Freedom Fight’s Asangadithar and Prajapathiku Thooran Muttiyapol: On the politics of human excreta

Human physique waste is one thing everybody feels is essentially the most disgusting factor to debate. Unless you’re an outdated and anxious character like Bhaskor, performed by Amitabh Bachchan in Piku, who all the time analyses his shit. We don’t normally see motion pictures that debate human excreta as a theme apart from it getting used for some pointless humour. However, within the newest Malayalam film Freedom Fight, an anthology, two promising and younger administrators have really painted a uncooked and highly effective image of the politics round human physique waste. The motion pictures Asangadithar (Unorganised), directed by Kunjila Mascillamani, and Prajapathiku Thooran Muttiyapol (When the king needed to shit), directed by Jithin Issac, are two segments from the anthology Freedom Fight which may displace viewers from their consolation zone as a result of it’s uncompromising narratives.
If Asangadithar is a docu fiction that realistically narrates a historic protest led by ladies employees led by Viji Palathod, a tailor-turned-activist who was named within the BBC’s checklist of 100 influential ladies, for the best to urinate and bathroom for ladies in unorganised work sectors in Kozhikode district, Jithin’s Prajapathiku Thooran Muttiyapol is a closely fictionalised film that exhibits the plight of a handbook scavenger and the privilege of a minister.
“I was doing a documentary named Asangadithar based on the movement led by Viji Palithodi for the urgent need of toilets for the unorganised women working in Kozhikode Mittayitheruvu. The editing work of that project was ongoing. It was during that time Jeo Baby contacted me, sharing his idea of doing an anthology. So I decided to fictionalise the documentary I was doing. I actually recreated everything for the movie and haven’t used any footage from the original documentary I was working on,” mentioned Asangadithar director Kunjila Mascillamani. Jithin Issac was on Jeo’s radar for the reason that former’s first film Attention Please was chosen for final yr’s IFFK (International movie Festival of Kerala) and it was extensively mentioned within the competition circuit. “Since watching The Great Indian Kitchen, I wanted to meet Jeo. And he also has heard about Attention Please. So he contacted me sharing his idea to do an anthology and asked me to develop content as per my wish,” mentioned Jithin.

Asangadithar is a film that discusses the morality side and well being issues confronted by ladies in the case of the inevitable human have to urinate. Some of the scenes within the film painting the difficulties confronted by ladies who don’t have any rest room facility within the locations they work and have to carry their urinary urges throughout lengthy working hours. There’s one scene within the film the place the character performed by Srinda has to hold a plastic bottle to her work place daily simply in order that she will relieve herself. These are some unimaginably trustworthy scenes which present the plight of girls in oppressive working situations. “I think those scenes are really important to show because that was the real situation experienced by women working in unorganised sector in small shops. I created such scenes after taking testimonies from women who went through such experiences. So to do justice to their real life experience, I had to shoot it as such,” mentioned Kunjilla.
On the opposite hand, Jithin makes use of extremely dramatised model to point out the discrimination and plight of handbook scavengers in his film. Many scenes particularly the one the place the minister’s character performed by Siddharth Siva makes use of a handbook scavenger’s head as a closet to quench his ‘revenge’ is a tough look ahead to light-hearted viewers. “See the subject we chose is disturbing. The people who clean septic tanks are not allowed inside our homes or even near us and I wanted to present that discrimination through our movie,” mentioned Jithin. “There’s a poem sung by the minister’s character to sadistically ridicule manual scavengers which roughly translates into: ‘in a world where one feels disgusted to touch their own shit, how great are the people who carry the shit of other people.’ That’s the attitude of privileged people seeing the lives of people engaged in manual scavenging. I wanted to expose this sadistic hypocrisy among us,” he added. On using black and white frames for the film, Jithin mentioned, “We have used black and white for two reasons. Firstly, to tone down the disgusting element and secondly to show the contrast of black and white. White is often associated with purity and is often the dress code of our politicians while black is historically used for impure objects. But the movie clearly shows how polluted are the minds of people who cover themselves in white like the politicians we see”.
Another attention-grabbing factor about Asangadithar was the casting of Viji Palithodi as herself within the film. A activist at coronary heart, Viji was on the forefront of many actions in Mittayitherivu (a serious avenue buying centre in Kozhikode district, Kerala).”Viji chechi has acted in certainly one of my quick movies titled Pathu. So I do know her from means earlier than this film. Even the documentary I used to be engaged on was largely primarily based on Viji chechi’s work. I couldn’t think about anybody else taking part in that character. As she already labored with me in a brief movie, I went forward together with her on this film additionally, and she or he didn’t hesitate,” mentioned Kunjilla.
On the analysis carried out within the discipline of handbook scavenging, Jithin observes that most individuals working as handbook scavengers in Kerala have Tamil roots. “They just see it as a profession. But what I understand is if they say we won’t do this job anymore, all of us will have to find another way to clean our septic tanks. Think about it before turning your face against them in haste next time,” mentioned Jithin.