In the previous blog posts, we have discussed gaze, motherhood, symbolism of hair and gender dynamics. This concluding post explores those metaphors which did not quite fit into the above mentioned themes. Metaphors silently communicate the characters’ behavioral justification. It adds depth to the narrative by using implied meanings.
During metamorphosis, a caterpillar undergoes a deal of time and process to turn into a butterfly. As the caterpillar turns out to be a grown butterfly, it spreads its wings, breaks the wall of the cocoon, flees away and never comes back. Shalini’s journey throughout the film Ugly shows the same stages of breaking the suffocating walls of her husband’s dominance. Her path is marked by struggle and pain of staying in a marriage without any marital involvement, neither emotional nor physical. At the end, her actions are marked by her realization to break free from her cocoon and flee away.
In Choked, Sarita is astonished when she unexpectedly discovers money rising out of her clogged drain pipe at an odd midnight hour. Her greed for idle money keeps soaring as it helps with enough money to spend on her wants and desires. A recurring motif of water is used in the narrative to symbolize abundance as well as suffocation. It appears in her dream that while searching for more money in the drainpipe, her hand gets stuck. That scene builds tension audio-visually. Water audibly appears to the senses whenever her inner trauma and emotional condition is portrayed through lengthy shots.
In Raman Raghav 2.0 it is loudly visible that his primary motive is to kill women who are mothers. He rarely kills men only when they have witnessed him murdering women. He is not seen killing girls and old women. During an instance when he runs into her sister’s house, he tells that he raped her own sister when she was just a girl. Whereas throughout the film, there is only one scene where he is seen in some sort of a sexual inclination. His look towards the girl is witnessed when he visits a factory.
Raman’s look towards the girl in a sexual way
This is a juxtaposition that he kills mothers and feels a sense of aroused towards teenage girls. His behavior indicates the signs of being a “pedophile”. Now this confers that he might be killing women who are mothers as it is clearly obvious that they have lost “purity”.
In Mukkabaaz, Sunaina’s entry is marked by chew-ing gum. This instance is seen every now and then. This might look casual or a normal activity but it happens to symbolize one’s rebellious state of mind. Her rebellion is prevalent across the narrative. Her visuals chewing the gum symbolizes her autonomy in certain situations, like when she is staring at Shravan in the middle of the road and even while getting married to him.
Films are much more than just a source of entertainment. One learns to appreciate films by understanding the art of watching cinema with a certain perspective. In the case of certain films, if entertainment and emotions are kept aside for a while then the films do happen to appear as a fine work of art. The taste of real cinema lies within every frame that speaks beyond the characters. Symbolism is the supporting pillar of storytelling. If looked closely, one can eventually come to the knowledge of its vital strengths.
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