Anel Meley Pani Thuli Review…this was not a movie but a revolution

Year: 2022
Genre: Tradition, Depression, Self-Discovery, Social Justice, Drama
Cast: Andrea Jeremiah, Aadhav Kannadasan, Azhagam Perumal, Anupama Kumar, Ilavarasu, Viji Chandrasekhar, Lovelyn Chandrasekhar
Director: R. Kaiser Anand
Writer: R. Kaiser Anand
Cinematographer: R. Velraj
Summary: It’s a dark thick night when Mathi wakes up in a forest and realizes she’s just been raped. Unfamiliar with the area, she must gather the strength to get help and report the perpetrators she has no way of identifying

Overall Rating: —-
We had been seeing Anel Meley Pani Thuli’s (AMPT) poster on social media for a while before its release and thought it was going to be a casual movie. The trailer as well didn’t motivate us as we’ve seen stories like this before.

The movie started with Mathi (Andrea Jeremiah) lying down in the forest after the rape incident, then the usual scenes followed taking us back in time to give us an idea of who she was and the events leading to the opening scene. Till then, we were just observing and being carried by the narration UNTIL the unexpected happened 😳

R Kaiser Anand, the screenwriter, began to upset the status quo by boldly attacking and challenging the evils of society. The dialogues became piercing, it was no longer about the rape but an honor issue. The movie was raising many points concerning the female body, shame-blame mentality, value of life, meaning of respect, gender bias, etc.

At that point, AMPT no longer felt like a movie but a revolution to open our eyes and arouse our emotions that a paradigm shift must happen if we want to see our societies flourish and detrimental traditions die. Consequently, we were so taken away by this movement that there was no more need to pay attention to the production aspect or even rate the movie. AMPT really touched our souls and changed our perspective on female dignity.

Memorable quote from the movie “When a girl openly confides in her family and tells them that a man forced himself upon her, they immediately ask her, ‘why did you go there?’ ‘what work did you have there at that hour?’ ‘why did you dress up like this?’ The day we stop asking her such questions, and reassure her that it wasn’t her fault that any of this happened only then will she bravely speak up instead of worrying about her honor…Honor doesn’t lie in my body or the clothes I wear. It lies in the life I live”

~So Worth Watching~

Viewers’ Guide
Language: Violence: Intimacy: none