Why Bommi is my spirit human
*Spoiler alert*
Director Sudha Kongara’s pet project ‘Soorarai Pottru’ hit the screens on OTT platforms this month and boy, was I in a for a treat! For those of you who are wondering what I’m talking about, ‘Soorarai Pottru’ is a Tamil film loosely based on the life of Captain Gopinath, who introduced the concept of low cost aviation in India. This was a critical step towards breaking ‘the cost barrier and the caste barrier in India’, in his words.
The female protagonist of this movie, played by Aparna Balamurali, is Bommi. Smart, opinionated, self-respecting, goal oriented would be some of the adjectives to describe her. Indian cinema does not usually portray women in this manner. As someone who stresses on equal partnership in a marriage, outright rejects male dominance and works on making her dreams a reality irrespective of societal norms, Bommi is someone I strongly identify with.
Bommi is a high school graduate, something that most women from her background are not privileged to have due to social customs. She is not afraid to break the trend of the groom’s family coming to see the prospective bride, which is a common practice in India. In fact, she does the opposite. She raises questions that hit the spot and is eager to learn when she asks the male protagonist about venture capitalists. She is not a yes woman just because of family pressure. She is genuinely interested in listening to her to-be husband’s past, his motivation, his aspirations and dreams. She knows that marriage is not a full stop for a woman to stop chasing her goals, as is the popular culture in India, and instead insists on ‘making something out of our first marriage to our dreams’ before the actual wedding. She puts forward three conditions to proceed with the wedding.
- ‘Your dream of starting your own airline business is as important as my dream of starting my bakery.’
- ‘There is nothing like your money or my money. It’s our money’
- ‘Our family is very important to me. The day you let our family down will be the day I poison your food.’
Extremely bold dialogues from the perspective of Indian film making for a women’s character. I couldn’t be happier because I firmly believe in them, they make so much sense and is a tight slap in the face of meaningless traditions Indian society has been following even after times changed. I felt good that I had a screen character who completely shared my views and that there are a few people in this country, like the makers of this movie, who are trying to change the mindset of people.
Post marriage, Bommi didn’t have it easy. She was constantly taunted by relatives for having a ‘loser husband’ because his entrepreneurial idea didn’t take off initially. There were disagreements with her husband because he had to swallow his pride and ask her for money to support his dream, which is seen as a disgraceful thing for a man to do. All this while going through pregnancy. However, not once was she disappointed in her partner. She stood up for him against everyone who daunted him, she helped him mellow down the pride and ego and even prioritized her husband addressing the press at the time of going into labor, just so that the people see his efforts and do not ridicule his failures.
There is another scene where her husband comes home not knowing the way forward, after having refused an INR 16 crore deal. He does this to save his dream, since he doesn’t want selfish interests involved in it. She feeds him a mouthful of food and with tears in his eyes, he tells her that he didn’t think of their family while refusing the deal as it could have saved them of their financial troubles. “Did you poison the food?”, he asks. “I would have done it if you had accepted that deal”, she replies. This gives him a renewed sense of strength and self-belief. I can’t think of a more supportive, understanding and mature female character in any other Indian movie that I have watched.
In her time, it was not common for women to deal with the finances in the family and here she was, running her own successful bakery business with a huge store in a prime location. Bommi is a woman who knows her priorities and sticks with it irrespective of anything else. She is someone I would call a perfect role model for a middle class Indian woman like me.
