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Hindustan Times

Aabhyanthara Kuttavaali movie review: Asif Ali ably anchors this misguided film on men's rights and Section 498A

Malayalam actor Asif Ali has been having a dream run at the box office with films like Kishkindhakandam and Rekhachitram turning blockbusters. His choice of roles has been astute, and that's one reason perhaps why the audience looks forward to every release of his. Debutant director Sethunath Padmakumar has now given us Aabhyanthara Kuttavaali, which, like the trailer depicts clearly, is the story about a husband (Asif Ali) who is charged with Section 498A denoting dowry harassment and domestic abuse. Sahadevan (Asif Ali), who is a government temp worker in a cooperative society, is over the moon when he is going to get married to Nayana (Thulasi) and is all set for a happily married forever after on their wedding day. Unexpectedly, Sahadevan ends up with a gift of 100 sovereigns of gold from his father-in-law, and when his wife files a case against him for dowry harassment and domestic abuse, his entire world turns upside down. Sahadevan and Nayana's marriage isn't going perfectly, but what compels her to file a case of Section 498A against him? Hauled off to the Anthikad police station, Sahadevan desperately tries to prove his innocence by recounting events that took place in their short marriage. Nayana is very aloof, preferring no intimacy of any kind with him and insists she wants to go to the Netherlands to study. She suggests that the gold her parents gave can be sold off to fund her education, and when an unsuspecting Sahadevan objects to this, things go haywire. Nayana gets back at him by injuring herself and filing a domestic abuse case. The director then takes us through how Sahadevan struggles to prove his innocence in the courts. There have been numerous real-life incidents when women have misused Section 498A of the IPC and framed their husbands, and director Sethunath Padmakumar presents us one such case through his film. He bats for men's rights, and Sahadevan, along with two other men (Peter and Makkar), who are affected by a fake dowry case, are the vehicles through which he highlights this critical issue. However, what the director has also – wittingly or unwittingly – done is show that these men are extremely good-natured and can do no wrong, even if they have small vices like drinking. The women, on the other hand, are uniformly portrayed as evil with shallow values. And the director uses numerous instances to highlight this as well. But can men and women just be painted as black or white with no shades of grey? To soften the stance about women, there is a narration of various women, including Nayana, about the issues they face – but none of these issues are the serious ones like real domestic abuse, sexual harassment or ill-treatment that they deal with on a daily basis. One must commend Asif Ali for doing a fine job as Sahadevan on the quest for justice. But Sethunath Padmakumar has taken one aspect alone in this story – how a fake case of dowry harassment and domestic abuse is foisted on a good man - and built a case against the law. The story is not juxtaposed against the real cases of scores of women facing domestic abuse and how they struggle to get justice. Moreover, claiming that Section 498A is a bane for all men as it is misused by women is regressive and a slight to all the women who have and are undergoing this plight. Aabhyanthara Kuttavaali has the right idea of talking about men's rights, but the director and the story are truly misguided.