Mammooty receives Women's Commission notice over Kasaba's poor portrayal of women

The newly released Mammootty starrer- Kasaba, has landed in a controversy with Kerala Women’s Commission on Tuesday issuing notices to the actor, the movie’s director and producer for some scenes and dialogues allegedly portraying women in a poor light.

Commission chairperson, K Rosakutty Teacher, said since the film had incorporated dialogues and scenes allegedly insulting womanhood, notices have been issued to Mammootty, director Nithin Renji Panicker and producer Alice George.

The Commission also decided to write to Film certification board and film bodies like AMMA (Association of Malayalam Movies Artistes) and MACTA (Malayalam Cine Technicians Association) to ensure that scenes and dialogues portraying women in a bad light are avoided at the time of certification itself.

“In the name of freedom of expression, women cannot be insulted,” the commission said, adding, when an actor like Mammootty makes such “sub-standard dialogues”, it will lead to a “dangerous acceptance” of such actions and remarks in the society.

“Actors like him should desist from enacting such scenes,” the commission said.

The film has received flak for some alleged crude dialogues delivered by superstar, who threatens a senior female police officer on duty.

In her review of Kasaba to Firstpost , Anna MM Vetticad had mentioned the problematic misogyny in the film.

She says, “It is all very cleverly handled though, with justifications pre-emptively built into the script. For instance, in one scene, a woman police officer — Zachariah’s junior in age, but senior in the profession — unbuttons her uniform shirt (because, y’know how it is, a woman’s body is her only weapon against a cheeky man) before she needlessly needles him. He strikes her down with his words, grabs her by the belt, and as he holds her crotch against his, makes a disgusting comment about how he could disrupt her bodily functions.

Note: A pointed effort is made here to mark her out as an outsider by having her speak in Hindi and mention her IPS cadre. This woman is clearly not a Malayali, her accent suggests she is a north Indian. Is that meant to be another point in Zachariah’s favour?”

“This scene in Kasaba has been as carefully designed as those Malayalam teleserials in which husbands smack their wives after they have been built up over several episodes as scheming witches out to harm the docile women and hapless men of the family. This sort of scripting is calculated to give fans excuses such as, “She asked for it. She started it. C’mon, it’s her fault.”

Stupid feminists just do not get it. She asked for it. But of course,” she further adds.

She makes a crucial point when she says, “Kasaba’s gender insensitivity is particularly problematic because jolly ol’ Zachariah is played by one of the most respected star actors in the history of Indian cinema.”

With inputs from PTI