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Lakshmi is a short film made in India
which was recently on early November 2017. The film has been a huge success in
the film festivals and below is snapshot of it’s achievements.
However, for not the same reasons,
Lakshmi has been making rounds on social media. It has gotten the people divided
into two opinions mainly. Some praises Lakshmi as a powerful and revolutionary
short film while the other half is mad at how inconsiderate and foolish the
short film is.
Before I go into giving my opinion
on that, allow me to write a few things about the short film itself. Having
watched it today, I was at awe at how the film was being made.
Lakshmi is a short film that deals
with a theme of how when a married woman is treated poorly drives her into
having an extra martial affair. Putting the story aside there were many things
in the film that captured my attention.
The first was how they choose to
show us the daily routine of Lakshmi exactly 3 times. Anything more would have
been too long and repetitive and anything lesser would have been too short and
not impactful.
In each loop of the routine, they
showed different shots of her daily routine and at a faster pace, allowing us to understand
what a mundane and meaningless life Lakshmi goes through.
She got into an arrange marriage
and there seems to be no show of love and affection from her husband. Yes, he has sex with
her in every loop but it looks more to fulfill his sexual needs rather
then something mutual and sensual
You can see it in the way has he
reacts after having sex or the way he wakes her up to engage in sex. He doesn’t
seem to bother that his son is sleeping beside and insist of having sex just
for his pleasure as you can see Lakshmi is feeling very uncomfortable.
The next part which I enjoyed much
was the whole black and white shots and coloured shots. If you noticed the
scenes showing Lakshmi in her routine life is done in black & white. I feel
it represents her life which is without any joy or happiness. Just like the
dull black and white colour, her life is equally dull and meaningless.
The scenes where she meets her new “crush”
is shown to be in colour. Despite not talking to each other, it is because of
this guy is where we see Lakshmi smile for the first. He adds colour to her
life. He gives her happiness and a sense of excitement in what is normally a
dull day.
Now coming to the theme of the
story, I have seen many people are being mad that it shows how a married woman is
having an extra marital affair. If you look closely it isn’t just Lakshmi who
has an affair, it started with her husband first who is having an affair.
Of because two wrongs don’t make a
right, but was what really Lakshmi and her husband did wrong? If you look back
at the film, the husband treats Lakshmi nothing more than a maid and someone he
can have sex with. He is not concerned about her.
Even when she says she is stuck and
has no transport to come home, he questions her back “so what shall we do now?”
and when she says she is staying over at her mum’s place, the only thing he
cared was who is going to make him breakfast.
From here we can see that there is
no love or affection being shown by the husband. For Lakshmi, her married life
has been like a pressure cooker which is shown at the very beginning of the
film. It is bound let off some steam at some point.
She never showed any interest in
other man despite being treated poorly by her husband. Her triggering point was
when her husband started having an affair. If a man can have an affair why can’t
Lakshmi have is what she felt.
The process of her discovering her
true beauty and let herself go with the help of her “crush” was so beautiful
captured with an art background and lines from Bharathiyar was so beautifully
captured. It was a joy to watch Lakshmi rediscover herself.
If you look at what is being talked
about putting down the film is all about her having an affair and not a word about
the husband having an affair. How is that right?
This is a short film which reflects
on the reality of many middle class young couples who were forced to get
married. Whether you accept it or not, both married men are women are having
affairs and I believe the key to making the marriage between Lakshmi work is by
both of them having their affairs. Maybe that is what they need to make it
work, a little meaning in their life to look forward too.
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