#films
Lekhayute Maranam – Oru Flash Back.
Film review by Gita Aravamudan published in The Illustrated Weekly of India, in March 1984.
Lekhayudai Maranam Oru Flashback (The Death of Lekha… A Flashback) a Malayalam film by K G George is an unexpectedly sensitive film. The story, which is an essentially sad and ugly one of exploitation, has been dealt with in such a polished manner… without a single sordid scene… that it stands quite apart from the normal run of cinema.
Lekha kicked up quite a lot of dust even before it was released as it was rumoured to be based on the true life story of Shobha, the young actress, who took her own life soon after winning a national award. Director George, however, said that his film has only tried to show the pressures on the life of a young girl who becomes a successful actress. He begins the film with a ‘documentary’showing the funeral of Lekha with surging crowds and a constellation of film stars and raises the question: ‘Why should a beautiful, young girl, rich and at the height of her career as an actress, choose to take her own life?’ The ‘flashback’ then narrates the events leading to this final act.
Lekha is the screen name of Shanthamma, a teenager, who is brought from a village in Kerala to Madras by her parents. Her mother Visalakshi, a still attractive woman in her thirties, is ambitious and a doer. She wants above all to make her pretty young daughter a film star. At the beginning of the film, Shanthamma is just a pretty face…a girl- woman whose every action is decided for her by her mother. It is interesting to note here that Visalakshi is not portrayed as a harpy. At that point of time, she is just a woman who is not easily thwarted. She clings to Madras like a limpet, sending her no-good husband back to the village when she finds that a ‘father’ is more a liability than an asset to an aspiring starlet. She sells her mangalsutra to pay the rent and prostitutes herself as well as her daughter with the same kind of undramatic determination which characterises all her actions. And, so the two women stay on in Madras, eking out a middle-class living on their earnings till the much coveted bit part comes their way.
The film then traces Lekha’s climb upwards. She becomes a sucessful heroine, but still remains her mother’s girl… a young woman whose success has only tied her more tightly to the woman who created her. The turn comes when Lekha, against her mother’s advice decides to take the lead role in a film made by an avant-gade director. By this time, her house is full of relatives who have ‘rediscovered’ her. Her mother has turned into a tough manager and is also busy constructing a palatial residence for the family. Lekha, drifts into an affair with her director, after winning an award for her performance. Although she knows that he has a wife and son in Bangalore he has told her about them-she moves in with him into a house in the suburbs of Madras.
Although her lover calls their relationship just an ‘adjustment’,the love-starved young girl thinks that she has found a permanent anchor. She cuts off all ties with her family and only reluctantly goes back to work when her frantic directors come and persuade her. She is so happy in her new world. not even worried by the probing journalists who come to ask her about her marriage. But, inevitably, the wife. and child appear one day on the doorstep and her lover goes home with them. And, so it is that her parents, when they come rushing to take Lekha home, having heard of the break-up of her affair, find her swinging from the fan.
The story of Lekha is played out against a beautifully sculpted backdrop of the film industry. They are all there… the sets, the makeup room, the gossip writers, the dance teachers, the pimps and the producers. Lekha comes in contact with sleezy producers who want to handle the goods. She is given a boost by Krishna Das, the top ranking commercial hero who is businesslike and status conscious… not particularly unkind, just indifferent.
Coming out of the film, inevitably. I thought of an interview I had had with Hema Malini when her daughter Esha was just a few months old. She did not then want to talk of her ‘marriage’ and when I asked her why she became a film star, she said, Don’t ask me, ask her and pointed to her mother sitting on the next sofa. Hema, tough and brittle around the edges… none of that famous baby girl softness I had heard about… ‘married to a much-married, hard drinking superstar seemed to me the epitome of ‘personal’ failure. And at remark she made, stuck with me for a long time.”I was just a kid when I entered the industry.” she said, “I became a woman only when I learned to take my own decisions.”
Like Lekha. The tragic story of Lekha seemed to be different only in degree… not in terms of motivation. The exploitation of nascent womanhood, not by callous strangers, but by people who supposedly love and care, is more dramatically shattering than more obvious acts of discrimination. It raises yet again the questions feminists all over the world are asking about a woman’s priorities, her moral values and her needs.
To Lekha, inured to selling her body, marriage has no sanctity.She is therefore quite shocked when her lover asks her: “How can I not return to my wife and child when they call me? But, if you are interested in continuing our adjustment, I will be back next week.” Because to her, the liaison is no longer at an impersonal level. She might have entered it without moral compunctions, but it has become her means of salvation. Perhaps. Lekha would have been, happier as Shanthamma, cooking meals and caring for a family. But having become Lekha, there was no going back.
George’s handling of the character of Lekha while sympathetic, is in a way rather horrifying, because of its inherent truth. As so many women artistes dancers and actresses in particular-have found time and time again, a career which calls for a lot of physical and emotional input, sours every man-woman relation- ship on which they embark. It leaves very little time for ‘womanly’ care. And, while a man in a similar position can take for granted his wife’s dedication and tolerance of his infidelities, a woman cannot. Young cinematographer Shaji has managed to capture this mood of the film with his sensitive camerawork. Lekhayudai Maranam.. is an interesting portrayal of two women caught in a no-win situation. A film, which feminists should focus on because it brings home a point with- out getting vulgar or emotional.
Lekhayude Maranam – Oru Flashback.
Directed by KG George
Produced by Sathru International.
Starring Subha, Nalini, Mammootty and Gopi.
