“I do not have the privilege to choose only the films that align with my politics,” actor Kani Kusruti said in an interview after she returned from Cannes, where her film All We Imagine as Light, directed by Payal Kapadia, won the prestigious Grand Prix award. The actor’s comments came after a controversy surrounding the politics of Biriyaani, which won her a state award in 2020, resurfaced after images of her carrying a watermelon bag in solidarity with Palestine at Cannes became viral.
Several social media users contested that Kani’s show of solidarity to Palestine was “hypocritical” as her film Biriyaani was allegedly Islamophobic. Earlier, the film’s director Sajin Baabu had faced criticism from sections of the Muslim community for allegedly normalising Muslim men joining the terror outfit ISIS and exaggerating the prevalence of female genital mutilation (FGM) among Muslims in Kerala. A few people also criticised the movie for catering to the male gaze and called it “a voyeuristic take on Muslim women”.
Speaking to Manorama News, Kani said she had agreed to do Biriyaani despite having expressed disagreements with its director over the film’s politics, primarily due to financial difficulties. “I had told Sajin that neither my politics nor aesthetics were aligned with the script. Sajin comes from a backward Muslim community and speaks his politics, which is correct in its own right. But that is not my politics,” she said.
Revealing that she had turned down an audition call for The Kerala Story director Sudipto Sen’s next film, Kani said she would reject films that do not align with her politics if the circumstances were favourable.
Kani said that there is a lot of talent among Malayalam filmmakers and that she hoped more directors from the industry would call her for auditions as she has not received a lot of opportunities in Malayalam cinema. “I would appreciate it if I were at least given the chance to audition before I am denied the role,” she said, adding that she gets more calls for audition from Hindi than in Malayalam.
“You [the interviewer] asked why I am not part of more Malayalam films. I can only do films that come to me. If I do not get employment, I will again have to choose films that do not align with my politics,” Kani said.
When asked for her comment on the ongoing debate over the absence of substantial women characters in Malayalam cinema, Kani said that she believes women characters should be written only if there was a need for it in the script. However, she added, “It is relevant to ask if an industry that produces over 200 films every year writes interesting women characters or if they are written with a male gaze. I believe it is pertinent to ask why, in an industry with such good writers, interesting women characters are not written or the stories do not include such characters. When there is a lack of characters of different genders and age groups despite the large number of films, I believe it does point to the lack of something.”
Elaborating on why she carried the watermelon bag at the red carpet in Cannes, Kani pointed out that the Cannes red carpet also saw other actors expressing solidarity to different causes and she was not the only one. “There were many people who wore badges and different kinds of accessories to show their solidarity to different issues, not just Palestine. They addressed issues like violence against women in workspaces, low wages of workers in Cannes, and many more. I had decided that I should carry something in solidarity with Palestine,” she said.
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