B 32 muthal 44 vare, Review

 As long as the women are getting pathetically judged, slut-shamed, commodified, assaulted, and sex-rated in our society based on their breast size, the concept of Body politics is something that need to be discussed. B 32 muthal 44 vare is a finely tailored cinematic take on this issue through six women who live in Ernakulam. They are barely connected with each other during the course of their journey. Not all of them know each of them but some of them know at least one among them. 

PLOT.

The narrative goes like showing each of their issues that are someway connected to their bust size. Ziya played by Anarkkali marakkar is a transgender who used to hide her breast, but Iman , her roommate works in hospitality sector facing carrier issues because of her ill developed breasts. Malini in another plot just had mastectomy and waiting for prosthetic surgery and Jaya faces social auditing because of her appearance in an innerwear ad. Another character named Nidhi is a school girl who is a breast feeding mother with a troubled past and the last one is Rachel , a film aspirant who faces sexual assault from a renowned film maker. Each of them in the film are introduced along with their breast size as the title indicates. 

The story develop by asserting their issues and briefly connects the dots between them. It focusses mainly on the life of Malini as she feel that her husband is not ok with her after the surgery. 

Jaya works as a servant in Malini's home. Her husband got paralysed after an injury and she is the only bread earner of her family. As her family got screwed up in debt, she takes an offer to be a model for an innerwear company that Malini's husband offered. She got slut shamed by her neighbours on beings model.Jaya works in another home of Nidhi a school girl. As her family used to hide her troubled pregnancy, she is not allowed to feed her baby directly. She used to eject out the breast milk in toilet to avoid wetting of her uniforms. Jaya meets Ziya in a photoshoot where ziya works as a photographer. Ziya is a transman who manages to escape from his body measurements and mentally oriented as a girl. Ziyas roommate is Iman who is working in hospitality sector. She couldn't get promoted to their next level even after hectic works she used to do. "Our field is also named as aesthetic labour " as Iman's boss says as a reason for iman's  promotion denial.Jaya's neighbour is Rachel, who faces sexual assault from a film director at a hotel where Iman works. 

The film makes it's statements in it's second half when Malini and her husband took a mutually decided break in their relationship and she chose to become a foster mother of Nidhi and her child. Ziya become a renowned photographer and Iman and Ziya become intimate. Rachel filed a complaint against the filmmaker despite all the warnings from her friend, and Jaya decides to continue modelling. All of them addresses their issues, face it and chose the life they wish to live without being silent with their on rights of body autonomy.

COMMENTS.

"Can I grop your boobs.."?  

It's a question that once widely debated in social media. Is it wrong to ask this question to a woman or not..? Well. The answer cannot be a one liner because it depends. When the legality talks about the concept of consent, will it be wrong to ask for consent? That too depends because we can't strike a common line of morality for every woman who faces such question. So the best thing we can conclude is that it depends on how the woman take it. In the film, Ziya makes a bold choice not to dig deep into this issue but she politely and powerfully tells the boy to step down from the bike. 

Body politics. : In another scene, Iman says " If the cup is suit, the size won't, and if the size is Ok then the cup won't be. It's company that determines the all these ". This may sounds like a satirical expression of body politics but can convey a lot on this issue in a decent way. Similarly, scene by scene, the film shows how the woman are burdened on keeping the breast size apparently normal to others moral measurements.  Malini's character shows the significance of breast in a marital relationship as her husband says " I couldn't see the older you.." At the same time, breasts are not simply categorised as a marker of sex appeal. The film shows the maternal affection of a lactating mother by which it makes the argument of body politics more lucid. 

Intersectional feminism. : The character named Jaya in the film is like an idol of intersectionality. She is shown as underprivileged but independent, smart, workaholic women who take care of her family. Her transformation to modeling industry for the second photoshoot also shakes elitist perspectives of pop culture fashion. 

Gender stereotypes. : One of the outstanding feature of the film is that it sketches the women centric stories without much blame on men nor patriarchy. Men are not so depicted as a "usual villain" in all the troubled sequences of the protagonists though they have various grey shades. Blatant criticism of patriarchy is safely avoided by the writers to make the script looks like a gender neutral political statements on gender based issues.

Homosexuality : Issues of sexual minorities are addressed in romantic way with varying degrees of love, care and affection, not just intimacy or lust. Ziya identify herself as a man but Iman is realising her gender orientation in the last sequences only. This narrative ends up giving a perfect romance that we have not much seen in Malayalam cinema before.

Rating.

Am giving 8/10 for this near-perfect catch on body politics and appreciate the crew for coming up with such a relevant topic. Though we may leave the theatre with some legal doubts on foster parenting and ambiguous questions to what may or might have happened, I think that the script will keep on playing in our minds for longer period of time .