Known for his long-winded stories about people in cinema, Malayalam actor Mukesh would, the moment he got a microphone, narrate what he construes are funny episodes featuring his co-workers. But these days, the actor, normally a wordsmith with wit, does not seem all that keen to break into speech. Chased across towns by certain media, Mukesh will, if they get hold of him, have to answer why he has figured in a new police case of sexual assault, and why despite the allegation he has not relinquished his post as an elected CPI(M) legislator of Kerala. Other than making a vague claim that the woman was a blackmailer and that he had proof of this, Mukesh has not gone into lengthy details, as is his wont.
The allegations against Mukesh, made by a junior artist after the release of the Hema Committee report about the issues in the Malayalam film industry, brought back to the minds of many Mukesh’s often distasteful anecdotes and remarks about women, all ‘for laughs’. One of his stories, repeated in more than one public forum, concerned senior actor Jayabharathi. He’d go into detail about a card game that ‘Bharathi chechi’, he, and a few others had played once, during which she’d won a five rupee coin that she put into her blouse. “Everyone wanted that coin after that,” he’d say, pointing dramatically to where the coin had been. Then with a smirk he’d add that he was the one who won it from her while others would offer him bribes for it.
Another video clip that is now being shared has Mukesh attending a television programme and making a comment about a woman on the stage who was wearing a long red dress. After saying that it reminded him of the long red curtains in film theatres in the old days, he hummed a tune that used to be played when the curtains were finally raised. Then, with his characteristic modulation meant for the punchline, he added, “I wonder what will happen if that music is played now.”
Each time, his ‘jokes’ appear to work, with those sitting with him – women and men – bursting into laughter. The issue is not even about political correctness, when he actually names the women in question, who, if present – and the woman in red was – might feel the blood drain from their face while being forced to act casual about it.
The actor’s books that go by the keywords ‘Mukesh kathakal’ have a number of such episodes, where he jots down in crude detail stories of women, trying to make a joke out of it. The man does have a way with words and you cannot blame those who laugh on hearing his tales – it might take time to realise why it is offensive. He gives the right pauses, lets the moment sink in. He also laughs at himself, the blunders he’s made. Unfortunately, when it comes to women, there is, to use a Malayalam lingo, ‘no bell or brake’, he goes out of control. It’s not the same, sharing an ‘adult joke’ in the company of close friends and narrating it publicly, especially when it concerns real people.
In the book Mukesh Kathakal Veendum, he writes about making up stories about getting a chance opposite a Bengali actor to impress a friend, boasting that “she sent me pictures of her wearing only her knickers”. In another chapter, he writes about a director who told him that he’d sleep happily if he knew [the late renowned actor] Sreedevi was in the next room because she was anyway unreachable, but that he’d be sleepless if he knew it was a junior artist next door. Mukesh, by way of the director’s anecdote, pretty plainly reveals the power equations that exist in cinema, albeit without meaning to.
Yet another long anecdote in the book is from his college days when he heard of a fight between two young women in a hostel who ended up biting sensitive parts of each other. In a disturbingly sleazy account, he goes on to write about making calls to each of these women, pretending to be the other’s lover and then asking about the bitten parts.
An old interview of Mukesh’s former wife and renowned actor Saritha, doing the rounds now, about the alleged domestic abuse she faced from him is also not helping his image at the moment.
It is doubtful if Mukesh even realises his ‘jokes’ are problematic, having always been lauded for his quick wit and narration skills. Why not, he must think, I’m getting the laughs, everyone seems to be enjoying it. Not just Mukesh, that’s the kind of thinking that’s prevalent among many even today, even after waves of awareness have done the rounds. Further fixing the ideas are movies of the past that would pass belittling passages about women for comedy. Mukesh, conditioned in a patriarchal world like others of his generation, has also been part of such movies. But then he has also played the good samaritan and the idealist in many others.
One worries about the sense of entitlement of the men who can, even in public, make dirty jokes at the expense of women and get away with it too.