Maadathy: An Unfairy Tale (2019) User Reviews

Maadathy - By Leena Manimekalai

[ctmaran · 8/10 · 9 May 2020]

Independent films are less known in Tamil industry. It's one of the realistic forms of cinema.

I think that one of the major reasons for the lack of realism in art is due to the artists compromising themselves in the name of mass desires and the fans' expectations.

Leena Manimekalai is one among the uncompromising filmmakers who express their thoughts wholly through their works of art regardless of good or bad, liked or disliked. She was introduced to me through her poems when her collection 'OTRAI ILAI ENA' was published fifteen years ago. Today I have read, watched and followed all her works. I personally had a little more exposure about her hard work and untiring efforts.

Maadathy is her recent and important work. Caste is a lethal effect of man's sixth sense. It's an awful result of his identity politics creating division amongst his fellow human beings.

A society that is oppressed as untouchables and even considered as a sin to look at. Showcasing the violence imposed on them even after being enslaved, their state of mind, problems faced in day to day life and their traumas, Maadathy is filmed amazingly illustrating a young woman living in the slopes of the serene western ghats. It is a must watch film which should be rightly appreciated and taken through a critical discourse.

Well made!

[ysudeesh · 8/10 · 17 May 2020]

Maadathy was the opening film at Panchajanyam International Film Festival 2020 but I couldn't watch it then as I could not make it to Chittur that day. Leena Manimekalai, the Director of the film was kind enough to share a preview link with me the other day I watched the movie today. It is a well made movie and would definitely help open up the eyes of some folks who still keep denying caste based exploitation. Many don't believe that this exists even in this day and age. Leena deserves a round of applause for the movie and in particular for the theme she has selected! Cinematography is another beautiful aspect of the movie. Overall, the film conveys the message quite well and is vert relevant in these times. Well done!

Stunning movie about low caste people..!

[kamalbeeee · 8/10 · 1 July 2021]

In a village there are few low caste people living by facing lot of struggles and more domination of high caste people... At last yosana who is girl from low caste got raped and killed by few young guys.. Well made movie without any commercial elements.. Looks documentry movie but still photography and all awesome.. Must watch movie..!!

Indian independent 'cinéma du corps' - the cinema of the body politics - at it's new best

[nundhaa · 7/10 · 31 July 2020]

Maadathy's title and subtitle are so inviting that you start expecting from the opening scene which is so symbolic. The closeups and long-shots have arresting qualities in them. This movie is very engaging and at the same time very disengaging for the viewer. The supernatural experiences are an awe. Another interestingly amazing thing about the movie is it's realism - the dialogues, the casting, the acting, the locations ... It disturbingly exhibits the 'untouchable' practices ... the realism is so crude ... be it the dialogues or the visuals. Shock after shock - so many visually and intellectually poking scenes that are so subtle tell a tale frame by frame, day by day. The visual transcendence is a narrative bliss that is aesthetically intriguing. With a touch of magical realism too you wonder if this is Indian independent cinema at it's new best. The scene transformations are so awakening with rich farmings that every visual, every sound, every silence, every thing builds meaning to the make. The casting is exemplary. The uncensored unfoldings are captured in a very artistic form - you don't even realize that you are watching a movie. The song recitals are good metaphysical poetry. The life of untouchables is clearly captured - the 'Irreversible' movie like rape scene is boldly depicted - very unwatchable and with yet another rape scene in the movie that is again so disturbing - I had to mute and wait for it end soon - the violence and cruelty - I had to fast forward (either by skipping the visual or by muting the sound) some very disturbing content which are the crux of the plot - it shatters beliefs and questions the way life lurks differently for the same kind of species - the humans - due to their society of birth - it is too unbearably realistic - the movie's art is just like the new french extremity 'cinéma du corps' - the cinema of the body politics - one will experience some sleepless nights after watching this movie - a never ending trauma finally gets a poetic justice - karma breaks on the face when philosophy fails. This is a transgressive wonder. I usually avoid World Cinema as it is usually so disturbing. But the 'True Cinema Movement' is the only strong hope for this medium to live through.

