Reality, they say, depends on who is trying to make sense of it. For many individuals living the fiction of a ‘happy marriage’, embracing their reality comes at the cost of losing everything, even the ones they love. But despite 20 years of living a helpless lie, Mathew Devassy (Mammootty) and Omana (Jyothika) forge an enduring companionship with each other in Kaathal - The Core, Jeo Baby’s audacious film on human reconciliations.
If Jeo’s much acclaimed Great Indian Kitchen had a female protagonist who wanted to free herself of an unequal marriage, Kaathal’s Omana stays back for two decades with Mathew, to finally break out so that she can free not only herself, but also her husband, from the turbulence of his double life.
Kaathal opens with a mass at a church in Kerala’s Teekoy village, where the priest asks forgiveness for those who falter. We see a composed Mathew and Omana, who do not walk back home together after church. What seems like an inconsequential lack of chemistry between a couple that has long endured each other and raised a now college-going daughter, slowly snowballs into a court case, as Omana files for divorce. Mathew, who is all set to contest the local by-election, is shaken because his wife alleges cruelty in the marriage, accusing him of denying her physical needs and hiding his homosexuality.
What follows is a moving exploration of the personal, which also becomes political, in a society where ‘public image’ and ‘moral abidance’ form the crux of vote conversion in elections.
Mathew is an independent candidate for the CRP, a visually obvious leftist political party. Though Jeo Baby infuses a subtle criticism of Kerala’s political left by accusing them of “pandering to faith and morality for regional traction”, and even tokenising a gay man for brownie points, his focus is on Mathew’s emotional compulsions that closet him into a seemingly never-ending pretence. Biblical verses are a recurring presence in the plot, slowly and steadily prodding whether god is indeed love, as is taught to us.
Courtroom scenes are the strength of Kaathal, where many references are made to the dichotomous realities of gay individuals stuck in heterosexual marriages for social acceptance. In a particular sequence, when Mathew’s lawyer (a brilliant, striking Chinu Chandini) cites how he is a well-loved, respectable man, and asks Omana whether he has ever behaved violently, her counsel (Muthumani) asks, “Do you mean to say gay men are incapable of respect and compassion?” This and many other exchanges like this make a pointed commentary on social and systemic misconceptions about queer lives, also underlining the Supreme Court’s observation in the recent marriage equality hearings that queerness is not an urban, elitist issue. Actors Chinnu Chandini and Muthumani hold these scenes up in all their gravitas with natural, assertive performances.
But the heart of Kaathal, undoubtedly, is the journey of Mathew and Omana, and the heartbreaking dignity with which they help each other out of their predicaments. In a pivotal moment in the film, reminiscent of the 2022 Arabic language drama The Blue Caftan directed by Maryam Touzani where an ailing wife holds her homosexual husband to her chest, assuring him that love is strength and not sin, Omana asks Mathew to lie next to her for one more night before she moves out. She is unfazed by the coercions of her family and society in her decision to divorce Mathew. But even as she makes the most tumultuous choice of her life, she is tender, summoning all her love for Mathew as she frees him from himself more than anyone else.
For a viewer of today’s times, especially a woman, Omana’s contained chaos does raise the question of whether women must always shroud their frustrations in acceptable dignity for the sake of others. But Jyothika manoeuvres Omana’s quiet turbulence with such vulnerable grace that she transforms a tale of separation into a love story that even long-standing, functional couples can sometimes only aspire to have.
Mammootty, whose production company has also bankrolled the film, though detached in his performance in the first half, comes into his element in scenes where he opens up to Omana, his daughter, and his father. By the time the film ends, his performance reiterates that cinema must be watched with the heart, for emotions are the truest paths to understanding the self. The megastar also deserves a word of appreciation for headlining and backing a film like Kaathal, which many may consider a financial and thematic gamble.
Another important yet lesser-explored character in the film is that of Thankan, a conflicted and lonely man played by Sudhi Kozhikode. Thankan brings out the inevitable human helplessness of having to fit into the mandates of a rather unforgiving society. Anagha Ravi as Femi, Mathew and Omana’s daughter, is memorable, and so is the supporting cast, including Joji John as Tommy, Mathew’s brother-in-law, and the endearing PS Panicker who plays Mathew's father.
Adarsh Sukumaran and Paulson Skaria’s writing is tight, though some scenes feel like an attempt to deliberately make a statement within an otherwise smooth-sailing tapestry of emotions. But considering the relevance of the subject, such deliberations seem necessary.
Cinematographer Salu K Thomas compliments the understated drama of the narrative and Mathews Pulickan’s music elevates the film’s looming sense of pathos.
Love is perhaps the most used, even overused emotion, sold to us through religion, literature, and popular culture. It is at once private, public, and political, an equalising concept that insists on dignity for everyone. But keeping up the promise of love in relationships is often a revolutionary endeavour that involves more giving than gaining, a journey only the brave can endure. Jeo Baby’s film is a brave story of love that is more freeing than forbidding.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the film’s producers or any other members of its cast and crew.