Two families mobilize their forces in a colorful Ape (the marketing department of Piaggio will be pleased to see an impressive number of people comfortably travelling in it) and a tagging motorcycle to make sure that “the adamant” 21-year-old Meena (Anna Ben) gets purified at a holy site, and additionally exorcized by a seer to change her refusal to marry the impertinent, larger than life and physically abusive Pandi (Tamil film industry superstar Soori Muthuchamy). The arranged marriage has to take place at any cost, but Meena does not react to any of threats or attempts at conversation. She is dealing with all that hullabaloo with stubborn silence and passive participation in spiritual rituals she is dragged to like a sack of green potatoes.
The Adamant Girl is screening at Berlin International Film Festival
“The Adamant Girl”, P.S.Vinothraj's bitter drama sprinkled with dark humor, is the first film in Tamil language to have its world premiere at the Berlinale Forum, but it is also the first of the kind from the region screened at this A-lister that can be labelled as largely feminist, as it pretty much focuses on gender expectations in the Tamil rural community. In the script for his sophomore movie, the Indian filmmaker continues to explore the weight of patriarchal upbringing where he stopped with his highly anticipated debut “Pebbles” from 2021. Similarly to “Pebbles”, this is a road trip involving a woman who ‘needs to be brought to her senses' by extreme methods, but the situation and the character study are fresh and differently dealt with.
Vinothraj is presenting the story with long shots, letting things happen in front of the lens, observing reactions or the lack of them to create an atmosphere of uncertainty and mystery. The reasons for Meena's resistance to enter the marriage with Pandi are just speculations, and they span from the presumption that she must have a crush on a college colleague, over sheer arrogance, to the belief that educated girls bring only trouble. This is at least what one of Pandi's sisters Rani thinks and saying out loud, before advising him to break the girls' limbs and marry her. She is also not happy that intense beatings the girl was subjected to for 15 day straight didn't bring fruit. Here's is a brief explanation of why the patriarchy isn't that easy to abolish, because it also finds its supporters among the oppressed gender.
“We've no choice but to obey. This is our fate for having given birth to a girl child”, says Meena's father to his teary and equally silent wife, who is at the verge of a breakdown. Her body language and lack of words indicate sympathy for the daughter whose fiancè doesn't inspire confidence. She doesn't resist, though. She is also tagging along, miserable and uncertain how to react.
“The Adamant Girl” doesn't suffer from its 100 minute length as it offers plenty of details that keep the interest burning. It also succeeds in peeling off multiple layers of the hard shell of patriarchy. Its humor is as heavy as the story itself, and many spectators won't be happy that a rooster or two suffer the same pain as Meena. But, at the end of the day, Vinothraj isn't trying to embellish life. His movie calls for empathy and understanding which would be impossible to achieve dealing with heavy-weight topics wearing white gloves.
