Christmas 1980 came a month after the death of Jayan, a very popular actor in Malayalam cinema. No one was interested in a new film that had released in theatres that day – one of many debuts called Manjil Virinja Pookkal. People preferred watching posthumous Jayan movies, the hero who died doing a daredevil stunt for a movie. But a week later, word got around. The new movie was nothing like they had seen so far in Malayalam – a wild love story with two men and a woman and really beautiful music. Mohanlal, Shankar and Poornima Jayaram were seen on the screen for the first time. The film was directed by a 20-something newcomer called Fazil.
Four decades have rolled by and Fazil has directed 30 more films, slowing down a little in the last two decades. His sons Fahadh and Farhaan became actors in those years. Fahadh, now a very versatile and admired actor, made his debut in his dad’s film – Kai Ethum Doorathu – another love story, a genre Fazil has specialised in. But then he has also quietly done in his prime, what many others haven’t – created films that we’d today appreciatively call 'women-centric'.
Look at three random movies that he made and we loved – Nokkatha Doorathu Kannum Nattu (1984), Ente Sooryaputhrikku (1991), Manich
In Nokkatha Doorathu, Girly (Nadhiya Moidu) speaks about riding a bike, travelling on her own as a 17-year-old and making her own decisions, and we were charmed. Fazil did not simply present his strong women and leave; he built beautiful relationships for them. Girly’s special bond is not with the boy-next-door (that is a small part, Mohanlal gracefully playing the funny Shri) but with her Velyamachi (grandmother, played by Padmini).
Girly is not just super smart, she is also funny, playful, and easily makes friends. Opposite her is another equally strong woman, who has lived by herself for years, reacting sharply to those who make fun of her, not even sparing the kids next door. She doesn’t immediately melt like the stereotypical paavam ammumma, when she meets her grownup granddaughter after years, but remains tough.
Fazil involves you so much in the story that you forget that these characteristics were unusual for women protagonists in 1984. Girly doesn’t even say sorry to Shri when the two have tiffs, at a time when movies routinely presented their ideal women as the all-bearing ones. Velyamachi doesn’t break into tears when she sees her precious granddaughter. Yet, you love them both. You don’t point fingers at them and say ‘hey, women don’t do this’.
By 1991, Fazil decided to be more daring. He created a character who was too out of the way. Maya in Ente Soorya Puthrikku, played by a gorgeous Amala, climbs the walls of her hostel late in the night and sneaks out with her friends, sings songs and is merry. As if that wasn’t enough to prove that she’s a bold young woman, Fazil wrote scenes where she and her friends, for no reason, trouble harmless people for fun. They go to the extent of driving a doctor’s mother away, convincing her that the son is a womaniser. All because he threw them out of the hospital when they were being a nuisance.
Maya has a reason for behaving so unnaturally gung-ho though. A past of abandonment. The relationship Fazil builds here is between Maya and her famous Carnatic musician mother Vasundhara Devi played by Srividya. Neither is apologetic for their behaviour, which is at times, a little annoying. A young woman, depressed about being abandoned by her parents, goes out of her way to drive another’s mother away. We're supposed to think it's amusing because of the background score which implies so. Fazil’s idea of humour doesn't always click, but let’s forgive him that little flaw. After all, he has created so many beautiful stories of women, so many haunting characters.
Ganga. Say haunting and Ganga pops up, Fazil’s most bewitching character. Shobana smiled, Shobana danced, Shobana prowled through the corridors of a scary old house and became Ganga and Nagavalli in Manichithrathazhu. There is Mohanlal in the film, Suresh Gopi too. And a host of other actors including talented ones like Thilakan and Nedumudi Venu. But Manichithrathazhu is Ganga’s movie. Shobana’s movie. The woman who enchanted everyone, even in her madness, especially in her madness.
Fazil moved away from the overly zealous fence-climbing college girl to the more rooted and bold newly married young woman. Ganga is not the kind who talks back to the elders who churn out superstitions she has no interest in. But when she wants to open the forbidden door in the house, she excitedly talks Nakulan (her husband, played by Suresh Gopi) into it and opens locks. She walks fearlessly into the rooms that the rest of the household had not dared to go to. She reads a lot. The kind of boldness that needn’t be exhibited like Maya’s. It’s just there, no big deal.
Nagavalli on the other hand is revengeful. That kind of ghostly revenge is one Malayalis are used to. They could easily accept a woman ghost who is short-tempered, hurts men, avenges the injustice done to her and in short, has no qualities of the ideal Indian woman. It is okay for a woman to behave like a regular human after she's dead, but not when she's a breathing person of this world. Fazil knew this, so he went wild with Nagavalli, or at least Ganga’s idea of Nagavalli. As Nagavalli, she could throw things at elderly people (who had in fact been offensive to Ganga), she could scare random men, she could shout at her husband and even try to kill him. It’s a ghost, it’d be forgiven. It is at the end of the movie that Fazil throws in the surprise: no, it is not a ghost, it is split personality. By then, you are so floored by the story, you embrace all of it wholeheartedly.
Love stories
Even in his specialised area of love stories, women can be strong and dominating. In Manivathooril Aayiram Shivarathrikal (1987), Suhasini plays the stubborn woman who wouldn’t often listen to reason. She is initially upset when the newly befriended doctor (Mammootty) falls in love with her. And when she returns the love, everything has to be done her way.
It also appears that Fazil likes writing inter-religious relationships. In Manivathoor and in Aniyathipravu (1997), it is Hindu-Christian relationships. But Aniyathipravu has a timid Mini, played by Shalini, making her debut as a grownup after a string of child characters. It is Fazil who introduced her as ‘Baby Shalini’, an adorable three-year-old, in the 1983 Ente Mamattikuttiyammakku. Just like he did with romance, Fazil mastered writing awfully touching child-grownup stories. The couple in Ente Mamattikuttiyammakku adopts a little girl after losing their own in an accident. The woman here (Sangeeta Naik) is adamant at first that she wouldn’t adopt a girl, but ultimately agrees, seeing a heartbroken husband (Bharat Gopy). Tintumol changes their lives. The exchanges between the child and the adults are beautiful, so are the songs. Life throws another shock at them and you can easily see who the stronger partner is. A man as ‘manly’ as Bharat Gopy cannot hold it together till the woman takes things into her hand.
In Poovinu Puthiya Poonthennal (1986), again, Fazil develops a child-guardian relationship when Mammootty, playing a loner, finds an abandoned kid (Baby Sujitha) and the two get very close. Six years later, he would again cast Mammootty as the absentminded dad of a child without a mother in Pappayude Swantham Appoos. Women characters in these movies too are noticeably significant even in their short screen time. Shobana plays the ‘Olathumbathu’ mother to Appoos, a cheerful, funny woman who cannot be taken seriously – it is nice to see different kinds of women represented in such a manner. We can’t all be the same.
It is another mother-son relationship that develops into a crazy obsession for Vineeth’s character in Manathe Vellitheru. After witnessing violence as a child, he grows up to become a self-made man, but with certain inexplicable tendencies. He stalks Malayalam pop star Merlin, played by Shobana, and yet does not seem to have any romantic feelings for her. Shobana and Lakshmi – who plays Vineeth’s mother – play strong characters in the movie, unafraid and taking charge when needed. Fazil uses the love-conquers-all line to settle matters in the end.
Quite a few of these movies were remade in Tamil, and Fazil’s women characters were loved all over again. Cultures are forgotten, stereotypes are broken when you bravely present women with character, and write stories around them. Fazil knew that nearly 40 years ago.