The Male Gaze on Female Willpower - Why is Neelambari Such an Unforgettable Villainess?
Image: Provided by Author
The movie Padayappa was released 22 years ago, but Padayappa’s arch-enemy Neelambari might be the most compelling villain in Tamil cinema (I am talking about all genders here). Let’s look and find out what it is that made her so unforgettable.
In the cross-cut intro, the edit puts a venomous snake and Neelambari as equally dangerous. The men in the movie fear the snake, and when they run away, they get hit by Neelambari in the car and become gasping worms in front of Neelambari. For the men, there is no escape from evil. K.S. Ravikumar accentuates this even more: Do you remember Neelambari’s car with the gull-wing door? The car functions like the snake's hood: it expands to awake fearfulness in the enemy. A furious Neelamabri steps out of her car, and the cardoors extend her size and give her an extravagant entrance into the screenplay and leaves our soul to shiver - for 22 years now.
Also, Neelambari’s command to kill the snake gives us a main clue about the outline of her character. She doesn’t want anything stronger than herself to exist in her habitat. She is a power-hungry predator. But what would an invincible strong headed Neelambari be without a man who can tame her? Padayappa shows his bravery by taking the snake by the hand. Neelambari is impressed. This scene screams dom/sub roleplay to me. But this is not enough to make her cinema-history worthy, there is more.
Image: Provided by Author
Neelambari is a heartless egomaniac. She takes tender flowers and squashes them on the floor. She is smart and sexy but also vicious and angry. She slaps people without batting an eye. She screams, fights and throws things around. Neelambari is a vamp. All this irrationality to demonstrate power and boundlessness. At large, this is what makes a great psychopath. Or cinema-antagonist.
The lack of her binary understanding of empathy and womanhood are very decisive in making her this powerful woman. And this is always contradictory to the female protagonist “Vasundhara”. Vasundhara does neither long for education nor power, she wears the emblem of female virginity: the half-saree. On the other hand: Neelambari, an educated woman just back from the US, dropping anglicisms, always speaking her mind and dressed in short skirts and high-heel latex boots, does not fall into Padayappa’s patriarchal understandings of the world. We remember: “Adhigama Aaasappadra Aambalaiyum, athigama kovappadura pombalaiyum, nalla vaazhnthatha sarithirame illa!”
Image: Provided by Author
But egomaniac Neelambari does not shy away from Padaiyappa’s punchlines. She believes she is the only person equal to warhorse Padaiyappa. While no one else really touches Padaiyappa in the movie, she repeatedly goes and touches him in the most intimate part while having a conversation, his face. She takes what she wants, and she shows that she has put an eye on the guy. When furious, she pokes him, she ruffles his hair. She keeps demonstrating her power abundantly. Speaking of abundance: This woman is all about sizing up. She always brings an entourage with her. Look at the exponentially growing myriad of backup dancers in the Minsara Poove song. From car to staff - absolute megalomania. The scenes paint the picture of a woman far from reality, going to any length. All while not accepting rejection from the man she fell for. I mean, what is a flash mob marriage-proposal next to Neelambari forcing her Minsaara Kanna Padayappa to marry her? Anyway, being a woman and having so much willpower does not end well, that’s what Singer Srinivas as Padaiyappa tries to teach her. But Neelambari’s perceptions of gender are beyond her time. With Minsara Poove, we are not sure if it is a sexy duet or a duell. She describes Padaiyappa as the man of her dreams, but she wants him to sleep at her feet, eat her leftovers, and rest in the breeze of her breath. Nithyashree Mahadevan’s sharp voice cuts deep into the skin of a patriarch. So he does only see attacks, no admiration and therefore rejects her.
After it's clear that Padaiyappa will get married to Plain Jane Vasundhara, Neelambari goes into exile in her bedroom. She spends 18 years there, re-watching the wedding video in a small room. It's clear that Neelambari is a maniac, with ideas of life far from reality and that’s where she turns into this unforgettable villainess. One would think by the defeat, Neelambari is finally normal. But no, she comes back to take revenge on Padaiyappa.
Image: Provided by Author
Her willpower is still undefeatable. Neelambari loses the love game and dies. But how did she win our ok... maybe only my heart then?
Let’s find the mechanisms. Putting the domestic Plain Jane against the vamp is a prevalent narrative in Indian cinema. Take Aishwarya Rai’s Characters in Iruvar, Rakul Preet Singh in NGK, Kajal Agarwal and Catherine Tresa in Nenu Raja Nenu Manthri.
Indian Cinema portrays modern, skillful women as a threat to patriarchal understandings of family and femininity. Their characters and values are westernized and therefore: bad. It's shown on screen and so it goes into social understandings of womanhood. The modern girl trope is still used to portray megalomania, that’s shown as a woman's fatal will to be equal or better than a man. However educated they are, they try to challenge a man, they lose. This still is the male gaze on strong women portrayed in movies. But for the ones between us challenging norms, Neelambari is the heroine of the movie. She is the one fighting
Padaiyappa antiquated ideas of gender norms. Even in her death, she wouldn’t let the patriarch save her life. Which queer kid doesn’t love this radical vamp? I remember watching her in the movie as a child and being in a trance of awe and admiration to this woman. Her lack of empathy, her viciousness, the abundance, and irrationality make her a historic villainess, but it is her just being a woman and full of power that makes her unforgettable.
