemmas in determining justice, injustice, right and wrong. Another important aspect of the film is the heroine’s outlook on life. At a certain point in the film, the heroine, who is employed as a receptionist in a private hospital, says that she is preparing for the PSC (Public service commission) exams. But later we see that this same person says that her PSC study is only a part of raising the standards in the marriage market and her real interests are just staying at home, traveling, and eating favorite foods etc. This film context is one that directly questions the common perception of our present reality about women being confined inside the household without being allowed to work.
We are going through a capitalist social system and its ideological strategies in day-to-day life, which increases the rate of profit by exaggerating the natural human nature of competition. A scene from the 2011 film Midnight in Paris, directed by Woody Allen can be taken as an example of this. In a few nights, the hero of the film travels from the century he lives into the 1920s, and in one of these times, he meets the world-famous writer Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway’s response to the protagonist’s request for comment on the book he’s writing is unusually transparent. “If you give your writing to another writer for evaluation, two things will happen. If he doesn’t like it, he will surely say that it’s bad. If he thinks it’s good, he’ll get jealous and say it’s bad” is the response. The interpersonal approaches that individuals adopt in any constructive activities are no different. This is an era where social media has become an indispensable part of the social body. This situation which came as a part of the technological revolution has subjected society to unprecedented deconstruction. An important one as the result of this is the authority of ‘power and abundance of choice’ has been given to women. The second is the male misery of constantly competing with those who are ahead of him and behind him either in the message box or real life or both. This fuel the male race for the attainment and maintenance of all-round perfection.
Shyam Pushkar is a Malayalam Story, script, and dialogue writer who has won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Screenplay twice (Maheshinte Pratikaram-2017 and Joji-2022) and once the National Award (Maheshinte Pratikaram-2017). He has co-scripted and co-written dialogues in several films. The films for which he wrote the story, script, and dialogue are Maheshinte Pratikaram, Kumbalangi Nights, Joji, and Thangam respectively. The production company Working Class Hero’, which he started in 2018 along with The director and actor Dileesh Pothan, produced its first film Kumbalangi Nights (2019) in association with the production company ‘Fahad Fasil and Friends’. The next and last film ‘Working Class Hero’ associated in production along with ‘Bhavana Studios’ and ‘Fahad Fazil and Friends’ is ‘Thankam’ directed by Saheed Arafat (Released on 26 January 2023). As the name of the production house ‘Working Class Hero’, which Shyam Pushkar is also a part of, suggests, the films he has written stories, screenplay, and dialogues have ‘work/occupation’ as one of their focal points. In the film ‘Maheshinte Pratikaram’, the hero is someone who follows his father’s profession of photography with no genuine interest or skill. As we are all aware, one of the vestiges of caste values in Indian society is the generational continuity of occupation. If we look at the general nature of professions that are given special privilege in society such as teaching, legal profession, police, army, and government jobs, it can be seen that most of these people’s previous generation did the same job or other professions that have received/given similar respect. The main problems with this semi-feudal trend are that individuals lose the opportunity to even identify their own interests or skills and are forced to join those they don’t fit into. In the film, the protagonist played by Fahadh Faasil is facing a similar crisis. He is unable to master the profession he had to take over from his father. In this regard, a sentence spoken by his father later became the first thing that is remembered in this film itself: “Photography can’t be taught. But it can be learned.” An important turning point in the film is when the hero takes his limitations seriously and succeeds in overcoming them.
Coming to the movie ‘Kumbalangi Nights’, unlike a single hero, one can see a few characters of equal importance. In this film, both of the main characters are facing a work-life integration crisis. In it, the character ‘Saji’ played by Soubin Sahir is unable to accommodate himself in the discipline of work due to his troubled life and mental conflicts. On the other hand, the character ‘Bobby’ played by Shane Nigam is a representative of the aimless modern youth. Both Bobby and Saji, who had to take on family obligations as a part of love and self-transformation for the sake of partnership life, inevitably have to take up work life by the end of the film. Although they both choose the same livelihood, Saji’s is an absolute pursuit of responsibility and Bobby’s is an evolution which leads by his partner’s progressive worldview about occupation and its hierarchical socio-cultural capitals which she denies. Adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’, The film ‘Joji’ is one of the best experimental films ever made in Malayalam. This film is considered to be the forerunner of Shyam Pushkar’s last film ‘Thangam’, a blend of crime and humor. It’s a method that only a few films like ‘American Psycho’ have tried and succeeded. Fahad Fazil plays the role of ‘Joji’, the youngest son of a very rich family in this film. Joji is an unemployed man, an engineering dropout, and is constantly scolded by his father. He has no particular interest in any job or field. But the hope of a rich and indifferent life is the thing that drives him forward. As a part of it, the moves he makes, and the consequences are the crux of this film. This film can also be seen as the mutual conflicts that arise when the institution of the family couldn’t receive the potential future harvest they hope for after the capital it invests in a man. It can also be considered to be similar to the ‘Koodathai murder series’ in Kerala. While the film ‘Joji’ focuses on the cold and violent reaction of the modern male to work, family structure, and better living standards, ‘Thangam’ represents the misery of the present-day man who himself becomes a victim of the patriarchal family structure. The hero of this film is prey to the male stereotypes that we continue to pass down. This is the other side of the recognized captivity that a section of women is facing in the name of ‘protection’. As the ‘unlivable life’ of the man who is supposed to bear the title of ‘protector’ by public consciousness hangs over us, the film hand over the responsibility of cutting down the rope and burying the outdated equations of superiority to the audience.
Jordan Peterson, a world-renowned psychologist and professor, points out a few facts as part of validating his argument, why modern society is not patriarchal. He says that it is true that most of the wealth in the world is held by a small group of wealthy people, but the vast majority of those who are killed in war, live on the streets, perform poorly in school, go to prison, and suffer from mental illness are men. Therefore, he also gives a stern warning that patriarchy should not be defined in terms of a small group of men who are considered as successful. Many films which represent feminist viewpoints such as 22 Female Kottayam, Uyare, Mayanadi, Freedom Fight, and Jayajayajayahe have been released in the Malayalam film industry in the last few years. A common feature of these movies is that the politics they trying to convey are easy to decipher and do not require a complex decoding process. But in stark contrast to this sloganeering treatment, the inner politics of the other films discussed here can only be explained through deep academic reading and analysis. This approach may also be part of considering (consciously or not) the possibilities of existence in a society where the intensity and dominance of woke-left cultural convictions are advancing. But In any case, it is safe to say that there will be a future in which these films will recuperate and reread, as The Legendary German writer Bertolt Brecht wrote, “In the dark times, Will there be singing? There will be singing, Of the dark times.”
As Karl Marx said that the eternal history of mankind is the history of class struggle, the history of human society itself is the history of all kinds of mutual (individual) wars (both material and spiritual). Therefore, it is part of an invisible (for most people) global agenda to nurture innumerable antagonisms such as caste, religion, color, class, race, education, social status, etc. If we consider such a situation in a proper way, it turns out that the ‘divine element’ contained in the internal politics of the exploitative-exploited leadership structure is ‘authoritarian’ itself.
The article is originally written in Malayalam, Published by Mediaone Shelf Webzine, and translated into English by the Author.
