Thappad clocks in three years: 5 ways through which the Anubhav Sinha movie brilliantly portrayed inherent misogyny and patriarchy

Anubhav Sinha's Thappad, released in 2020 was a path-breaking movie in many aspects. On the spectrum, the hard-hitting, emotional drama is about a woman Amrita, who decides to walk out of a 'seemingly content marriage' after her outwordly 'perfect' husband slaps her in an angry-drunken stupor. However, the Taapsee Pannu starrer is so much more. Here's taking a look at some ways through which the movie shattered the glass ceiling, one scene after the other...

For Amrita, the sudden slap, in her own house, at a party was a rude jolt no doubt, but her decision to walk out of the 'happy' marriage wasn't just about that. As she herself said that the slap simply made her see the unfair adjustments, compromises and misogyny that she was putting up with all along. Vikram being clueless of household chores, taking no inputs from Amrita when it came to his job and Vikram's mother constantly telling her to 'adjust a little' were subtle signs that it is always the woman who has to bear the brunt of 'poorly raised men'.

Amrita's story is simultaneously intertwined with two other women. One is her househelp Sunita, whose husband abuses her almost everyday after getting drunk. The other is her lawyer Netra, who inspite of being extremely successful and married into an elite family, still faces discrimination at the hands of her brash journalist husband. The movie subtly portrays that abuse cuts across classes and can occur in any household.

At the offset, Vikram is a 'good' husband by the traditional benchmarks of the society - he earns well, loves his wife and gives her all the comforts required to lead a content life. Yet, misogyny is so deep-rooted in his system that after the slap incident, he finds himself completely at sea as to what wrong he has done and he makes no efforts to make amends for his behaviour. As one of his friends wryly puts it that a slap is also an expression of love, Vikram, unwilling to unlearn years of conditioning, instead blames Amrita for making a mountain out of a molehill. Even Amrita's mother and brother fail to understand the brouhaha created by her and while we see traces of Vikram in Amrita brother's Karan when he misbehaves with his fiancé, he quickly realises his mistake and profusely apologises to her, something that Vikram is unable to acknowledge in the first place.

Throughout the course of the movie, Amrita is constantly coaxed by others to let it go, it is just one slap after all. Yet Amrita stands her ground, reiterating that while it might have been just one slap, he (Vikram) under no circumstances can raise a hand on her. And that is the thing with abuse - it can't happen even once and if it does, chances are, that it will turn into a pattern in no time.

In a cinematic brilliant move by Sinha, during the first half of the movie, Amrita and Vikram's home is shown to be almost entirely blue themed - blue curtains, blue upholstery, even some of Amrita's crisp cotton salwar suits are blue coloured, since it was Vikram's favourite colour. During the separation, Amrita realises that her favourite colour was in fact yellow all along, and she starts dressing up in the same for court visits etc, quietly indicating that she has come out on her own. And that pretty much sums up marriage - while minor adjustments are okay, changing yourself completely for the other person is not.