Brilliant movie

[apandiyan-48866 · 9/10 · 6 May 2020]

My heart was pounding, my stomach was churning and i was restless after watching this masterpiece - Maadathy - An Unfairy Tale. My fingers are trembling as I write this.

Gandhi once said "untouchability" is a sin against God. Leena portrays how societies in this 21st century still continue to engage with such an evil practice, so realistically and without a speck of exaggeration. The incidents that the film portrays is beyond my imagination. My mind also yearns at the same time for this to be sheer imagination. Cinema is not only about entertainment. Maadathy is an example that a film can be an effective tool that can help transform the society. My heartfelt wishes to your film, Leena.

@leenamanimekalai

Touching and shocking!

[diyarhesso · 10/10 · 8 May 2020]

I had the chance, when I was in West Bengal, India, to watch the film Maadathy - An Unfairy Tale, by the dear friend Leena Manimekalai. A subversive female gaze at patriarchy and injustice. An authentic coming of age journey of a young girl from an "unseeable" caste in a far village in Tamil Nadu state, whose forced-occupation is to wash clothes of Dalits. A poetic un-fairy tale of "all that is seen and unseen", shocking, yet empowering as one gets its bottom line, which is also its tagline; Nobodies do not have Gods. They are gods

Excellent depiction of giving Visibility to Miseries of the invisible

[bhoorashameem · 10/10 · 5 May 2020]

The film Madathy is taken brilliantly by Leena bringing to table the ugly face of patriarchy, power inequations and horrendous discriminations and violence against the vulnerable. I also lived with Madathy for those 1 hour 30 minutes. Such films are Welcome change agents. I really appreciate Leena for the crystal clear delivery calling spade a spade without mincing words or actions. She has brought out the best from all the actors. I am so glad that my little drop has been added to this ocean and proud of Leena and the crew. Best wishes always, Shameem

@leenamanimekalai @maadathythefilm

A profound film with a lot to think about after watching!

[balajiragupathi · 10/10 · 3 May 2020]

I was fortunate to see the preview of "Maadathy, an unfairy tale" directed by Leena Manimekalai. It is definitely one of the outstanding films in the recent days. Few words won't be sufficient to describe beauty of the film.

There are many layers in the film that provide abstraction of different themes. At a higher level, the story revolves around the hardships of a family that belongs to lower than the lowest caste. But the subtext shows the hierarchical caste society as a pyramid structure where the top layer suppresses and controls the next layer. Each layer sees next layer as a means to express its authority and release of emotions that it is deprived of by the top layer. Imagine a girl who is born in the lowest of that pyramid structure and the weight she needs to shoulder from all top layers of the pyramid. Does anyone care about her dreams? This is what the story is about and told with great visual aesthetics by the director Leena Manimekalai. At the end of the movie, a donkey is a witness to the horror and it carries the weight of the girl. It says a lot without need for any words.

For some reason, this movie reminds me of one of the greatest movies by the great director Robert Bresson, "Au Hasard Balthazar". One of his famous quote is "Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen." I think Leena Manimekalai achieved this through her film "Maadathy, an unfairy tale".

Congratulations to the entire film crew for such a realistic performance! You were part of something very special!

