It all first began when a Malayalam actress was abducted and assaulted in her own car. Women in Malayalam cinema came together after this, and formed a group called Women in Cinema Collective (WCC). They began speaking out against a topic that was largely unspoken about until then : sexism in the Malayalam film industry.
In the last International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) in Thiruvananthapuram during an open panel discussion, Parvathy said, regarding the Mammootty starrer Kasaba, “I had watched a film recently, to my bad luck. With all respect to the makers, the film disappointed me, as it featured a great actor speaking totally misogynistic dialogues. A lot of people feel cinema reflects life and society, that is true. But a line that is drawn is, whether we glorify it or we don’t glorify it. When a superstar mouths such a dialogue, it gives many people the licence to do the same, because people might think it’s sexy and cool.”
Watch the controversial scene here :
She went on to say how she herself had earlier normalised misogyny and thought an abusive relationship to be normal, due to the influence of the cinema she had seen. The 2016 movie had been criticised earlier by the Kerala State Women’s Commission for some dialogues by the cop played by Mammootty, but in an industry that tends to eulogize stars and muffle any critical voices, Parvathy’s comments never the less still stood out :
All Parvathy did was express an opinion, in a panel discussion, when asked about the topic. But it made countless Mammootty fans, including some women, wage a war against her, in what was taken as a personal attack on their hero. Some of them allege that the criticism is a personal vendata by vested interests against Mammootty, and that Parvathy is being used as their pawn. They abused her online, and sent her rape threats. According to scriptwriter Deedi Damodaran, the issue is not just a movie “I don’t think one can limit the statements to Kasaba. What irked many is how Parvathy chose to challenge a male-dominated system.” Others however believe it is only a knee jerk reaction to what is perceived as an attack on their idol, similar to the reaction of fans during the cyber attack on Sharapova some years back, for not knowing who Tendulkar is.
Jude Anthany Joseph, who paradoxically directed the female centric movie, Om Shanthi Oshana, and a movie on child sexual abuse, on Twitter, criticized Parvathy for not speaking out against abuse when she was in the process of being abused, but only when she was in a position of influence. In retaliation, Parvathy sent out a Twitter post depicting an acronym that in Malayalam translates into the equivalent of the middle finger.
She also gave a complaint to the cyber police against the abuses and rape threats, and two people were arrested. When one of them was let out on bail, the producer of Kasaba , Joby George, offered him a job. “If you can contact me or come to my home or office, you have a job till I die, in India, UK, Dubai, Australia or drop in your number I will call you,” he wrote on his facebook page. Parvathy has however put up an incredibly brave face despite all the abuse, and recently put up this tweet : Parvathy T K (@parvatweets) Tweeted:
What a glorious time to be alive!
Everyone showing their truest colours 😜 sits back with popcorn and watches on https://twitter.com/parvatweets/status/947913210677604353?s=17
Her brave reaction to the trolling seem to have angered the Mammokka fans even further. For a long time, Mammootty himself kept a silence, but after the arrest by the cyber police, he clarified that he has not assigned anyone to debate or respond on his behalf. “I don’t go after controversies. What we need are meaningful debates. We all abide by freedom of speech and right to opinion”, he said.
The trolling continues unabated, with the word “Feminichi” (a combination of the words feminist and ammachi, meaning mother) being used to refer to the WCC members. And that in turn has led to retaliation by some using the Twitter handle #feminichispeaking and has led to the spawning of feminist memes that use that handle. One sad thing that emerges from all this hullabaloo is how the word ‘feminist’ seems to have become an insult. Though it only means that one stands for equal rights for women, it seems to be misconstrued by many to stand for misandry and female supremacism. Even the chief minister of Kerala appears a little confused in this regard, because in a recent television show when asked by Rima Kallingal if he was a feminist, he replied, “No gender should dominate”.
Two recent movie releases were targetted by the Mamookka trolls. The first was Mayaanadhi, which was directed by Rima Kallingal’s (an outspoken member of the WCC) husband Aashiq Abu. The second is the Prithviraj – Parvathy starrer My story, which had a song featuring the leading pair. The trolls went on a roll in the comment section under the YouTube release of the song, and the video notched up an unprecedented number of dislikes.
