FINALLY a female lead without the measurements of a supermodel. What a BEAUTY. I LOVE HER
She has such pretty eyes. Like this woman does NOT need dialogues. Her eyes are expressive enough.
One would assume her character would fit into 'The Wife' archetype or that refrigerator girlfriend trope. Considering how she's killed off on screen.
And I love that, because this is some tragedy but it's not done just to motivate her husband to go on a murderous rage. It is shown to highlight corruption even in a highly respected profession.
It serves the purpose to the overall theme and story. Not just make the hero sad. But contribute to the message the film is trying to teach.
It does make her son to seek revenge but-
The son is avenging the death of both his parents. That's not even his primary motive! Their main aim is to root out those who encourage malpractice in medicine.
Her role's more of a wife than a mother. But it that's not her whole personality. She's more than a dutiful wife.
And this has to be the best portrayal of a wife/marriage I've seen in indian cinema.
The hero will always, somehow, one-up the independent, educated and confident heroine. Out-wit her or just prove he's better in one way or another. The heroine has to be in awe of him.
Not in this instance! Here Vijay's character is smitten and thoroughly in awe of his wife.
He does not in any instance belittle her. He heeds her advice, he listens intently whenever she speaks. He lets her step forward and is content to follow her lead at times.
Mostly in films, such an equation will be played for laughs. Exaggerated and caricature-ish depictions are all popular of a joru ka gulam (wife's slave)
But here we see two individuals who respect each other equally. They're on equal footing at all times. They compliment each other beutifuly and neither of them claims to be the better half.
They are soulmates. Their personalities, their ideals, their dreams, all align together perfectly.
They just belong together.
Which brings me to my next point.
Their deaths -minutes apart- too, seem fitting. It's impossible to imagine these two characters on screen without each other.
Even that sequence where Nithya's character was in labour and Vijay's character was waiting outside was painful to watch.
We feel uneasy when we don't see them in the same frame. And well, we know what's coming.
It's just, there's no dearth of this tropes where the parents die a tragic and unjust death and it has to be avenged. Or the wife is killed and the husband is left distraught.
But it has been messed up in a thousand ways. Done wrong every single time.
I'm not saying it's done perfectly in Mersal. But it was a good attempt.
There might be stuff I'm overlooking cause I just love Vijay and Nithya but ╮(. ❛ ᴗ ❛.)╭
This healthy ship is so rare to see on screen that it seems special, when it should be basic stuff.
They're so wholesome, I wish filmmakers would do more of this and less of the toxic boy-falls for girl-starts stalking her- borderline harrassed her until she says yes trope.
