Me too’d
Films in today’s scenario can be described as Pre-Me too (BC) and Post –Me too (AD). Writers and film-makers have shown great intellect and cinematic sensitivity in representing female characters. Films like Anubhav Sinha’s Thappad and Netflix’s Guilty have dealt with the themes of physical & sexual assault and harassment on women in the recent past. A short film by Terribly Tiny Talkies called Suno is easily the standout film in the lot. It is written and directed by Shubham Yogi, it stars actors Amrita Puri and Sumeet Vyas in lead roles, is the best film representative of Me-too! This short also served as an indirect reference and inspiration Taapsee Pannu starrer Thappad.
Suno, opens with Sumeet Vyas busy on his phone as his wife Amrita Puri joins him in the car speaking to herself. He misses her words and queries “You said something? I didn’t hear you,” he remarks casually. The first scene makes an immediate reference to the title of the film Suno, which literally translates to as ‘listen’. He further probes, asking her what the old man enquired about her swollen eye (It is implied that the old man they are speaking of is the doctor). “The I-pad fell on my face,” she remarks nonchalantly and he smirks at her smart excuse. The scene immediately sets tone for the mood of the rest of the short. The scenes playing out in front of you are befuddling. Judging by the inconsequentiality of the characters’ tone of speech, one wonders if they are discussing a domestic abuse situation of the previous night or the sunniness of the weather outside.
In the next scene we see the husband cooking in the kitchen. He is shown to be an ‘urban and liberal metrosexual man’ who wouldn’t mind donning the chef’s hat once in a while to whip up a delicious meal for his beloved wife. The wife tastes the ‘dal’ her husband makes and is about to point faults in it when she immediately retracts and overcompensates by praising her husband’s excellent cooking skills. Neighbors, friends, colleagues…everyone has been enquiring about her ‘swollen eye’. The wife has been fielding off worrisome questions with inconsequential defenses, but the desperation to discuss this matter with anyone who is willing to hear is getting obvious.
She even asks him if he isn’t bothered at all that her colleagues think he is a wife-beater to which he casually flicks his tongue and immediately labels the matter as trivial! The wife too joins him in the mockery as they smile together. As an audience, you graduate from feeling confused to conflicted. The husband seems like ‘a perfectly nice man’, while the wife who seems to be discussing the ‘swollen eye’ with all and sundry, doesn’t seem traumatized enough to be pigeon-holed as a victim. He even offers her excuses to fend off queries, “Say we indulged in some wrestling and that is how you got hurt.”
The matter hardly remains settled, in fact the wife’s restlessness is multiplying ten- folds as multiple people are asking her if she’s okay and if her husband actually beats her or not. I personally like how they make use of muffled voices to portray ‘people’ instead of actually showing people. “Log kya kahenge” (What will people say?) is a popular adage in the Indian society where every individual is concerned about maintaining a dignified reputation in the society , so as to not allow people any chance to discuss private matters behind one’s back. The voices concerning the wife’s ‘swollen eye incident’ range from reason, to worry, to curiosity and to admonishment.
Bang in the middle of the story, confusion and conflict turn into clarity and reality. Like an onion peeling itself to reveal its core, the plot starts to unravel itself. She discusses meeting one of their neighbors Mrs Davar who has invited her to a ‘Support Group Meeting’ for victims of domestic violence and abuse. It is evident that she is anxious. She informs him that people at her workplace think he is an abusive husband to which he expresses his surprise that the Chinese whispers of the past haven’t settled yet! She reveals she is surprised too and doesn’t know how to shut off the ensuing Chinese whispers. Her husband buries himself in his work clearly not listening to her again.
In the next scene she informs him that she attended the support group meeting. He is shocked and berates her for not informing him before hand to which she says she did but he didn’t listen. She describes a shocking case of sexual assault and proceeds to put bottles of pepper spray on her bedside table, “You never when things go out of hand” she says matter-of-factly. Visibility acts as a deterrent she explains calmly.
She eventually confesses that she did reveal that she was physically and sexually assaulted by her husband ‘that experimental night’. He is enraged and aggressively holds her and demands that she never meet those women again. She demands why to which he replies “because I’m your husband’. He tries to intimidate her and declares that ‘she is not one of them and that he would never hurt her’ to which she replies confidently “Don’t touch me, you are hurting me”.
As the end credits roll, it hits you that this is an exceptional short. The husband is shown to have no regard for women and often refer to them as ‘Pagal aurat’ (mad woman). He is your average, entitled Indian man who puts on a farcical face of ‘equality and empowerment’, when in reality he wants women to be secondary to men. The wife, on the other hand is deeply conditioned to behave like the ‘Ideal Indian wife’, to defend her husband’s wrongdoings by constantly reprimanding well-wishers by remarking “You know how these middle-aged aunties are ya.” When we first meet her, we notice her ‘normalcy’. That is because she is in denial when in reality she is a victim of domestic and sexual abuse in the hands of her husband. The support from other women gives her strength to face her own demons (read: husband) as she finally makes him listen to her.
It is an outstanding short film, perfectly embodying the agenda behind the Me-too movement, the collective moral support women can offer one another, the importance of sensitizing men to become gentler and kinder human beings and why the institution of patriarchy is detrimental to the positive growth of the society as a whole.