Revisiting Classics - Marupadiyum

Introduction:

Could there be a masterpiece that deals with marital infidelity in a mature and subtle manner? If you have this question in mind, then all you need to do is watch Marupadiyum, a classic masterpiece by Mr. Balu Mahendra. Balu Mahendra, always known for portraying human emotions in the most realistic manner, has given yet another savoury to the table of cinema. Written with just six characters, Marupadiyum is truly a testament to the skilful narration of Mahesh Bhatt, and the fact that good stories need not necessarily be filled with numerous characters. The movie portrays the life of Thulasi Murali Krishnan, a devoted home-maker, beautifully portrayed by Actress Revathi. Actor Ravi, more prominently known as Nizhalgal Ravi, plays the role of Murali Krishnan, a-not-so-successful film director who is underpaid and struggling to make the ends meet. Thulasi's long time wish is to own a house and call it hers'. Her wish does come true, but alongside comes another news that shatters her: Her husband's extra-marital affair. 

This obviously leads to a riff-raff between them, making Murali Krishnan to stay with Kavitha, an actress in Murali's directorial movie. After this fateful event, Thulasi calls her childhood friend, who lives close by, who just upon hearing Thulasi's voice understands her situation and rushes to her help. Major highlights around this timeline of the plot include a scene where Kavitha and Murali Krishnan are discussing. This is where we see the magic of Balu Mahendra. Murali, instinctively calls Kavitha as Thulasi, which enrages Kavitha, who already suffers from Hysteria. The scene and the meaning it holds beneath are difficult to be missed. 

Kavitha's Resolve:

One other scene is when Thulasi calls Kavitha and pleads her to leave her life, as her husband is her only family. Kavitha, who with no answer in hand, abruptly cuts the call. Though appearing to be in hatred against Thulasi, Kavitha, portrayed by Rohini, expresses dilemma through her body language and emotions. Certain things are best explained when not said, such is the way Kavitha's reply is explained in this scene. 

One of the most influential scenes of this movie include when Murali Krishnan discloses the fact to Thulasi, that the new house they are living in was bought with the money earned by Kavitha. Upon hearing this we see Thulasi, who had always harboured a desire to own a house, walk out of the same. The Director throws light upon the nature of Thulasi, where she values her self respect more than her desires. There is also one another instance, when Thulasi is forced to comply to the desires of a company's head for a favour, but even which she very boldly refuses. Her friend in a PG, who confesses herself to be one of those girls who comply to favours, mentions that no girl does this with a full heart. This is where the director shows us two different shades of perceiving reality. One other main character of the movie is Thulasi's House maid, who is accused of murdering her alcoholic husband for drinking away the money she had collected for her daughter's schooling.

As the movie progresses, we are introduced to Gowri Shankar, a musician who turns out to be a well-wisher for Thulasi and offers her a job at his concern. The relationship between them grows and blossoms as Gowri proposes to marry Thulasi. However, Thulasi refuses the offer stating that she still hopes to reconcile with her husband. This shows the affirmation Thulasi has towards her husband and her marriage. However, Murali Krishnan is no where close to realising his flaws and even gets divorce papers signed from Thulasi, upon the hysterical requests of Kavitha. Thulasi immediately signs the papers and when asked why so, she replies simply saying that when minds don't align, there is no use in contesting in courts. 

The Face-Offs:

As the movie progresses, Kavitha's mother visits Thulasi and speaks of her daughter's mental state. She mentions that Kavitha suffers from delusions which makes her feel insecure towards Murali Krishnan. She also insists Thulasi to speak to her so that Kavitha can be free of her guilt. Thulasi, who was portrayed to be a woman of firm resolve, now is shown to be a caring person as she visits Kavitha, who upon seeing her begins to lament and even scold Thulasi for taking away her life. Thulasi, showing the highest level of maturity remains calm and listens to all that Kavitha tells, without uttering a single word. And at last, after resting, Kavitha pleadingly asks Thulasi, if she thinks her to be deranged. To which, Thulasi kindly replies, holding Kavitha's chin in hands: "No." The movie holds two scenes where the two ladies meet face-to-face. In the first scene, an intoxicated Thulasi expresses her anger and hatred towards Kavitha, by using unparliamentary words. However, now she is too kind and understanding of Kavitha's situation as well. 

The major turn of events occur when, Kavitha denies marrying Murali Krishnan, stating that a man who is ready to leave his wife for another girl, will anytime leave her another, and that she cannot beg after another woman like Thulasi did. 

Murali Krishnan realizes the truth and return to Thulasi seeking apology. However Thulasi declines his request. 

At the end of the movie, we see Thulasi and Gowri Shankar discussing about Thulasi's future path. Thulasi mentions that she will be the Guardian of the Servant Maid's daughter and that the girl is who gives her the meaning to live. The final dialogue of Thulasi is astounding: From Birth I had been Thulasi Sakthivel, after marriage I was Thulasi Murali Krishnan. But now I am just Thulasi. I like being just Thulasi without any surnames. 

Character Sketches

Thulasi:

Thulasi Murali Krishna, or Thulasi (isn't that how Thulasi would like to be addressed?) is the main protagonist of the movie. The movie in essence revolves around her and is set across three different phases of her life: A devoted home-maker, a wife longing for her husband and a self-confident independent woman icon.

Initial scenes of the movie portray Thulasi to be an innocent, loving wife who sees her husband as everything she has. Though dissatisfied of her husband's low paying job, she is supportive of his career dreams and acts as the typical "Woman-behind-every-Man". She is also portrayed to behold a yearning to own a house and live a royal life as she describes to her childhood friend. When she is brought to the new home, she brings out the child inside her, running around the home and even expressing her joy by calling a stranger on the road to announce that it is her home. She is a caring person, when she speaks with her servant maid and is significantly interested in the maid's daughter's education. She even goes to an extent to support the kid's education by bearing a part of the school fee. She always provides moral support to the maid and protection to her daughter whenever possible. 

