Vinoth Raj’s sophomore Tamil directorial, starring Soori and Anna Ben, tells a simple yet profound story without relying on preachy dialogues, clichés and background score
In his sophomore directorial Kottukkaali (The Adamant Girl), PS Vinoth Raj touches upon superstition, misogyny, and the plight of rural women, but he does so without resorting to preachy dialogues or cinematic exaggeration. Instead, he slowly unravels these social issues as he captures the journey of Paandi (Soori), Meena (Anna Ben), and their family. The entire family is convinced that Meena is possessed by an evil spirit, believing that if they drive it away, she will marry Paandi, her maternal uncle.
Throughout this journey, we see that Paandi is a misogynist, unafraid to express his anger and frustration towards women, and he struggles to handle rejection. Meanwhile, Meena remains voiceless, with no say in a family that not only supports Paandi’s actions but also indulges him. The film begins with a scene where the camera captures a woman in sincere prayer, religiously following her as she returns home, where we see a rooster tied to a stone. Shortly after, we see Meena, to whom the woman applies holy ash (Thiruneer).
The ties that imprison a woman
There is a metaphorical connection between the rooster and Meena: the former is physically tied to a stone, while the latter is emotionally bound at home by her family. When the rooster tries to escape, the men in the family recapture it. Although we don’t yet know what happened to Meena, subsequent scenes and dialogues reveal that she was in love with a young man from another caste. The same men in the family did something to her, rendering her unable to fight back, leaving her silent and passive. Due to her stubborn silence, the family believes she is possessed by a ghost.
On the other hand, we are introduced to Paandi as his sister applies medicine to his throat. When he speaks, we can hear the hoarseness, indicating that some internal quarrel or fight has occurred within the family. As the film progresses, it’s evident that Paandi is madly in love with Meena and that he was the one who encouraged her to pursue higher studies. However, the same person is now physically abusing her because she is in love with another man from a different caste.
A simple story with intriguing climax
The film revolves around the journey of these two characters: Meena, who refuses to speak due to a traumatic incident in her life, and Paandi, who, despite losing his voice, behaves like an untamed animal towards Meena as they both visit a local exorcist. When Meena finally speaks her first line in the film, Paandi is conspicuously silent, unable to speak for reasons that are best understood by watching the film and interpreting it for yourself.
As mentioned earlier, Paandi blindly beats all the women in his family, including Meena and his sisters. In the next scene, a ferocious bull stands in the middle of the road, blocking Paandi and the others from moving forward. A few men in the family try to drive it away but fail miserably and are forced to wait patiently until a small girl, the owner of the bull, calmly leads it back home. Paandi, who had the strength to beat the women, couldn’t muster the same against the bull, which was easily tamed by a little girl.
Kottukkaali is filled with many such metaphors and subtexts that are left for the audience to understand and interpret. If you read the script of Kottukkaali, it doesn’t have many hard-hitting dialogues or an earth-shattering plot, but Vinoth Raj draws us into his world and tells a simple story with an intriguing, open-ended climax.
An unadulterated cinematic experience
Soori, who was previously seen as a mainstream comedian, convincingly adopts a serious demeanour from the very beginning. Not once do we see the animated comedian Soori; this transformation is his greatest triumph. The scene where he channels all his anger and frustration speaks volumes about his acting potential. Anna Ben, who remains silent throughout the film, constantly communicates with us through her restrained performance.
The film doesn’t have a background score, yet Vinoth Raj successfully conveys emotions without relying on the typical Tamil cinema music. There is a scene where Anna Ben looks out of an auto-rickshaw and imagines herself leisurely walking on a grassland with her hair free (in the auto, she is under tremendous pressure, with her hair tightly combed). This scene could have been elevated with music, but Vinoth chooses to let the audience feel the atmospheric tension of his film, which is often disrupted by cinematic music. In conclusion, Kottukkaali offers audiences an unadulterated cinematic experience, free from the usual mainstream Tamil cinema formulae.
