TheDaak review

Book : Kappithante Bharya by Bipin Chandran, Malyalam, Mathrubhumi Books, 2021, paperback, 104 pages, ISBN: 9789355490650, ₹150

by Mileena Saju

From Rajavinte Makan¹ to Titanic: A review of Bipin Chandran’s Kappithante Bharya.

While giving me a copy of Kappithante Bharya (The Captain’s Wife), the guy at the DC Books counter told me that it is impossible to keep the book down until one finishes reading it.  I would not exactly agree with him as I kept the book aside several times, once as I was tempted to revisit the Malayalam classic film Rajavinte Makan, and the second time to google Octavio Paz’s poem “Whenever two people kiss,” both mentioned in the Novel.

Kappithante Bharya is the very first attempt of fiction by the Malayalees favourite ‘Cinema Ezhuthukaran’ (one who writes about films) Bipin Chandran. Bipin Chandran has mostly done his work on non-fiction around Malayalam Cinema, and it is no wonder that his first novel shows the qualities of cinematic realism.  Nothing can be said about this novel without drawing an image of two desperate women staring at a poster of Jack and Rose on the deck of the Titanic, an image that festoons the cover page of this novel. This image defines the novel and the intricacy of everyday life that it portrays. This Malayalam Novel Kappitante Bharya is a story of two strong and independent women, Annie and Rosily, who fight the piercing judgements and expectations of a family in particular and society at large while they wait for their lovers to come free from the clutches of the Ocean. 

The novel and its plot and the life that is woven around it expresses the potential to break away from the conventional boundaries of Malayalam literature tainted by elitism and patriarchy. The author dares to move away from the typical Malayalam literary settings of ‘significant happenings’ and of a long narrative of the misery of human life intended to satisfy the upper layer of readers, which used to define Malayalam literature, to simple everyday life. Though the shift away from the elitist imaginations of fiction writing makes the novel acceptable for a wider audience, the author somewhere fails to replace the old orders with new politics.

Bipin Chandran walks us through a hoard of films released during the 1980-1990s and unveils the life of Thomas, Annie and Rosily in a tiny village in Kerala. Thomas, who was in love with Annie, had to go through unprecedented events in his life, which are beyond the imaginations of a Malayalee simpleton and is separated from Annie for years. The sea parts them as he is being imprisoned revengefully on the island of Mali. Annie lives with Rosily Aunty, an elderly woman who is also separated from her husband, John Fernandes, who was the captain of a sailing ship that disappeared in the blues of the ocean. While a friend’s betrayal designed Thomas’s fate, John Fernandes’s disappearance is shrouded in mystery. Even though everyone believed that Fernandes was dead, even after time fluttered from Rajavinte Makan to Titanic, Rosily did not lose hope. 

In the universe of Kappithante Bharya, cinema determines time. It is through the films played in the Leela Mahal that people look back at their lives in retrospect and introspect. Cinema, for them, is memory; it reminds them of that time in their life, their love, lust, hunger and sorrow. Annie’s and Thomas’s romance started blooming when Rajavinte Makan was being screened at Leela Mahal, a local film theatre around which community life revolves. A new mimicry troop was created by Thomas and his friends when Leela Mahal was screening Ramji Rao Speaking², Thomas was betrayed by his friend while Kilukkam³ was being screened. Leela Mahal is the centre of Bipin Chandran’s fictional Universe. Every incident, every tiny life story is marked by the films played in this theatre. Finally, Annie and Rosily are reunited with Thomas and John Fernandes while Titanic was being screened, not at Leela Mahal, something equally unusual in the narrative as the sudden shift to a Hollywood film.

Cinema is the only true witness of their lives. The community life is enhanced with the spectacle of popular Malayalam films, villagers imitating the popular heroes and adding popular dialogues into their everyday language. Every comparison, each reference point, and all the ‘rememberings and forgettings’ are guided by these films. Rosily Aunty, the captain’s wife, often reminds people of Balan Mash from the film Thaniyavarthanam⁴. Her longing for her husband, who was long lost at sea, and her belief that he will come back reminds them of Amaram⁵. Finally, Titanic brings closure – a fairy tale ending- a meaning to their lives. I was unable to digest at first how the beautiful narration of pure life, simple yet complicated, guided and recorded by Malayalam cinema and its classic characters, was taken over, all of a sudden by a Hollywood movie, The Titanic, which eventually plays a determining role in the life of Annie and Rosily.