Poetry and Pain of Maadathy

[ShantiBhushanRoy · 9/10 · 11 May 2020]

One of the most poignant films #Maadathy Maadathy - An Unfairy Tale directed and produced by Leena Manimekalai is poetry in motion. With raw soulfulness - the story, its landscape & the characters - bare their soul for us to get soaked and sucked into their world. The world- which is full of life and all its contradictions - You laugh, swim, love, cry, cringe with that world every moment. It takes you on a journey. The marriage of an unexplored landscape with all its human and non human characters has been woven so subtly that you just become part of it without realising it. It leaves you with an experience of pleasure and pain. The poetry of images has been beautifully woven with all its characteristics - the beautiful music and sound design plays their formidable role in this Ghatakesque cinematic experience. Maadathy breaks you in pieces and not in a propagandist way but as beautiful creation of art with elegance. It's next to impossible to put #Maadathy in category of any genre. This human universal tale which has been treated with combination of classic cinematic tools and comic book style - but it's been merged such modern deftness that it feels very normal and the craft of the maker goes unnoticed.. Maadathy is a rare gem - which needs to be seen by everyone and experience it. Cheers to #LeenaManimekalai for this. Shall watch out more from her. Shanti Bhushan Roy DoP: Filmmaker @shantibhushandp

Yosana - Girl of the bush

[baburamchandran · 10/10 · 16 May 2020]

In an interview with Bill Moyers in 2013, Sherman Alexie the magnificent American Indian writer and poet reasoning his father's alcoholism to his ethnicity - of being a Red Indian. Later in the same conversation Alexie reveals, as dramatically as only a poet can, that he is also an alcoholic, recovering. And Moyer asks him why he answered that he is 'too a Red Indian'?

Watching the scene of a death ceremony where villagers throw coins and a liquor bottle to give the laundry job to Yosana's father in Leena Manimekalai's movie 'Madathy', I couldn't help but sigh at the uncanny bearing of these two stories - Sherman Alexie's and Yosana's. The obstinacy of oppression that is persistent through generations. And how alcohol acts as a governing paraphernalia to control the resilient soil-fostered human beings.

Leena portrays a girl as innocuous as the earth transmuting herself into a grueling goddess, because of the enormous malice piled on her - like one of those south Indian mother goddesses who punishes her kids with a prodigious sum of adoration. In between this transformation we experience the destitute cries of mothers who carry fire in their lap for generations, grandfathers' helpless prophecies and the unforgiving sky pouring unbearable pain.

Yosana - a girl of the bush, her refuge, Nature a fiesta to the eyes, like streams that reveal irreversible desires, wherein rocks lays bare to be carved into goddesses and the wind tells stories of ultimate immortality to her ears.

Leena is a poet who transcends boundaries of narrative language with delicate and detailed visual consciousness.

There is something lower than being from the lowest caste. Being a woman from that caste.

[gitanjalirao · 4 May 2020]

Watched 'Maadathy' by Leena Manimekalai and am spell bound! Such a strong, compelling voice and amazing cinematic language. It broke my heart as well as welled it up with immense love for every living thing. Leena makes you live, smell, touch and see things from the depths of the lowest caste like no other film does. And it makes you realise that there is something lower than being from the lowest caste. Being a woman from that caste. Its heartrendingly beautiful, Maadathy - An Unfairy Tale and Leena Manimekalai is a voice to reckon internationally! Kudos to her courage, grit, persistence to make this film happen.

Shocked by the story Satisfied with the making

[jishu-tan · 10/10 · 17 May 2020]

I watched this movie at the KIFF-19 ( Kolkata international film festival-2019) Expecting to watch cross-border films I was a bit skeptic if to enter the screen to watch an Indian movie or wait outside. But when I left d theater that uncanny unusual background score was still beating in my ears..the story was still haunting me..not only because of the struggle n pain that it showed but for the moment when the girl was watching his crush doing heinous crime...the anger n rage in the eyes of the victims left me horrified...underwater camera work, dark humor here and there, the background score, the specticles, the crudity, the intrinsic rawness of the characters, unaltered social division, the direction n screenplay everything mesmerized me. I left the theater with a guilt that i almost thought of waiting outside till the next foreign movie starts..LOL... great experience

More than realistic!