When she comes to know of her husband's affair with another woman, she is devastated and broken as this means that her entire world has been shattered. Thulasi's emotions are easily understandable as she reaches out to her friend for support. She even calls Kavitha pleading her to leave her life, showing her love and attachment to her husband. She waits for her husband to have a change of mind and return to her. 

And when she realises the source of income for the home is the money earned by Kavitha, she never hesitates to leave the home and stay in a PG. This shows her alignment towards self-esteem than materialistic desires. She even refuses to comply to the manager's demands and refuses to accept the proposal from Gowri. Through these events, Balu Mahendra has helped clarify the character of Thulasi as a self-disciplined, ethical woman with high morale, who even in her bad times is not ready to let go of her honour. Her dialogue in the climax of the movie, is a one-liner of her new resolved form. The movie thus shows us the transformation of Thulasi from an innocent wife who sees her home as the world to a self-built, confident and an independent icon who sees the world as her home. 

Kavitha:

Kavitha, is shown as a woman with a deep love towards Murali, to an extent that she even wants to separate him from his wife Thulasi. She is shown to be a person with Mental instability and often reaches emotional extremes of happiness and anger. This instability can be attributed to her childish behaviours in many cases, even that which causes a split between Thulasi and Murali. When she meets Thulasi for the first time, she is afraid of her and hides behind Murali, showing her pure innocent attitude. When Thulasi calls her and requests her to break her relationship with her husband she is stern and firm about her decision just like a kid being adamant. She also does not have the heart to say no to Thulasi, worried to not break Thulasi's heart and cuts the call abruptly. As the movie progresses she grows increasingly unstable and doubts every move of Murali. Her insecurities can be closely tied to the possessiveness she has on Murali, whom she sees as her everything. There can be question in mind, if Kavitha was so much attached to Murali, why did she cancel the wedding? This is because, she is afraid of losing Murali to some other girl. She is okay to return him to Thulasi itself, rather then marrying him and then losing him to some other third girl. This is the only mature act that Kavitha takes all through the movie. When she meets Thulasi for the second time, she first laments and then like a kid sits near Thulasi's legs and asks if she has become deranged. She happily receives the care and concern from Thulasi. Could it be that, throughout the movie, all that Kavitha wanted was a friend to sit beside her like this?

Murali Krishnan: 

Murali Krishnan, Thulasi's husband, is a struggling Director who develops an affair with Kavitha, his heroine. He is the major character, who becomes the origin for the plot. Personally, I feel Murali Krishnan is an opportunist who uses people for his benefits under the pretense of acting under the pressure of Kavitha or his situation. When Kavitha proposes to him of he wish, he could have realised the flaw in Kavitha's mindset and advised her to see the reality. He did not. Instead, he made use of Kavitha's instability to take over her wealth and stardom. In some situations, we do see that Murali is stuck between Thulasi and Kavitha and is uncertain of which side to lean to. He can be visualised as a man who is struggling to balance between his responsibilities (Thulasi) and desires (Kavitha). 

Though he could not be fully blamed, he might be the holder of a major portion of the blame. In the present age of cinemas, where extra-marital affairs and infidelity are related to modernisation, thereby imprinting wrong message to the youngsters, Balu Mahendra's way of describing the end of Murali Krishnan at the end of the movie is applaudable.

Gowri Shankar:

The character in the movie with improved emotional intelligence is Gowri Shankar. He acts as a moral support to Thulasi even when she declines his proposal for marriage. He is portrayed as a man of simplicity and easy-go type with interest in music. He is the owner of a company, yet is humble and down to earth. When he realises that Thulasi is not interested to marry him, he politely steps aside without causing further confusion in her life. Even then, he remains a good friend and a great support to her. His role his sure to make girls yearn for a friend like him. 

Director's Touch:

The best thing about the movie is the depth and detailing given to each and every character. There can be no better way to describe each of the characters and bring upon the desired impression in the minds of the audience. For instance, you always look upto Thulasi in the climax, in a way there are no other icons. You are angry at Kavitha initially, but at the second half you feel sorry for her situation. You are happy when Thulasi walks away from Murali Krishnan at the end of the movie and you definitely want to have a friend like Gowri Krishnan. Further one controversial, yet impactful scene in the movie is when Thulasi drinks at the party and cusses at Kavitha and Murali. Though this was a scene far beyond the period in which the film was released, it expresses the feelings of one devoted homemaker when she sees her husband with another woman in public. The way the director takes the stories of the Servant maid and Thulasi parallelly is remarkable. The scene when Thulasi explains her friend about reality of relationships and not wanting to contest in court is applaudable. The way how each character "lives" in the movie makes us travel along with them. The director has indeed succeeded in showing the following transformations in the movie:

Thulasi : From an Innocent Home-Centred woman to an independent bold woman. 

Kavitha: From an arrogant lover to a mature lady

Krishnan: From an intoxicated man to a self-realised human. 

At the end of the movie, each of these three characters become more mature and realise the reality of life. This kind of play where all the characters win (at least on the scale of realisation) is the major highlight of the movie. May be the entire movie was about three people wanting to find a good friend to sit beside and share their feelings. While Thulasi was successful in finding Gowri, both Murali and Kavitha infatuated with emotions mistook their feelings for love and ended up both getting cheated. This is one of the best works of the filmmaker. Do watch it if you have not yet, and you won't be disappointed.