They threaten to boycott both these movies. Mayaanadhi however is doing well so far, despite the boycott threats.
Kerala is a model state with high tolerance of minorities, good per capita income, high female literacy, a high percentage of working women, and health care indices comparable to first world countries. Glorification of misogyny in Malayalam movies is probably dying a natural death, with the waning of the stars of yesteryears like Mammootty, Mohan Lal, Jayaram and Dileep. There are not many other recent Malayalam movies that can be cherry picked for their depiction of misogyny, other than Kasaba, which was not a big hit. However, this controversy has brought all of Kerala’s misogynists crawling out of the woodwork. And if anyone had any doubts at all that heroes depicting glorified negative traits on screen would blind their hero worshipping fans from seeing the negativity of their actions, and lead them to emulate them, then the continuing behaviour of innumerable Mammootty fans over the Kasaba criticism, is probably the best proof that this is so.
– tonks
I also got the following submission, which was too short to be its own post. But it fits in this space, so putting it up here. This is by sairam suresh, and titled “Time to stem the rot“.
I had some conversations with few of my friends regarding the ordeal women all over the world are putting up with.Barring a few, most of them did not think twice to cast the blame on women for most of the sexual crimes women are subjected to .They asserted that if a woman stands at the receiving end of sexual assaults she should be determined to make peace by accepting the fact that she has provided the fodder for a man to get invited and force himself upon her.They were ready to land in a conclusion that a woman who choose to clad herself in revealing outfit does not stand a testimony to the doctrines of moral books.I really believe that some people dont understand that those moral books are self fabricated and self imposed.Without taking name, i would like to quote one of my friends.He said “dude men are supposed to get sexually instigated when their eyeballs capture a woman who is clad in a revealing outfit and you are considered to be deprived of your masculinity if u dont get aroused”. This is not an appropriate comment to make on a woman.Even some of my female friends affirmed that in most cases its the women who is at the fault for dressing a certain way. They too were of the opinion that women are supposed to dress a certain way.People all over the world keep on moaning the fact that this society is bereft of male feminists.I guess we are in a dire need of female feminists.It would do a lot of good if women themselves would sow a seed of thought that they are on par or some steps ahead of men in every capacities.Its 2018 and still we bore witness to slut shaming ,period shaming and body shaming.Its high time that we detach these element of absurdities from a woman.I would like to opine that its a prerogative of a women to choose her attire.Similarly its her prerogative to shed or embrace abstinence.Nobody has the right to judge her.If a woman would chose to turn out in a revealing outfit under a public glare,it does not mean that she has given a blank cheque to gaze at her inappropriately.Even if a women would celebrate her nudity it does not imply that a man can get provoked to deflower her virginity. Its really shocking to realize that we are living in a world where a misogynist has come out trumping in a leadership election to lead this world.Its time we grow out of obsolete way of looking at things and shed stereotyping of a woman.For aeons men have been leading and its time for men to pass on the baton to the other half of world population.i would like to conclude by saying that dont ever tell your daughter what she has to wear,instead teach your son to respect a woman.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Cromagnon
January 20, 2018
What is wrong with the male of today? The empowerment of women after centuries of partriachy and entrenched misogyny hurts his psyche like nothing else. The backlash is what drives the violence in various ways,he becomes either an online troll or a vile rapist.
Our macho male hasn’t aged over the millennia, he was raping Neanderthal women ( ok, we got some protection from common cold because of that), invading countries and coveting women as spoils of war, breaking temples and raping women, partitioning countries and raping women, demolishing medieval mosques and raping women, conducting ethnic cleansing and raping women, performing religious pogroms and raping, opposing inter caste weddings and raping women, in fact raping women seems to be second nature to him.
He now threatens to rape them, hiding behind the anonymity of a flickering screen.
The indian male is sure to change the most empathetic person into a misanthrope.
End of rant.
