Thappad

Thappad finally made it to Amazon Prime and I watched it yesterday. For those of you, who have seen violence at home up close, or have heard abuses, seen a divorce happen in your family circle, be sure this movie will trigger you.

This movie triggered me because of two things 1. I took my own sweet time getting married (I wanted to establish my practice first), from the time I decided to go independent to the time I decided to get married I have heard a ton of nonsense about what a girl must do from aunties and relatives who know it all. 2. I saw someone close to me go through a divorce and the protagonist in the movie reminded me so much of her from the nickname to the character summing up her arguments in a single line and adamantly sticking to doing right by herself.

The movie begins with Amu (Amrita played by Tapassee Pannu) beginning her day by waking up, taking care of the household, testing her MIL’s blood sugar level, making tea and taking a picture of the view from her balcony. She seems like a very happy woman who has found comfort in doing things around the house, she is on top of everything, she can take care of the printer, an impromptu party at a short notice and many other things. Her husband on the other hand is a lazy muff (he won’t appear so, to most people but like I said this movie triggered me in a bad way). he needs to be woken up (Eye roll), he needs Amu to carry his files for him, his thermos, wallet and other miscellaneous things to his car when he leaves for office. He’s constantly talking about himself and his work and is that desi Jeoffery who can’t see beyond his nose because his world ends at his nose. (Ladies, stay away from men who expect you to wake them up, if they haven’t figured out alarms yet you don’t have to take that responsibility, go rule the world instead and let sleeping dogs lie.)

Vikram (Pavail Gulati) is vying for a position in London. He thinks he’s bagged it and is told he has and that’s why he asks Amu to throw him a party. It is at this party that he gets a call saying he will be going to London but not be taking up the role he anticipated but a subordinate one. This is what triggers his rage. He starts going ballistic because, hey men can do as they please but catch a woman losing hershit and she’ll be called names that we can’t even mention on the blog! When Amu tries calming her husband, he turns around and slaps her. Shocked by this dsiplay she walks back into the house and that’s when all the women close to her descend on her like dementors and suck her spirit by justifying her husband’s action. Not once is she asked how she is feeling. Instead everybody expects her to forget it and move on. But how can she? She finds herself becoming detached from the place she once called home.  When Amu stops doing the things she otherwise did around the house the scene switches to the maid doing the same things in her limited capacity. That’s probably the only scene that I thought was worthy of a mention in this post. Days pass but there is no apology nor is there any attempt to get her to express why she is feeling the way she is feeling instead it is all about his work pressure and how he is doing this for the both of them and how hard he’s worked and how she should understand why he did what he did! (We now know why he was pushed to that subordinate role, eh?)

When Amu realises she no longer feels loved in that house she goes to her parents' but not before he throws a tantrum at her departure. I mean mummy ne adaat daldi hogi har bari ‘haan’ bolke. The next day he wakes up and calls out to the maid but she’s not there. He goes down to find his mother making tea. (Their maid got beat up by her dead beat husband). He tells his mother he will make tea and when he finds that the tea leaves are over he has to ask his mother where the tea leaves are and she gives him a fresh pack which he promptly rips and ends up spilling all the leaves on the floor. (Who has to clean up now? Not like this guy will be able to sweep it up but we never find out.) I  mean if you are human and can’t make a cup of tea or coffee I’d presume you aren’t potty trained either. Deviating from the story, once when my mom was in Mangalore attending an engagement function a woman asked my mother if I could cook. My mom asked her, Whom are you asking for? The woman said she just wanted to know in general. My mom told her both my brother and I can cook and she’d expect her future DIL and SIL to at least know to make a cup of tea if not anything else. That woman glared at my mother because my mom had the gall to say she had some expectations from her SIL! (I landed a boy who thinks he’s a master-chef, though I must admit here that on days when I have returned home really late I have had a nice hot home cooked meal waiting for me. Also he makes the tea in the mornings.)

So our chuchundar files for restitution of conjugal rights and that’s when Netra the lawyer appears. Netra is a successful lawyer but her husband ensures she is reminded on whose name she’s riding her fame. Her father in law was previously a judge and she began her work in his office. Amu tells Netra she doesn’t want to play dirty, she just wants a divorce. Netra explains the legal dance around court room divorce. Amu tells her that she has always only wanted two things in life – Respect (emphasis supplied – this is a legal term which is used to connote an important point of law but hey you know what I mean!) and happiness. She doesn’t budge no matter what is thrown at her and amid all of this she finds out she is pregnant – woohoo! That’s when the second dance of ladies' reasoning with her begins. Will Amu go back now that she knows she’s pregnant? Will she make a choice detrimental to her own interest just for the child’s sake? Well I guess if you reached till this point in the post you thought I would have revealed it all, yes? No. Watch the movie. If this post itself triggers you, comment below and I will email you the ending.

The movie has many more characters. I haven’t mentioned them all but among the women we have the mother, mother in law, co-sister, brother’s soon to be wife, maid, widowed neighbour and her teenage daughter, father, father in law, brother, brother in law, the maid’s husband, the lawyers. They all have their dialogues that sometimes get preachy and predictable.

All the actors were good. They make you hate and like them. I only loved the maid played by Geetika Vidya Ohlyan.

Do I have a bad taste in my mouth after watching this movie? Do I hate the male gender? Let me sum it up for you with a dialogue from the movie itself – I like to believe men are wonderful people. (Maybe not all of them but most of them.)