Chithha Review (2023)

Chithha, which is a great respite from all the nonsense mass hero films, released previously and also certain sequel films along with it, has, easily one of the best directions in this year. The first half of the film is similar to Maamannan, in terms of how it is basically a look at the lives of the people that the film is interested in. While Maamannan, after a terrific first half, went into generic plot territory in the 2nd half, Chithha sidesteps that by not only involving us in the chase of the mystery, but also by showing us the emotional ramifications of the said mystery. The lives of the main characters involved drastically is changed based on the drastic steps they take.

One of the biggest achievements by director SU Arun Kumar, is that he is able to induce a great amount of tension and anxiety in us, by basically using the medium i.e., sound and image. For example, the lead Easwaran (played by a phenomenal Siddarth) and his sister-in-law (played by Anjali Nair) go inside the mortuary to check if Easwaran’s niece is the girl who is dead. But the shot stays outside and we feel stressful because we don’t want her to shout, and thus we are put into this tension of whether or not the girl is their Sundari (played by an extremely brilliant Sahasra Shree). Or another scene where we see people discover a dead girl and we don’t see her (thankfully) but hear about her condition through the police report that they file. Or the scene when we see a kidnapped child with the kidnapper and whence, he forcibly takes to “bath “her, behind a closed door, we are genuinely afraid of what will happen to her and are scared of the shouts that she might give, because it confirms that whatever we thought actually happened.

Arun Kumar uses space superbly to showcase the various emotional and mental states of the characters. When we first see Easwaran’s sister-in-law in the kitchen, it is with him that we see her cooking conveying their close relationship. While another scene between Sakthi (Nimisha Sajayan and her brilliantly expressive eyes), who just with their looks, convey a history between them. When they reconcile at their workplace (she plays sanitation worker in the area where Easwaran is the head) that we first see their hands meet, a reference to a previous scene where he got slapped by her for touching her hand, and then we see them get together. The prelude to the scene where she slaps him is also a great example of the space. Sakthi is told to get Easwaran’s signature on a form. When we see her come up, we it from the inside of the room where he is, and she is present some distance away from the room and both are seen in the same frame, near but far emotionally.

Similarly, another scene is the scene when Easwaran’s SI friend Vadivelu is talking to his senior who tells him regarding the possibility of the aforementioned victim being Sundari and we see from a distance Easwaran, innocently away from this thought, still questioning the nearby people about Sundari. There is a great economy in the way Arun Kumar uses his frames. We see many of the characters constantly in relation to their surroundings. Rarely do we get a closeup (AFAIK).

The writing is especially brilliant by the way it subverts conventional cinematic ideas of revenge, masculinity etc in the view of a sexual assault. When a certain character shares her traumatic past with her lover, with whom she got separated on that day, the first instinct of the lover is to ask, “Where is the man who did this to u”. She scoffs at him, telling how he doesn’t ask about how she copped with it, but wants to avenge her without her permission. She says that the perpetrator who did this died 6 years ago, and this puts everything in perspective for the male. By making us aware certain details beforehand through a similar incident previously, we fear what might happen to Sundari and Arun brilliantly uses this tension to make us fear not the kidnapper, but the scene itself.

The only issues, in this near perfect film, is the focus on multiple tracks in the second half, which makes it feel slightly lengthy and how certain scenes seem to have no consequence even though they were built up to seem as if they might cause something. Also, Sakthi, though is a brilliant character, seems both useful and not useful in the film, and feels slightly underused through the film.

But the main thing about Chithha, despite its male lead and name, is a pure feminine film, expressing the condition, difficulties, tribulations that a woman is forced to undergo. Heck, the film even opens with Sakthi’s character coming to town.

But if you don’t want to believe me, gauge your reaction in the scene when a woman with her kid is surrounded by a room full of men.

You’ll know what I mean….