The language of the novel indeed, as Benyamin in his foreword  says, is ‘enchanting and haunting’ (p. ix). The language has been skilfully chosen and it carries a degree of poetics that can create a ‘longing for home’ for the Malayalee diaspora. The language indeed is not the standard elite textbook Malayalam but a language that is always spoken at home, which carries the feeling of home. The narrative style reminded me of the bedtime stories that my father used to tell me when I was young, in a language that is close to the simple existence, the day-to-day lives of the village.

The author attempts to undo the hierarchy that privileges the Savarna outgrowths of Malayalam literature which prefers a certain kind of language and a certain kind of narrative over the other. Basheer⁶ was a rebel, and Bipin Chandran attempted to be so. It could not be a coincidence that Basheer’s literature has been given an important space in Bipin Chandran’s fiction. Like Basheer’s Andakadaham⁷ (World), Bipin Chandran’s universe will also survive the miseries of elite expectations. Bipin Chandran’s women, too, do not speak the language that is traditionally written for women, but needless to say, Chandran fails to attribute enough importance to these women as ‘women.’ 

The ‘fairy taleness’ in the story is disappointing. The novel does not show any justice towards the title ‘Kappitante Bharya.’ Neither is Rosily given an appropriate space in the Novel nor is the term Captain’s wife politically suitable.  The identity of Rosily Aunty, even though she is portrayed as an independent woman with frequent descriptions of her bold character – a feminist perhaps – is almost always referred to as the captain’s wife, and her story is solely completed by the happiness of meeting her man after years of loneliness. Love and loneliness of the protagonists are powerful emotions which deserve their own space in literature, and indeed Bipin Chandran’s language has beautifully done its part in evoking a catharsis with the emotional undercurrents of his characters. We do sympathise with Annie, and we do find happiness when Rosily meets John Fernandes after years of suffering. But it is the privileging of the women’s love for their man, over and above their individual personality, depriving them of any other sort of existence, is what happens to be disturbing in the narrative. Both the women are enslaved within the boundaries of a house, whereas the men are out in the world, in the unknown waters and in an alien land. The same old fashion man-women relations are redrawn with new colours and sketches, something that the readers would not have expected from young writers like Bipin Chandran.

Bipin Chandran’s obsession with Cinema, Kadal (Ocean) and Kappal (Ship) is beautifully translated into the story (This obsession is evident in the preface, which is, again, brilliantly crafted). The Sea is a silent character in this film, sometimes romantic, sometimes brutal. The Sea took away loved ones from Annie and Rosily, and the ocean united Thomas and Fernandes. The relationship between Rosily Aunty and Annie is more beautiful than their relationship with their men. Beyond her role as a home nurse, Annie develops deep friendship and sisterhood with Rosily Aunty, who guides her in her life and gives her the courage to fight for her love. Annie and Rosily help the film survive the currents of male heroic adventures and make the space available to discuss the politics of society and family.

Indeed, Bipin Chandran dared to take the road that was least travelled by and one does expect Bipin Chandran to travel more through the thorny dense wilderness and dissent with the expectations that normalise life in an unfair society.

New Malayalam films are being released, and the readers are waiting.

Notes

1. Rajavinte Makan (The Prince) is a 1986 classic Malayalam film directed by Thampi Kannanthanam. The novel begins with a reference to this film. 
2. Ramji Rao Speaking is a 1989 Malayalam comedy film directed by Siddique and Lal. 
3. Kilukkam (Jingle) is a 1991 Malayalam film directed by Priyadharshan.
4. Thaniyavarthanam (Repetition) is a1987 Malayalam film directed by Sibi Malayil. Balan Mash, the protagonist of the film, was deemed mentally ill by the villagers.
5. Amaram (Stern) 1991 Malayalam film directed by Bharathan. This film revolves around the life of a fisherman named Achootty. Sea plays a prominent role in this film.
6. A popular Malayalam author and freedom fighter.  
7. From Basheer’s dictionary.

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