Freedom Fight movie review: The Great Indian Kitchen’s director presents a solid anthology with a glaring blemish-Entertainment News , Firstpost

Language: Malayalam  

“Jeo Baby Presents…” – can there be a better introduction for an anthology to pan-India viewers while the producer-director’s The Great Indian Kitchen is still fresh in public memory? 

Still, caution is the reflex reaction to anthologies these days since this structure – a bunch of short films on a common theme assembled into a single unit – has been favoured by streaming platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic often with mediocre results. Netflix’s Unpaused [2020] and Unpaused: Naya Safar [2022], both Hindi, have been rare bright sparks on an Indian OTT landscape overrun by bad anths in the past couple of years, with Mani Ratnam’s presentation, Navarasa [2021, Tamil], arguably being the nadir of the lot. 

Cynicism, therefore, is justified, but for now, give it a break. Today belongs to Jeo Baby’s compilation, Freedom Fight [Swathantharya Samaram], featuring shorts by five directors including one by Jeo himself. 

As the title suggests, each story in Freedom Fight is about shackles inflicted on us by society. 

In Geethu Unchained directed by Akhil Anilkumar, the first part of the quintet, Rajisha Vijayan plays the titular protagonist being pressured to marry. Her wishes are irrelevant to her family who are more concerned about what the neighbours will say. 

Kunjila Mascillamani’s Asanghadithar [The Unorganised] is based on a true story of a crusade by women salespersons in Kerala shops to get easy access to toilets during work hours. Srindaa stars as one among these unlikely activists. 

In Francies Louis’ Ration, Kabini H is a middle class stay-at-home wife and mother on friendly terms with her financially well-off neighbour. Despite the evident affection between them, the variance in their circumstances becomes a cause of stress for the leading lady one day, while her husband [played by Jeo Baby] and daughter remain largely unaffected. 

Jeo directs Old Age Home, in which Joju George stars as a man coming to terms with dementia. His ailment places a strain on his wife [Lali PM] who is unfairly judged for her response to his decline. Rohini is the domestic worker with whom both spouses form a relationship of trust. 

Bringing up the rear is Pra.Thoo.Mu., the saga of a poor sanitation worker [Unni Lalu] who clashes with an oppressive politician [Sidhartha Siva].

Pra.Thoo.Mu. is a misfit in Freedom Fight. Caste remains a sad reality even in India’s most literate state, but it is just as true that the state has made far more progress on this front than most others. It therefore defies believability that a Malayali politician with the media just a stone’s throw away – not a random wealthy individual but a person in the public eye, a minister in the Kerala government no less – would so openly do what the antagonist here does with impunity. Compare Pra.Thoo.Mu. with the convincing scenario in Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s stunning Ozhivudivasathe Kali [An Off-Day Game, 2016].

The over-stylisation of Pra.Thoo.Mu’s narrative, a penchant for hyperbole, exaggerated acting and overall loudness in contrast with the understatedness of the other shorts in Freedom Fight make matters worse. There is no subtlety in the characterisation, and a caste atrocity is used more as a tool to build suspense than as an organic element in the story. The act of cruelty inflicted on Unni Lalu’s character is designed for shock value rather than building empathy. 

*Spoiler alert* Even the acronym in this short’s title – its full form translates to “The Emperor Has An Urge To Shit” – is pretentious. *Spoiler alert ends*

Jithin Issac Thomas’ filmmaking has evolved since he debuted with Attention Please, but the evolution is in the area of packaging, not an understanding of the social landscape he explores. In fact, Pra.Thoo.Mu’s lustrous visuals end up objectifying the lower-caste protagonist. 

Kunjila Mascillamani has shot Asanghadithar almost like a reality show about a women’s collective. The acting and her own storytelling style are so natural that she transports a viewer to the crowded streets where the women work and live. 

The realism of this segment and Kunjila’s sense of humour in this grim scenario are enchanting enough that it matters not when an obvious non-actor like real-life activist Viji Palithodi enters the picture playing herself. The only jarring moment in this short comes in the ageist comments aimed at an older ally – while it is true that ageism is not fiction, what is disappointing here is that the film employs it for comedic effect, which is especially noticeable coming as it does in the midst of such remarkably feminist progressiveness. 

Srindaa is lovely as an ordinary woman forced into activism because she is – it sounds bizarre when stated in black and white – desperate to pee. She does not have lofty-sounding goals, and the essence of Asanghadithar is that even the tiniest of rights in this world have been gained through hard-fought battles that seem ridiculous in retrospect once those rights have been granted to oppressed communities – and taken for granted by younger generations. 

Equally impactful is the way Old Age Home sticks out its neck to challenge Indian society’s view of elder care as the duty and obligation of spouses and children, even if that now-helpless person was a jerk in their healthier years or a decent person who had a troubled relationship with those now compelled to attend to them under the weight of social expectations. This is another facet of an issue that was examined in Android Kunjappan Version 5.25 in which a son bears the burden of an unpleasant, ageing father. 

Watching Joju George’s child-like deportment in Old Age Home, it is impossible to connect him to the intimidating creep he played in Chola. This fine artiste is getting his due from the Malayalam film industry, but the same cannot be said of his charismatic co-star in Old Age Home, Rohini, or even Srindaa. Why do we not see these women actors more often in more roles as substantial and central as the parts they play in Freedom Fight? 

Ration is enjoyable as a slice of life that smartly spotlights gender disparity prevailing across socio-economic divides, even as one of the two friends in the story struggles to preserve her dignity in the face of the class difference between them.  

Geethu Unchained is notable for highlighting the changes in a man’s attitude in a patriarchal society once he believes a woman is bound to him in a relationship. Rajisha is effectively funny and furious by turns as Geethu, though the point of the film might have been better conveyed if she had not been fashioned as somewhat of an eccentric. 

Freedom Fight is perhaps the closest that an anthology can get to being consistent. Despite variations in quality, each of these films succeeds in either raising an uncomfortable question or pointing the viewer towards discomfiting truths usually swept under the carpet. It is far from being perfect and Pra.Thoo.Mu. is decidedly problematic, but in its entirety, Freedom Fight is the best among the stream of anthologies that have dropped on OTT platforms since 2020. 

Freedom Fight is streaming on SonyLIV.

Rating: ***1/2 

Anna M.M. Vetticad is an award-winning journalist and author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. She specialises in the intersection of cinema with feminist and other socio-political concerns. Twitter: @annavetticad, Instagram: @annammvetticad, Facebook: AnnaMMVetticadOfficial