Varisu movie review: Exploitation of emotions, mainly that of women in an archaic set-up still gets its claps, whistles

Cast: Vijay, R Sarathkumar, Jayasudha, Prakash Raj, Rashmika Mandanna, Prabhu Director: Vamshi Paidipally Vijay (Vijay) in a mass moment tells villain Jay Prakash (Prakash Raj) in Varisu that the audience comes to see just one person to the theaters. Actor Vijay is not just your typical male lead in a film, but he is the film. Everything has to come together to bring the star to the fore. Each dialogue, each character’s struggle, their trauma, all of it works towards shining the spotlight on what a woke, and awakened man the lead character is. He may be born into privilege, but he is proud of having got admission into Harvard on a merit basis. He is proud of not having sought his father’s support, but the fact that he didn’t have to worry about his livelihood and had a fairly conducive environment to grown up in is something that he must credit to his father. Let’s set this aside though, The set-up is to show how might strong and yet sensitive this character is. However, the part where the film tries to make it inclusive on hindsight is very manipulative. This is true, especially for the female characters in the film. Case in point, is Vijay’s eldest sister-in-law’s (Sangeetha Krish) life. Her husband Jai Prakash (Srikanth) is having an affair. Forget going as far as divorce, but despite feeling betrayed and cheated, she hesitates to confront him. She worries, and fears what would become of her future, and that of her daughters. These fears are valid, and Vijay tells his sister-in-law that she shouldn’t have to put up with toxic behaviour of any kind. He initially even encourages her to separate, tells her that fear will not outlast happiness that would come from a new life. Now, here is a man with an Ivy League education, who disowned the ways of his father, and separated from his family to stick by his ideals and business ethics. So, there is hope that the film may in fact shed light on the situation of women stuck in unhappy marriages. It may not take the centerstage, but even a side plot inclusion is good progress. Followed by this is Rashmika Mandanna’s character in the present — Meghna. I say present specifically because the film takes the liberty to feel that is okay to body shame her past looks because of her braces and thick glasses. She is a woman who respects herself and her happiness over that of the men in her life. She has a clear idea of the kind of partner that she wants in life, and would even go after it. So despite her initially blink-and-miss dance numbers, you want to give the benefit of the doubt due to her introduction. However, it doesn’t take too long to crash our hopes and dreams. In the next act of the film, Vijay who believed that his mother’s happiness was important, who understood that the women in his family were pushed to kitchens, and only the kitchens, who actively tried to unlearn all of this, changes. The film wants you to believe that he changed for the better. After all, now he is not speaking of separating his sister-in-law and his brother. He doesn’t seek an absolute answer from his mother when he asks, “Are you happy here?” He is now a person who understands the importance of putting family before anything. Toxic father? No problem, just introduce terminal cancer to ensure that the audience can empathise with him. Toxic brothers, who were manipulated by the said toxic father to compete with each other, undermine each other and hurt each other? There is an easy solution for this as well. Ensure that they understand they are nothing without the privilege that they were born into. While in theory it sounds brilliant, and a capitalist getting screwed over in such manner would be a dream come true, the film takes the route of emotionally manipulating audience by using another female character as an object of foil. This time, it is Riya, Vijay’s niece. She is unhappy in her dysfunctional family, seeks comfort and love outside, and gets trapped by a hoodlum who is involved in sex trafficking. Of course, considering that the film glorifies the idea of toxic families and relationships under the garb of filial piety, they wouldn’t have thought that it was possible for a young girl to make the right friends. To develop friendships that were dearer to her than the family. Riya is yet another spoiled, confused woman-child who decides to rebel in the worst possible manner. Why? Because the main character needs to prove a point. To let a woman look smart on screen, as someone who is not ‘given’ the freedom to live life the way she wants, is treated as a sign of emasculation of the main male characters. So she must make mistakes, and the one to correct those is the men, The one to save the women who committed such a sin is also the said men. So despite its very woke build-up, the female perspective in the film is flimsy at best, and horrendous at worst. After all, the girl (who by now appears in nothing but songs and a couple of scenes that establish the male lead’s ‘coolness’ quotient) only gets the boy because she surrenders. She surrenders herself, and the stance she took in favour of the man. She was told that she was too egotistic for rightfully understanding that Vijay is emotionally manipulating her sister into getting back together with his brother. She even calls him out for doing things according to his convenience and if there was ever a moment that rang true in the film, this is the rare one out of the three. This moment is what gets her the label of being an egotist. Women who stand up for one another, and for themselves are deemed tough to deal with. Toxic men on the other hand, just need to spill a little blood in a flight (a moment of truth featuring Vijay’s elder brother Ajay) and sternly contemplate their mistake for not more than few minutes (scene featuring Vijay’s eldest brother). If only this rule applied to women, we bleed every month and may end up gaining a get out of jail free card for toxicity and general mean behaviour. The other two scenes — one with Yogi Babu who sits on the floor, and is naturally joined by Vijay on the floor as well. No airs of that of the master of the house. Not here at least. The other is when Vijay speaks about how toxic families are, and I thought, “What an irony!” In the end, I felt cheated because I clearly fell for the bait, even if it was momentary. If the resounding claps, whistles and cheers in the theater are anything to go by, the nuances of this film’s glorification of putting up with a toxic family is lost on many. Instead, the biggest complaints I have heard is about the film is its length (2 hrs 50 minutes), and very daily soap life feel of the film. Not that they aren’t valid, but they are so used to the subliminal messaging of women treated as nothing but trophies, and belonging in the kitchen that they don’t see a point is calling it out. Varisu is playing in cinemas near you

Priyanka Sundar is a film journalist who covers films and series of different languages with a special focus on identity and gender politics. Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News,  India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.