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Rahul
January 20, 2018
“She went on to say how she herself had earlier normalised misogyny and thought an abusive relationship to be normal, due to the influence of the cinema she had seen.”
Is she referring to Maryan ?
Well written, tonks!
Owing to my limited span of attention , I could finish only one article. The other one, later.
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AK
January 20, 2018
No she isn’t referring to Maryan. She is referring to the dynamics of a previous relationship.
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Vivek narain
January 20, 2018
This word, Prerogative, is so much superior to ‘Misogyny’. Reminds me of Wolf Larsen, and Jack London was so macho if not misogynist.
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Vidya Ramesh
January 20, 2018
We’ll written piece tonks! This vile hero worshipping south Indian culture combines with a helpful misogynistic upbringing leads upto this. Anonymous hate spewed online. To me it seems more like” how dare she say something so negative about the superstar ” rather than what she said. We have also become a population that gets offended at anything and everything! It is ridiculous the things that offend people when real problems like rape and Honor killing s and mob lynchings don’t make people even twitch!
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Vidya Ramesh
January 20, 2018
Another thing that horrified me was was the producer or something of thana seerndha kootam abusing the TV vjs who made a joke about Surya! It made me so sick..the vjs just made a short joke. Don’t like the joke by all means but abusing the girls online!! I constantly feel that the world is going nuts.
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Vidya Ramesh
January 20, 2018
This just seems like a safe place to vent..where normal people come to talk and hide..so I’m venting. Arghhhhhh..gnashing teeth, thalaila adichufying and moving on!
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Purple Sky
January 20, 2018
If this was the scene that caused all this hullabaloo, then I am sad this undeserving piece of crap got so much attention. This is clearly the world’s most unimaginative flirting scene and it is just that.
Frankly if I expected to be saluted, I wouldn’t have said hi and shaken his hands. Nor would I be asking around who is the most “cocky” officer. She didn’t show professionalism, he didn’t show professionalism. Period.
Having said that, Parvathy has very respectfully given her opinion and this is also just that.
But, Rape threat for saying she is disappointed in a movie? Now this is overreaction to the power n. I hope in future, we r not forced to pray to these so called superstars
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shemz
January 20, 2018
Beautiful writeup Tonks!
Sairam Suresh, well written! I hear you! ‘Even some of my female friends affirmed that in most cases its the women who is at the fault for dressing a certain way. They too were of the opinion that women are supposed to dress a certain way.’ This is so problematic, for who decides and agrees on this so called ‘certain way’? Some tend to answer it with geography! ‘Dress according to the place you are in’! Hmmm.. if I step out of the house in a particular attire, the neighbor on my right may think it’s fine and the left may not agree. So whose stamp of approval shall I consider now?
Also what is their answer to the multitudes of women who are being assaulted in spite of their ‘so-called modest attire’ ? This is how the blame-the-woman squad works – ‘Ok let’s take a look at the victim, legs- covered, shoulders- covered, cleavage, hips – covered. Well, this is tough! What could it be? Hair? Eyes? Nope? Covered? Well well there has to be something in her that must have provoked our innocent man here. Got it! Her sexy voice!! See that’s exactly what wound him up! So let’s surgically modify their vocal cords to produce manly voice! Or ooohh better yet, Let’s get a lock for all the women’s lips and throw the keys in the ocean. No more sexy-voice threats and no more opinion on anything! Dual victory! ‘ chest thumps and hi-fives mark the celebration !
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Purple Sky
January 20, 2018
Article about another Malayali actress being trolled for being outspoken. Courtesy: Quora. (Didn’t know how to share link from Quora)
Rima Kallingal – She is an Indian actress who works in Malayalam movies.
Rima couple days back gave a bang on speech on confronting gender discrimination in the film industry in a TedX talk organized in Kerala.
She asked, ‘How long do you dumb down, how long do you stay silent, and what does it take to break your silence?’
Rima declared herself a feminist on the onset. “I am a feminist and my feminism started with a fish fry. Once upon a time, my family was seated around the dining table with my grandmom, dad, my brother, and myself. My mom is serving food and never in her entire life has it occurred to her that she can actually sit down along with us and we can all serve our own food. But that story is for another day. And today she does three fish fries and she makes sure that the oldest one at the table and the two men at the table get one each. The 12-year-old me sees this and weeps.