[itsnicki · 10/10 · 13 July 2021]

So my cousin asked me to watch this movie but at that time I had no idea how maadathy movie would make me feel.. trust me the stories which I heard from my paati, I literally saw the same thing which I heard from her... speaking about the culture,caste and how they treated Dalits. Hope maadathy, an unfairly tale will change those humans mindset. As we all wanting to be in a place where we don't want to get judged. Leena mam and her crew did such an outstanding work!! Hope we will get more like this further..!

Wow movie

[ramkithirugnanam · 10/10 · 1 July 2021]

No words to explain this movie , each and every scene is so good , I loved this movie so so much , it's not some regular movie , it makes us to think , hats off to the director and team , pls make these kind of movies , and I will support you forever , guys don't miss the movie watch it.

Maadathy is simple but stunningly elegant creation

[info-29826 · 9/10 · 3 July 2020]

A famous Filmmaker says. film making is a disease and you must be sickened to make your own film. I think Leena Manimekalai is super sick to tell her original story.

It opens a window in my heart to see Maadathy's world which is simple but more powerful to see our own language, our own people, our own color, our own struggle, drama...etc. Thank you Manimekalai for giving me an opportunity to see the film.

A little while ago, an add came from a detergent company saying satin is good. Maadathi is the daughter of the Dhoby family (laundrymen), How Yosana became Maadathy by crossing the river which she should not, the river cleans all the stains of the villager's clothes. Maadathy. she sprinkles stains in our eyes, they are blemishes in our minds.

In India most of us would have heard a story in our childhood about a female deity in the village. This is the story of such a girl goddess (unfair tale) But unlike the usual Amman movies that we used to see. How women became goddess in reality by the treatment women gets in our society in real just because they are women and by the caste.

Like they say "Being simple is most difficult thing", Maadathy is simple but stunningly elegant creations which makes a mark in our heart. Beginning with the strategy to tell the story, the story field, the monsters, the dwellings are all handled appropriately by the director.

Maadathy's Mother Semmalar Annam Exquisite performance, Kudos to Camera panel to make every scene look better. The dialect of South Tamil Nadu is naturally on the screen. The work of the film crew seems to be all over the movie.

The film does not run as fast as the mind of Maadathy but within the circle of her destined to walk slow and steady. Maadathy's character selection is awesome, she doesn't speak much but her character speaks a whole lot.

Maadathy likes to swim in river, and she swims many times. But no (holy) water has washed away her stain. There are many Maadathy's in Tamil Nadu today don't know how to cross the shore.

An alien concept well told, captivating actors

[innomedia-69482 · 8/10 · 10 June 2020]

I watched the movie with a very little comprehension of Tamil and with subtitle I could make out the story well. The depth of the movie was in the concept itself and all the actors seem like real life characters the director has persuaded to join the movie. The camera movements were smooth, and the story kept the suspense for me till 10 minutes before the ending when the gang rape was about to happen.

I love this director, not because she is beautiful but because her story telling and use of dialogues were just apt for the movie.

Very nice experience.

Maadathy : World Class Tamil movie

[sutharson-20805 · 10/10 · 13 July 2021]

This is one of the best movie in Tamil language, Independent films like this must be appreciated. This movie impacted me alot.

For the whole 90 mins I felt like I'm living in that village and forest with Yosana. Great performance by the actors, the camera, the music and the direction, everything is perfect.

Must watch movie, don't miss it.

I will support this kind of movies, I humbly requesting the film makers to make films like this🙏

World Class Movie

[info-03749-66480 · 10/10 · 28 June 2021]

This is one of the best movie, which similar to Capernaum.

Low budget world Class Movie.

• Making is excellent
• Real Story
• Still its happening in Society

I admire the creation,Really best work from Director.

If you like movie Capernaum,Silenced Drama movie Definitely you will like this one too.

-This movie reviles truth.

People who is open hearten will like this movie,You will definitely love this movie.

There is no words to appreciate this kind of creation.

