Thappad Movie Review

Thappad Movie Review

“So Just one Slap then!” as the lawyer of Tapsee Pannu tries to make her reconsider her decision of filing a petition for divorce over just a SIMPLE SLAP, she replies with “Just a slap but Nahi Marr sakta”. Thappad is a powerful thappad to the patriarch mindset and all the regressive and bigoted mentality. The movies powerful premise stands strong upon the shoulders of the equally distinguished actors who carry the movie forward implying an equally powerful social message.

Amrita played by Tapsee and Vikram played by Pavail are living a happy life. While Amrita is a caring homemaker, everyday trying to make the most out of her life for the betterment of her husband, Vikram is a career driven person overlooking all the efforts his wife makes to make him happy. One evening, Vikram on a heated debate with his boss slaps Amrita. Amrita tries to comprehend what had occurred and finally decides to file a petition for divorce after going through stages of self-doubt and self-assertion.

Director Anubhav Sinha (as everybody is calling him ver 2.0) has yet again delivered a powerful movie based on a very strong social subject. He tries to mirror our society in front of us letting us decide who is the antagonist and protagonists of this story. Tapsee Pannu is best at her game delivering some of the most beautiful as well as powerful performances. The equally strong supporting cast of Kumud Mishra, Ratna Pathak Shah, Tanvi Azmi, Maya Sarao and my favourite Geetika Vidya Ohlyan makes the movie more impactful. The most shining performances were of Kumud Mishra who plays a loving supporting father and Geetika who plays a domestic helper. The previous Soni fame Geetika is a complete surprise, of what we had seen of her in Soni that persona is complexly flipped sometimes being hard to convince myself that this is the same person. There are a few underwhelming aspects of the movie but with a powerful subject like this these are all absolvable.

We live in a patriarch society where women are still advised to “tolerate” all the domestic violence in order to save the relation or “Duniya le k bhanxa” mentality. Thappad makes us rethink every mindset we had possessed till now. Even I found few scenes a moment of revelation to understand what big deal for us is what women go through every day.

In the starting of the movie we see multiple stories each coming from different stature of society but one thing is common in all that is “Orange Popsicle”.  These stories later develops and tells us more about the love and the relationship keeping the main premise of the movie aside. My perception of the orange Popsicle is it symbolizes love no matter whatever your social status or class you belong to, love prevails among all.