I am deeply hurt and I demand to know why I am not considered deserving of the fish fry. My family is shocked but my mom is flabbergasted. She could not fathom why I was overreacting because she probably never got fish fries in her entire life. But then that’s how my journey of questions began.”
She continued her powerful almost 15 minutes speech and towards conclusion remarked, “We at least live at a time where we can actually ask for the fish fries if we think we deserve it. We need to seize this moment and sow the seeds of change.”
She closed her speech on a punch note by borrowing a movie dialogue “We sow the seeds today and they will reap the fruits tomorrow and then it will be their daughters and their daughters. We might not be around to see it, but we will be the one who sowed the seeds for them. This is a call of duty for us and our questions are our seeds of change. Let us all come together and promise to ask all the questions that our past generations could not ask so that our future generations will not have to ask them. “
She remained fierce and confident all through the speech and I felt like she is the Oprah Winfrey of India or the Priyanka Chopra of Bollywood.
And then started the trolls.
People started making fun of her speech and the thing they ‘celebrated’ the most is her fish fry remark.
They clearly missed the point, what she was actually talking about but called her fish fry feminazi, making fun of her mom and blaming the fisherman who gave the house only 3 fish and many arrogant, disgusting comments demeaning her and feminism.
If the outcome of a powerful speech of that sort is this, the society’s approach towards feminism or gender discrimination will never change.
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Anu Warrier
January 21, 2018
Great article, Tonks. Just watch out that you are not the next target. It’s sickening both that a woman cannot voice her opinion on a film without having to bear these trolls who all come crawling out from under whichever bridge they were hiding, and that Mammootty didn’t come out strongly against this kind of nonsense in his name. Ugh!
I’m glad Parvathi has the guts to this on her chin, and I’m appalled that Manju welshed out of supporting her. Thank you for voicing what I felt.
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Madan
January 21, 2018
Great write ups both. It brought to my mind the time when NDTV anchor Nidhi Razdan was trolled for her interview of a British MP where she tried to corner him on Modi with poorly prepared questions and ended up having to fend herself against the guest when he started counter-questioning her. One of the trolls was Mahesh Murthy, who referred to it as a ‘rape’. The same Mahesh Murthy who has recently been booked in a sexual harassment case. Do words then reveal something about the person’s character? Perhaps they do.
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Vivek narain
January 21, 2018
Calling dish, a dish,and tart, a tart, is not my prerogative or misogynism,rather it’s a matter of fact,a metaphor, a candid use of language.
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Rahul
January 21, 2018
Thanks AK. I do not want to hijack this board, but I am curious to know what people think about Maryan roughing up Panimalar. He is shown to be an okay dude otherwise, though high strung at times. The movie does not look at him as a bad guy or even as a good guy who sometimes did bad things.
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CC
January 26, 2018
Please interview Parvathy! Not about controversy, but about her craft and the roles she’d like to essay. We need to hear the voices of these women (any women sometimes, but definitely ones like Parvathy) on a platform like yours. Strong women who give strong performances will force writers/directors to write strong parts. As much as your varied, spot-on descriptions of the loosu ponnus make me laugh out loud, we’ve seen too many of them for too long now. What’s on film can (and does) influence and inform what happens off of it too.
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brangan
January 26, 2018
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CC
January 26, 2018
Thank you for replying.
I had seen this and it’s a good interview, but I was hoping you would do one too 🙂
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AK
January 27, 2018
@Rahul: In this interview that BR has shared, Parvathy mentions that she feels Maryan is an alpha male character which I didn’t think was an apt description. An alpha male would be an Arjun Reddy and not Maryan, despite his rough handling of Pani.
