Movie Review - Thappad

The feeling after watching this movie –Thappad……

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★Synopsis

Thappad is directed by Anubhav Sinha and starring Taapsee Pannu. From a strictly visual standpoint, Thappad is Anubhav Sinha’s prettiest movie. The murk and mist of Article 15 has been replaced by the soft hues of upscale Delhi and Noida. Light jazz plays over the opening sequence. City streets, too, are movieed with an inviting, unthreatening glow. Yet thrumming through it all is a tale of irremissible violence, a darkness reinforced and not softened by the surface beauty.

This is the story of Vikram (Pavail Gulati) and Amrita (Taapsee Pannu). At a party, the husband slaps his wife. It brings their marriage crumbling down, though almost everyone is convinced it was a one-off, and that Amrita is being unreasonable in leaving Vikram.

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★The main thought of the movie and the description of the plots

Anubhav Sinha’s Thappad has a one-point agenda that you can’t slap a woman, and expect her to ignore it, and move on. You can’t.

'Thappad' is not just a movie aimlessly ranting about borderline domestic violence; it brings to light the years of conditioning that a woman is subjected to by her own family and the society that she lives in. Other than the aforementioned couple, there are other women in focus, too.

One who is bearing the brunt of a family's name and legacy, one hung up on the idea that marriage is the ultimate destination, one coming from the poorer section of the society who is compelled to believe that getting thrashed by the husband is the norm, and one who has loved and lost a fine husband and is now struggling to find a replacement who outdoes the former. Sinha manages to intertwine all these stories and juxtaposition them with one another at right junctions, without being too in-your-face about it. The subtly works beautifully, as the stark contrast in their lives unfold.

Thappad’s poster crystallises this attitude in four cleverly chosen words: bas itni si baat? – is that all? Most of the people in Anubhav Sinha’s movies, built around a single slap, feel this way too, not least the perpetrator, Vikram (Pavail Gulati). But his wife, Amrita, at the receiving end of the blow, can’t get past it. Amrita is played by Taapsee Pannu, the trauma and fear perpetually on the actor’s face in Pink replaced here by a great sadness. It is clever symbolic casting, a recognition that the difference between the violence in the two movies is only a matter of degree, that even one slap is too many is a logical extension of “no means no".

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Amrita has made peace with this unending routine, but there is a niggling regret for what might have been. She could have been a dancer, professional even, just like her loving father (Mishra) wanted her to be. She has left those dreams behind, just like a dutiful wife and daughter-in-law ought, being content with creating a morning slot of her own–a cup of black tea infused with herbs, and a deep breath at the morning outside– before the day is upon her, with all its demands.

Thappad resonates, as it is meant to. Because the director shows, without mincing any words (sometimes too many, and too explicatory), just how patriarchy is handed down from one generation to another, and how women are equally complicit. After that fateful slap, in full view of family and guests, Amrita responds by self-soothing, and when that doesn’t work, by expecting her own family, including her mother (Shah) and her brother and his girl-friend (Grewal), plus, of course, her father, to be supportive.

No surprise that it is her mother who baulks, and talks about the importance of ‘rishtey nibhana’, and ‘wohi tumhara ghar hai’. After marriage, the ‘maayka’ is no longer the girl’s by right. It is a place where she can visit and stay for a while. A traditional Indian girl in a traditional Indian marriage can never go back home again.

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★Conclusion

The movie takes its own sweet time in expressing the dynamics of Amrita-Vikram's arranged marriage and how the two of them manage to blend in well with each other's financially-imbalanced, yet likeable, families. Sure, Vikram loves his wife, but he has made a monster out of his career goals, which the better half supports and harbours with all her heart. Even before the conflict arises, you can see Taapsee make plans of a 'big blue door' at their future London apartment.

Naturally, when the slap happens, her world turns over and even both sides of the family are divided on what is right, what is wrong and how much is too much, and the protocols of marriage in our Indian setting. Irrespective of various views thrown at her, Amrita resolves to channel the inner fighter in her and stands up for what she truly believes in that even one slap is outrageous and not okay.

On the whole, the most effective parts of the movie are the ones in which we are shown just how women are always being told how to feel, how to keep their feelings in check, how not to give into them. It’s not just Amrita who is dealing with ‘sirf ke thappad hi toh tha’, and how Vikram (the husband) who slaps her is ‘only’ taking out his workplace frustration on her. The movie also pays attention to the other women who are in Amrita’s orbit; how her lawyer (Sarao), and her mother, and mother-in-law have dealt with their own disappointments, and how the maid (Ohlyan), who is routinely beaten by her drunken husband, has le arnt to combat it.