THE FILM IS THE TAGLINE THE TAGLINE IS THE FILM

[vidyuthgrylls · 10/10 · 2 August 2021]

I've already done a detailed review of this movie. Such movies are the need of the hour. The artistic and politicall statement is surely told in a gut wrenching way. If theatres open this movie should be re released and I can give any amount. For certain movies are more about money making and this is one such movie.

Touching and moving experience from the eyes of Yosana !

[anandrrajagopalan · 10/10 · 25 May 2020]

I am privileged to watch the preview of this realistic independent movie through which I can really feel the pain of Madathy through her own eyes . I am a novice reviewer but was really moved and touched by the experience of the movie. I didn't take my eye off for the full 90 mins and I haven't seen a raw movie like this which tells the truth with nothing hidden for the audience. The raw dialogues and the natural ambience keeps the authenticity of the story being told. The one scene where the lead actress shares the pomegranate with monkeys is my best scene of the movie where you can see the joy of sharing on her eyes. The Cinematography of the village/forest landscape is top-class and keeps your eyes entertained throughout the movie and the young actress who did the yosana character really stole the show with her innocence and depiction of the pain at the end. Kudos to Leena and the entire team !!

Must watch movie

[gautierari · 10/10 · 20 May 2020]

Watched #Maadathy by Leena Manimekalai, and I am still struggling to recover from the strong emotional experience. Such a powerful movie with a rare amazing cinematic language. Without extravagance, she has the gift of immersing you in that remote rural tamil nadu. Leena´s narrative style is so natural that it makes you feel every little detail in the movie. The flowing river is throughout the film a mute spectator of the atrocities that the Puthirai Vannar family is subjected. Using rain, dew drops and the river water, Leena tells the story of these Vannar cast, whose main occupation is to clean clothes of the upper caste community. I was blown away by that scene, where the Vannar woman is washing with her feet the cloth smeared with the menstrual blood. For me, it is the best scene of the entire movie. The close up of her feet resume the anger, the shame, the injustice and the social prejudice the cast is suffering from. And the constant presence of the donkey till the climax is a genius clin d´oeil to Robert Bresson and John Abraham. I stopped watching Indian films for the last 20 some years. But I do not regret at all watching Leena´s masterpiece. This film stays with you. Bravo sagodari!

A fine Tamil indie film

[varun-27798 · 8/10 · 27 June 2021]

Everyone should watch this movie to understand how the caste system works or how it still prevails in human society. The reality of puthirai vannar and who oppress them is shocking . As Ambedkar said , indian caste system offers a graded inequality and everyone have someone below them and these people belong at that end of it. And gets oppressed by the people who are oppressed by others . Everyone should know and try to understand the grim reality of how every individual can make others subservient to them and try to change the entire human psychology that deviate towards oppression . A really well made movie. Yosana blends well with the nature and transcends to the audience by good cinematics.

Masterpiece!

[sriramk-10021 · 10/10 · 3 July 2021]

Maadathy - An Unfairy Tale directed by Artist Leena Manimekalai is the statement that movies can be made without mainstreaming it for the masses and film-making is still the part of Art. This film is purely the wholesome Art (mix of painting, poetry) and the artist had produced a wonderful piece "Masterpiece" for us to watch. Watch it and get immersed in the story world of Yosana (the lead character).

This film will

[gocoolnath · 10/10 · 2 July 2021]

I personally loved the film as it was like poem and it impacted me a lot as I was thinking about this film for next three days after watching the film . This film will make viewer to think about society & humanity and make him to be responsible 👍🏿 . Thanks Leena sis ( Director ) for creating this gem film , as this creation will live for ages 🖤

Shocking!

[janakiram460 · 9/10 · 16 January 2022]

Never seen something as shocking as this! This film shows how cruel the caste system is and how ruthless it makes an ordinary people. The pain this movie makes is immeasurable.

On the side note, the making of the movie is fantastic! Wonderful cinematography, Casting and the story telling. Hats off to Leena Manimekalai!