With regards with what you asked, the Pani-Maryan relationship is so poetic almost that any physical aggression from him didn’t trouble me too much. I can’t come up with any specific example but I feel misogyny or aggression in a verbal form as seen in most of tamil movies in the form of lyrics and dialogues (adida avala, intha ponnungale ipadithan types) is more damaging and troubling (than what was shown in Maryan) since they pander to certain sections of the audience than being necessary for the narrative of the story. The scene and the situation in which he roughs her up, happens more organically (he has lost his friend to the sea) and the scene plays out more like a lovers tiff. It is aggression and unfair to Pani, but its the grief that brings out that side of him at the moment. This is what I felt and would love to hear your thoughts. This movie had great performances from Parvathy and Dhanush, music and visualization but the movie as a whole didn’t work too well.
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Jayram
January 27, 2018
What I liked about the Pani-Maryan relationship is that it is SHE not HE who is deciding how it will progress. And I loved the kiss scene because it was SHE initiating the contact with such confidence by putting both of her hands on his face and leaning forward. I don’t think he even touched her with his hands before and after the kiss.
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Jayram
January 27, 2018
Continuing with Maryan, does anyone prefer Parvathy’s version of Yenga Pona Raasa over Shaktisree Gopalan’s? I certainly do, because Parvathy brings a certain rawness and depth which makes the listener feel Pani’s pain, love and longing for Maryan. On the other hand, I feel Shaktisree’s version is urbanized and a little too polished and doesn’t evoke the same feeling.
Parvathy’s version is in the first minute below:
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Rahul
February 11, 2018
AK, I am sorry, I forgot about this discussion, till today, when I chanced upon it . I appreciate your answer but I have to disagree. I felt extremely uncomfortable watching that scene – as in wtf is going on?! I understand how that scene played out in the context of the movie , but having no blemish at all on the characterization of Dhanush because of what he did, is kind of normalizing that violence.
Whatever situation he may be going through, physical violence, specially towards a woman , should be a very clear line not to cross for any normal person. I do not see any grey areas in this. Could you please translate the Tamil dialogues you have quoted? (I tried google translate but it did not make sense)
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tonks
November 27, 2019
And Parvathy does it again. Hats off to this brave lady :
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thenewsminute.com/article/parvathy-calls-out-misogyny-arjun-reddy-front-vijay-deverakonda-wins-hearts-112955%3famp
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tonks
November 28, 2019
Curiouser and curiouser : BR smack in the middle of a “controversy” 🙂 :
https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/vijay-deverakonda-upset-arjun-reddy-critics-calls-twitterati-twidiots-113108
“I was going through a tweet and…weren’t they called tweeple? I think now they are “twidiots”. I think we all love taking sides. They want to be black or white but the world is not like that..it’s very grey,” the actor said.
Vijay is apparently soon going to “school” people on social media with film critic Baradwaj Rangan as his moderator.
“I bumped on to Rangan while on the lift today and he asked, ‘Vijay, how do you get yourself into all this controversy, yaar?’ So I told him let’s sort out this sh*t,” Vijay said.
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Anu Warrier
November 28, 2019
Vijay’s brother’s defence was really tone-deaf. When will these guys learn??
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tonks
January 13, 2022
Just posting this beautifully crafted piece here on this continuing saga that is rocking Kerala now (in the hope of creating conversation around it)
https://www.filmcompanion.in/opinion/malayalam-opinion/keshu-ee-veedinte-nadhan-hotstar-dileep-the-alleged-criminal-does-not-want-you-to-separate-him-from-his-art/amp/
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krishikari
January 13, 2022
Wow, that hit hard. The accused has had six releases since 2017 and the survivor has had none. Well done Kerala. Vishal Menon has written that article so honestly and I hope that it is widely read, translated to Malayalam, republished to the audience it needs to reach – his fanbase.
@tonks Yes we need to keep talking about this. This case still has not concluded from 2017 to now 2022. Did you see that Vanitha cover photo flaunting his power? Does Dileep own every business in Kerala or what?
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Satya
January 13, 2022
Huh, Dileep is pulling off a Charles Augustus Milverton, I am afraid.
