Opened: 28 February 2020
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Pavail Gulati, Dia Mirza, Maya Sarao, Kumud Mishra, Ratna Pathak Shah, Tanvi Azmi, Geetika Vidya, Ram Kapoor, Manav Kaul
Director: Anubhav Sinha
Producers: Bhushan Kumar, Anubhav Sinha, Krishan Kumar
Rating: ★★★½

You know how it is. You’re born, you’re raised and you’re moulded, formed by your parents, your environment and your experiences. You cultivate your opinions and ideas and you either ‘go with the flow’ or you question and ponder the status quo. You’re conditioned I suppose, to believe things are meant to a ‘certain way.’

No one is born thinking that they’re going to change the world. You’re reminded of the small acts that seemed insignificant at the time but with immense value now by the people who were just tired. The ones that said: Enough is enough.

Harriet Tubman who worked the Underground Railroad freeing slaves. Mangal Pandey, the sepoy who led the mutiny that precipitated the fall of the British Raj, Gandhi, who wanted an independent India by non-violent means and subsequently, went on hunger strike. Rosa Parks Sitting on the bus. Refusing to get up for someone else who felt more entitled to that seat. Nelson Mandela arrested and imprisoned for nearly thirty years for daring to question the validity of apartheid, a regime so disgusting and disgraceful you still cannot believe it was in force in your lifetime. These acts of defiance and rebellion set off a chain of events that changed the course of history.

And at a time when viruses are sweeping through the world, and there are seemingly more important matters to tend to, you’d think that a movie about marriage would hardly have any significance or merit. But. You couldn’t be further from the truth.

Because Thappad is that film. A quiet, unassuming, undramatic piece that leaves you thinking, asking, evaluating, and ultimately, looking at life in a wholly altered way.

There are no histrionics, but simply, at its nucleus is Taapsee Pannu who portrays Amrita, a new-ish-ly married middle-class woman, whom we see going about her daily life, like anyone in that situation would, and her interactions with her husband Vikram (Pavail Gulati), an ambitious man who has a plan and life goals. Amrita’s existence meanwhile, revolves around her family, her in-laws, her own parents. It all seems idyllic, until the unexpected ‘thappad.’ — The slap, which happens in public with most family members present, which stops you completely.

Is it because I’m a married woman that I felt her shame and embarrassment more acutely? Shock, pity, anger, frustration, sadness all coursed through me. How many roles do women fulfil in life? The daughter, sister, wife, mother, friend, daughter-in-law, aunt, carer, personal assistant, nurse, maid, housekeeper, cook; Amrita dutifully executes each of these, but who is she? You are never shown her likes, dislikes, aspirations, needs, almost as if she doesn’t matter. Almost as it’s expected of her.

There’s another movie I’d like to draw parallels to here — Karma (1990). That too features a slap — the villainous Dr Dang (Anupam Kher) is given a tight ‘thappad’ by Rana Vishwa Pratap Singh (Dilip Kumar) and Dr Dang replies coldly “Iss thappad ki gunj tumhe ab sunaaydegi.”

‘Iss thappad ki gunj’ — the reverberations of this slap — echo throughout the film too, albeit in a different context. The tremors can be felt and like a stone rippling the water, the after effects are far-reaching and affect each person profoundly and in ways you wouldn’t expect. And the credit for that goes entirely to director Anubhav Sinha, who seems to be pushing the envelope more and more after movies like Mulk and Article 15.

This film itself is centred around women and weighs a woman’s worth. Examining the societal structures put in place by women for other women to follow unquestioningly, we are demanded to deliberate our own preconceived notions. Amrita. The unhappily married lawyer. The mother-in-law. The mother. The soon to be sister in law. The maid. Each woman has her own story, her own marriage/relationship issues.

Amrita is quietly and calmly defiant. Like the heroes mentioned who changed history, Amrita refuses to accept this is how it’s ‘supposed to be’, stands her ground and in doing so, she empowers herself and those around her.

Like many other female-centric films before it, Queen, English Vinglish and to a lesser extent, Lajja, Thappad isn’t shouty or crude in its portrayal. It entices the viewer to think, and the emotions that each character conveys quietly (especially the lead Taapsee, who’s in danger of getting typecast as the woman who always gets into a tight spot, but is amazingly nuanced and effective nonetheless) deliver a gut punch. The high calibre cast includes Ratna Pathak Shah, Tanvi Azmi and a thoughtful Dia Mirza, who puts husband Vikram in his place with a single line.

The speed with which the situation unravels will leave the viewer dumbfounded and the films conclusion will most surely be a divisive one.

And at the end of it you’ll still be hard pressed to answer the all important question, What would you do? Is it ever “merely just a slap?”