KOZHIKODE: The 5-day Women’s International Film Festival organised by the Federation of Film Societies of India and the State Chalachithra Academy unfolded to an impressive audience at Tagore theatre on Monday. Among the four films screened, the Kannada movie, ‘Kiragoorina Gayyaligalu’ (Women rowdies of Kiragooru) directed by Suman D Kittur evoked a good response. The film portrays the feminist spirit of four married women of Kiragooru village with which they triumph over caste, lazy husbands and other societal evils.
The film ends up with the women power - thrashing their opponents physically and setting ablaze the local arrack shop. Karnataka’s rustic village life was marvelously portrayed, laced with fun and picturesque scenes but failed to address the caste issue deeply. “Women rowdies are good and women folk overcoming their mundane problems through fun and rural unity are heartening. Still it could have been better in terms of attacking patriarchy,” felt Asha K.R a journalism student.
A retired bank employee Jayarajan felt the film was lagging because of too many earthy jokes. “The script was not that good. Still each rural character makes a presence. Too much of dialogues affects the flow,” he pointed out. The film was based on the short story by Poornachandra Tejaswi. “Irrespective of how much we have progressed, women in rural districts continue to remain the same. They face the same social evils and continue to fight the same battles even today,” said Director Suman at the ‘meet-the-director’ programme after the screening.
