Freedom Fight Movie Review: Jeo Baby had won rave reviews for his searing take on patriarchy and stifling of women's rights within a domestic household in The Great Indian Kitchen. It was easily one of the best films of last year in Indian cinema, and it elevated the filmmaker to someone whose future projects elicit excitement from lovers of serious cinema. Which is why I was quite interested in Freedom Fight, the new anthology film streaming on SonyLIV, that is backed by Jeo Baby, and has one of the segments directed by him. The Great Indian Kitchen Movie Review: Nimisha Sajayan, Suraj Venjaramoodu’s Social Drama, Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Is Brilliant!

There are five segments in Freedom Fight, each directed by a different filmmaker. The first segment is Geetu Unchained, about an IT employee Geetu (Rajisha Vijayan) who is dealing with the repercussions of breaking off her engagement with her ex, from both from her family and her colleagues. Directed by Akhil Anilkumar, the short takes a quirky approach at storytelling borrowing narrative styles from Forrest Gump (speaking to  strangers about her life-story) and Fleabag style meta commentary. A comic sequence at a cafe reminded me of a similar scene in How I Met Your Mother, involving a very talkative girl. There is also a little thread borrowed from English Vinglish, which I didn't feel was fleshed out that well.

The short does a good job of depicting the mental suffocation of Geetu while keeping the tone not getting way too heavy. The outburst sequence is quite clapworthy, as it questions the obsessive need to set our lives to the expectations of others. Which is also why I am not a fan of how this segment ends, when Geetu decides to act upon a proposal she receives from a work colleague. We are not privy about the true feelings that she really has for that person, and considering she finally refuses to bind herself to what others want from her, it makes little sense that she would act on the proposal immediately after her 'mass' scene.

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The second segment - Asangathidar (The Unorganised) - is written, edited and directed by Kunjila Mascillamani and inspired by the female workers' movement in the early '2000s to have basic rights at job by activist Viji Penkoottu. Asangathidar is what I felt was the most eye-opening shorts in the anthology, even though there are a couple of drawbacks that holds it back from the greatness it could have achieved, though Asangathidar very well serves its purpose. The story revolves around the group of female sales assistants, played by Srindaa (so, so good!) and co, working in the same street and their struggles to manage loo breaks. It plays nicely with Kerala government's recent decision to shops to have seating arrangements for the sales staff, while reminding that the work to make the women employees' lives better is far, far from over.

There is a feel of a docudrama - an activist-student sets out to make a documentary on the women's issues - with characters breaking the fourth wall to speak to the camera. Not just women employees, the movie also finds space to address the plight of transgenders seeking employment in establishments. The docudrama approach has some jagged edges, and some of the actors, well, aren't that good at acting. But Asangathidar gets its point driven hard and strong, while it has no qualms discussing hygiene problems. A conversation between Srindaa's character and her husband about cleaning your privates after doing the business was both hilarious and worked as an expose of double-standards of expectant hygiene. The icing on the cake is the presence of Viji Penkoottu herself in the movie. Overall, the best short in Freedom Fight.

The third segment -titled Ration - is directed by Francies Louis. It is about a not so well to do family, where the husband (played by director Jeo Baby) works at a ration shop, and the spouse Suni (Kabani) is a housewife. Suni finds herself in a dilemma when she accidentally cooks the fish that her more well-to-do neighbour had given her daughter to store in their freezer.

I get the idea what Ration wants to achieve, by picking upon the disparity of classes and how the burden of solving a family crisis fall upon the lady of the house. Suni's desperate attempts to replace the fish, not helped by the dismissive attitude of her husband, and the end-result to those efforts bring about a tragic insight into how what we see as usual, could be an unaffordable luxury to others.

That said, I was not very convinced with how the conflict was written in the story. How come Suni never figured out how the seer-fish in the freezer is not theirs is never explained, since the fish is a luxury for them. I assume that she might have thought that her husband had bought it, but considering she is not exactly scared to express her thoughts, why would Suni not ask him how he bought the fish. Also I presume she didn't want to break her equation with her richer neighbour, which is why she wasn't honest with her. Even the presence of this short in a film called Freedom Fight is a whole lot on presumptions, and I don't really want to presume a lot. My bad. Bhoothakaalam Movie Review: Revathy and Shane Nigam Star in This Well-Acted ‘Horror’ Film That Frightens You With Its Realism.

The fourth short - Old Age Home - is directed by the man himself, Jeo Baby. Starring Rohini and Joju George, the segment is about a maid who comes to work in a house nestled in the misty greens, where its man is transcending into age-caused dementia. It is the most heartbreaking of all the shorts, despite the slow pacing, made even better by the performances of the actors involved. Especially Joju who tugs your heartstrings as the senior citizen losing grip of his memory, and regaining his child-like whims. Like with Ration, I am not very sure of how this segment fits with 'Freedom Fight', though.

The fifth story - Jithin Issac Thomas' Pra Thoo Mu - is the most hard-hitting of the lot. Focusing on the plight of sewage workers, it is about one such worker (Unni Lalu), drenched in shit, who confronts a minister (Siddharth Siva) at his house. Why the confrontation happened and what are the consequences for the same is what the rest of the segment is about. Pra Thoo Mu, whose full form is only revealed in the end, has some nauseating scenes that you should definitely not watch while eating (I did... sigh!), but despite its stomach-churning content, the film is rather interested in shocking you than telling a stirring story. Jai Bhim, this ain't!

Final Thoughts

Freedom Fight may not have scaled the brilliance peaks of The Great Indian Kitchen, but it is still a gut-punch of a movie when it wants to be, exploring social topics that we are still uncomfortable to discuss in mainstream cinema. Freedom Fight is streaming on SonyLIV.

Rating:3.0

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 11, 2022 01:29 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).