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Anu Warrier
January 13, 2022
@Tonks – I got this news on my feed and was appalled. Pulsar Suni’s letter which his mother made public a few days ago and the audio clippings that his former friend released recently… I’m wondering just how much political and/or underworld power this man has that the industry has remained silent throughout, if not openly supported him.
I read Bhavana’s statement on her Instagram yesterday – after five years, Mammootty and Mohanlal have decided to say they support her? If they had stood up for her when Dileep was blacklisting her in the Malayalam industry, perhaps none of this would have happened.
@Krishikari – this is not the only cover that Vanitha has given him; the Malayala Manorama group has consistently tried to whitewash him/present him as a ‘family man’, flaunt his older daughter’s closeness to Kavya, etc., etc., etc., these past five years. It’s a shame that a woman’s magazine would put this man on the cover.
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H. Prasanna
January 14, 2022
Thanks for sharing @tonks and the Readers Write In. Vishal Menon’s piece reminded me of an article on Woody Allen in rogerebert.com:
https://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/why-i-stopped-watching-woody-allen-movies
In Vishal’s article, the predicament in the segment titled “Its Always in the Art” is something that always gets me.
Recently, I saw an old video interview of Michael Caine in which he says that some of the scenes in Hannah and her Sisters were shot in Woody Allen and Mia Farrow’s then apartment. He jokingly adds that Woody Allen was telling Mia Farrow things he wanted to say through Michael Caine’s character.
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krishikari
January 14, 2022
@prassanna. From your link: “While he continues to work, he also continues to terrorize her. She’s constantly being reminded not just of her assault, but also of the fact that the world doesn’t care about her assault. ”
This could be said of so many men. Woody Allen and Dileep are both scummy men their fans have decided are more worthy than their victims.
I’ve commented on this issue numerous times in our art vs. artist endless debates. The artist cannot always be separated from the art. Misogyny or creepy tendencies are there to observe in the art. Vishal Menon has expressed his feelings about it very succinctly. The disillusionment is so real.
As for WA, it’s subtle in Hannah and her sisters and very obvious in Manhattan. It may be one of the greatest works of cinematic art, As BR said, but it still becomes creepy af to watch in light of the revelations that came out later. I also used to enjoy Woody Allen and now his films are completely repulsive to me. Individual thresholds also come into play, you cannot make a blanket statement about art being separate from the artist. For instance wit MJ, I don’t hear the crime he was accused of in the music.
John Berger’s Ways of Seeing is also very enlightening when looking at classical painting. You can lose the reverential gaze, it’s very freeing to walk around the Uffizi and laugh to see that they just could not paint babies well or the vulgarity of painting naked women in a group of clothed men.
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krishikari
January 14, 2022
Other disgusting news from Kerala:
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
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Anu Warrier
January 15, 2022
It’s a nightmare. God’s own country, indeed. 😦
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Anu Warrier
January 15, 2022
@Prasanna, Mia Farrow had spoken about how scared she was that Hannah and Her Sisters clearly spelled out WA’s feelings for her sister. And how she kept telling herself that it was just fiction.
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Voldemort
January 15, 2022
This made me think of the kind of world we’d live in if fewer asshole geniuses were given a hall pass. What if Picasso never got famous enough to pit women against each other, because, as a non-famous artist, there were rumors that he pitted women against each other? What if studio heads thought Alfred Hitchcock’s work was great, but limited their contracts with him because of the way he stalked his starlets? What if Polanski were jailed for raping a 13-year-old girl, and after doing his time, had difficulty even finding a numbing day job? Ya know, the way most inmates do?
Thanks for the links Prasanna and tonks. Respect to Vishal Menon for such a moving piece. Apparently, Dileep and the Bishop Murakkal had the same lawyers. Desperately hope Dileep’s case doesn’t end like the bishop’s. The poor nun will have nowhere to go now, she has been character assassinated, called anti-Christian agent, by many from her own congregation.
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tonks
January 15, 2022
It shouldn’t shock any more but it still does. The machinery of power, gender and wealth silencing voices, denying justice and making a mockery of our judicial system. If such flagrant denial of justice can happen in such high profile cases, what hope would there be for the rest?
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