There is a huge difference between gender equality and gender role reversal. We keep dangerously mixing the two and end up making a mess like ‘Hey Sinamika’. It’s been an age-old narrative in movies about relationships where usually a man finds himself unhappy in a marriage and meanders away from the relationship until he realizes his mistake and then comes back to his wife to live happily ever after. Also is the portrayal of women as annoying housewives who got no personality of their own other than managing the household and micromanaging their partner in the name of love and care. In the directorial debut of choreographer Brinda, ‘Hey Sinamika’ the same toxicity is adapted into the character of Yaazhan played by Dulquer Salman. The only difference is, maybe because it’s a man portrayed doing household chores, cooking looks like a MasterChef show episode, gardening or any other chore looks like an episode from a Netflix show on house décor.
To add to the unhealthy patterns, Yaazhan is annoyingly clingy and mind-numbingly condescending. He has a lecture to give on each and every minute thing in life without having no care about what the other person is feeling. Having the experience of knowing a few people like that too closely in life, I know it’s excruciating to bear. Don't even get me started on his lecture on divorce and the sanctity of marriage. It’s painful and thought-provoking to notice, how deep patriarchy is entrenched into our psychology that, the same character flaws which are shown as irritating when a woman is playing the role, are shown almost with admiration when Dulquer is playing the part. Even if you feel it’s mildly annoying in two montages of non-stop talking, trust me by the end of the movie, all of that magically fades away. Also, all the annoying characters of Yaazhan are dedicated only to his wife Mouna (played by Aditi Rao Hydari), and conveniently fade away when he is at work or is with Malarvizhi (played by Kajal Aggarwal).
The biggest issue with Hey Sinamika is that it’s created so carelessly and without one ounce of genuinity or any shred of logic. It felt like Yaazhan, Mouna, and Malarvizhi, the pivotal characters were kindergarten kids more than adults. There is an increasing trend of kids mouthing dialogues like adults in the movies these days and Hey Sinamika is a movie where adults got to act like kids. Instead of making Yaazhan sit down and have a conversation about how his behaviors are affecting her, Mouna throws tantrums like a child and hires another woman to tempt him, so that she can use that as an excuse for a divorce.
In the regular narrative with a man playing this role, he would have had an extramarital affair, which the dutiful wife will forgive in the end. Yet when the tables turned, since the woman having an affair would be just too much to stomach for the husband, the narrative slides gladly into the plot, where two women fight for a man who is such a chamathu thankam (catch). Not that either of the partners cheating on a relationship is healthy, but the pattern in the movie shows how well it tries to cater to the patriarchal traits of the society.
They could have given any profession to the third woman in the equation, Malarvizhi, but they made her a psychologist, sorry slash that, a psychologist and a private investigator. In a society where there are still taboos around mental health and consulting a psychologist for support, they portrayed the character of a psychologist in the most caricaturish and completely unethical manner. For instance, Mouna threatens suicide to make Malarvizhi agree to seduce her husband, which you consult ANY psychologist will be the reason for referring Mouna for intense mental health care and/or for the psychologist to seek legal support. Instead, Malarvizhi who is a borderline misandrist agrees to the deed, to prove that Yaazhan is just another man who is a cheater. But Yaazhan being the chamathu he is, changes her perspective. How innovative. Ever heard of couple counseling, Brinda? No? Oh, sorry, my mistake, Malarvizhi will be a BAD choice for that too.
Malarvizhi, who is given a backdrop of repeated abuses and trauma which again is covered in just one sentence flashback dialogue, does PI work on couples who comes for couple counseling to her. Apparently, all the men in those couples are cheating on their wives and she finds proof of the same and the enraged wives leave the relationship. Completely illogical and probably illegal, but she is indeed putting an end to unhealthy relationships. Yet by the end after being magically being ‘cured’ by Yaazhan she says, “I have been separating couples till date, now I will reunite couples”. So, she will ask couples who are cheating on each other to stay together? Why am I even trying to find logic in this absurd story?
It's high time we call out new generation actors for choosing stories that send wrong messages to society or misrepresent professions, minorities, ethnicities, and so on. They have access to any knowledge they want to find at their fingertips. When creators come up with such absurd narratives, they have to be responsible enough to choose them wisely or suggest changes that are necessary. Dulquer Salman, with a very bad hairdo and passive acting, tries to sell off Yaazhan just with his charm and so does Aditi Rao Hydari and Kajal Aggarwal try their best with the sloppy and impossible script. Any of them has zero chemistry with each other and none of the relationships are given time to develop except for a very shoddily captured song montage. Abhishek Kumar is a stand-up comedian I really like and genuinely hope to get better scripts to work on. RJ Vijay, Yogi Babu, and Nakshathra Nagesh are all there as mere plot devices and some as caricaturish portrayals, you all deserved better.
Also, this must be the first album of music director Govind Vasantha which I couldn't connect with. The playlist included a Tamil retake of the band Thaikkudam Bridge’s most popular number, ‘Fish Rock’ which nobody asked for or deserved. Except for a beautiful rendition of Bharathiyar Kavithai and the song ‘Yarissaika’ by Bombay Jayasree who can make anything magical, not one another song stayed with me. Song ‘Thozhi’ felt okayish and maybe the only song that visually assimilated to the narrative. The rest of the songs felt bland just like the movie.
In conclusion, Hey Sinamika did have some interesting plot points which could have been developed into an intense romantic drama like a husband who is comfortable in his masculinity, relationship issues that arise due to personality differences, and coping mechanisms that could have been nurtured with the support of a relationship counseling. Instead, the movie settled for the most stereotypical portrayals, toxic gender role reversals, and misrepresentations, making Hey Sinamika, one of the most annoying watches of 2022.
You can watch Hey Sinamika on Netflix.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments that counts.....