A woman wakes up at home, feeling out of sorts. She knows something terrible has happened to her but isn’t sure what exactly. This is the premise of Vivek’s second directorial The Teacher. The Malayalam crime thriller is centered on Devika (Amala Paul), a Physical Education (PE) teacher, and her growing suspicion about the events of a particular day.
Though we don’t see the details of the crime till the midway mark, there are enough clues about what might have happened – Devika standing before the mirror and examining her body for bruises; her fear that videos of the crime may have made their way to the internet; and the secrecy surrounding the crime. Her husband Sujith (Hakkim Shah) is oblivious to what Devika is experiencing, and mistakes her sullen face for exhaustion. Her only confidante is a fellow teacher at school.
Devika’s unease builds and creeps into us as she tries to unravel the mystery. Amala carries the role with dignity, reflecting Devika’s confusions and suppressed fears on her expressive face. However, the characters around her are not developed sufficiently. Sujith, in particular. This is a couple that’s been married for four years and is desperately trying for a baby. But we don’t get a sense of the relationship that they share or what Sujith is actually like – his callousness, therefore, seems like an unconvincing plot point rather than something that should have affected the viewer. We know more about his equation with his slimy friend Kevin than we do about the dynamic between the husband and wife.
Manju Pillai as communist leader Kalyani is clearly inspired by KR Gowri Amma (she repeats her famous line about police lathis fathering children) – the actor gets a hero’s introduction but again, there’s very little that goes into her characterisation other than uniformly stern expressions and fiery dialogues. There are a few other character introductions too that get this old-fashioned treatment, but none of them leads anywhere. You’re left wondering why the screenplay elevated these moments because they fall so flat.
Watch the trailer of Teacher
The problem is with the writing that struggles to fit a sensitive subject like sexual violence into the template of a mainstream action thriller, replete with jarring background music. Several films have attempted to do this ever since the Nirbhaya case, but few have managed to get it right. The Teacher appears all the more dated because it doesn’t add anything new to the discourse.
The screenplay is tonally inconsistent, trying to balance Devika’s agency with ‘mass’ scenes that look out of place, Chemban Vinod Jose’s cameo being one of them. The climax takes on the colour of a parody – we saw a similar sequence in a recent blockbuster that worked brilliantly but it was of a different genre. The effect that The Teacher wants to achieve with this climax is also opposite to what the other film wanted to achieve (revealing the title will be a big spoiler).
There are also a few confusing scenes that appear like misplaced messaging. For instance, a young woman from an oppressed caste throws acid on her casteist boyfriend who dumped her. When referring to this incident, Devika says, “There’s no telling how women take revenge these days, isn’t it?” Considering the mission she is on, it’s unclear if she approves – and expects the audience to approve – of the acid attack, whatever the trigger for it.
The Teacher may have wanted to teach a strong lesson on sexual violence, but such a subject evidently demanded a lot more homework in writing, direction, and performances.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the film’s producers or any other members of its cast and crew.
Sowmya Rajendran writes on gender, culture, and cinema. She has written over 25 books, including a nonfiction book on gender for adolescents. She was awarded the Sahitya Akademi’s Bal Sahitya Puraskar for her novel Mayil Will Not Be Quiet in 2015.