But the worst aspect is the hypocrisy around a woman’s menstrual cycle. To vilify her during those exact days when her body chooses to celebrate her womanhood is peak misogyny. When menstruating, even an upper caste woman is considered a low caste untouchable. Aided and abetted by other women. (Of course, some in the sisterhood gleefully bend these rules, as the servant in the film tells the bride.)
One of the most powerful sequences in the film deals with exactly that. The wife is on her period, accidentally touches her husband who has taken the vow to go to Sabarimala. The priest tells him the only way to purify himself again is to eat cow dung or drink gaumutra. In effect, saying even the waste of a cow is purer than a menstruating woman. But that’s not the beauty of the scene… it’s how the priest nonchalantly reduces the penance to a quick dip in water instead! All the rigour is quite clearly reserved only for the women.
Once some years ago, during a relative’s funeral…