Magalir Mattum (1994 film)

Magalir Mattum (transl. Ladies only) is a 1994 Indian Tamil-language satirical film directed by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, produced by Kamal Haasan, and written by Crazy Mohan. The film stars Nassar, Revathi, Urvashi and Rohini. It revolves around three women deciding to gang up against their lecherous office boss who constantly harasses them.

This article is about the 1994 film. For the 2017 film, see Magalir Mattum (2017 film).

Magalir Mattum
Poster
Directed bySingeetam Srinivasa Rao
Produced byKamal Haasan
Screenplay byCrazy Mohan
Story byKamal Haasan
StarringNassar
Revathi
Urvashi
Rohini
Music byIlaiyaraaja
CinematographyThirunavukarasu
Edited byN. P. Sathish
Production
company
Distributed byRaaj Kamal Films International
Release date
  • 25 February 1994 (1994-02-25)
Running time
132 minutes[1]
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil

Haasan wrote a story inspired by the American film 9 to 5 (1980) which Mohan then expanded into the screenplay of Magalir Mattum. The film was Thirunavukarasu's first as an independent cinematographer, P. N. Satish worked as the editor, and the music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja while the lyrics were written by Vaali.

Magalir Mattum was released on 25 February 1994 and became a commercial success, running for over 175 days in theatres. For her performance, Urvashi won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize for Best Actress. The film became a milestone in Tamil cinema for the topics it addressed such as workplace harassment and male gaze, and is regarded as an early example of the Me Too movement in India.

Plot

Janaki and Pappamma are two women employed at a fashion export company. Janaki is a shy woman who works as a typist to support her family after her husband lost his job in a factory. Pappamma, who lives with her drunkard rickshaw-puller husband and earns for both their living and her husband's drinking expense, is a housekeeper there. All the women in the company face a common threat in the form of their manager G. K. Pandian. Although married, he is a womaniser, and harasses his female employees regularly. The women tolerate his behaviour due to their family circumstances.

Sathya, a computer graduate, joins the company as a designer. Noting her intelligence and beauty, Pandian attempts to get closer to her, and initially believing his overtures are strictly platonic, Sathya accepts an invite to dine with him. This is noted by the other employees, who misread the situation and alienate her. When Pandian presents her with a silk sari, Sathya understands his real intentions and rebukes him, gaining the respect and friendship of Janaki and Pappamma, who are fed up with their manager's antics. Their blossoming friendship sees Janaki becoming increasingly courageous and she starts to speak up when treated unfairly, a point noted sourly by Pandian's sidekick Madhavi.

One day, Janaki is asked to work late by Pandian. Asked to prepare coffee, she unknowingly mixes rat poison in Pandian's coffee instead of sugar and gives it to him. Alerted by his scream, Janaki runs into his office to find an unconscious Pandian sprawled on the floor. Believing the worst, she requests Sathya and Pappamma to help her. They take him to the hospital, and later hear that a patient has died due to consuming a strong dosage of poison. Believing it is Pandian who has died, they kidnap the corpse and take it to Sathya's room, not knowing that Pandian actually fainted due to a minor injury and has recovered, and the body belongs to a terrorist who died after drinking cyanide. Panicking, they decide to return the body to the hospital. After several mishaps, the police take the body away.

Pandian returns to work but upon learning of what happened from Madhavi, he blackmails the trio into spending three nights with him in his guesthouse. He tells them if they disagree, he will have them arrested. The trio appear to assent, but once they reach the house, they overpower him, tie him up and imprison him in a room. Sathya takes charge as acting manager in the office, and with the help of Janaki, Pappamma and the other employees, brings about many changes there. Sathya soon receives information from the head office about the boss's visit, which puts the trio in a quandary as Pandian is still in their custody. The trio decide to come clean about what happened and rush to the airport to receive the boss who they have never seen. However, Madhavi overhears them and rescues Pandian, and they head to the airport. Meanwhile, the trio arrive at the airport but miss the boss, who leaves with Pandian. They rush to the office next.

Upon reaching the office, the boss finds it radically changed. A flustered Pandian says that he is not responsible for them, and blames Sathya, Janaki and Pappamma. However, the boss appreciates the trio for their innovative ideas, and tells Pandian he is aware of his misogynistic behaviour and harassment towards his employees, relayed to him by a spy he had planted in the office. He decides to leave the charge of the office in the hands of the trio, and transfers Pandian and Madhavi to Andaman. He offers Janaki's husband a job in his friend's factory and Pappamma's husband a job as a watchman in their school, delighting them. When he inquires about Sathya's marriage, Janaki says that she has a artistic rendition of her dream husband drawn in her computer. Sathya shows him her rendition and they are all surprised to see that her dream husband looks exactly like their boss. The boss asks Sathya to marry him, and she accepts his proposal.

Cast

Production

Development

After being inspired by the American film 9 to 5 (1980), Kamal Haasan wrote a story, narrated it to Crazy Mohan and asked him to develop it into a screenplay. Haasan was not sure "if we could turn it into a two-hour film", so a subplot featuring a terrorist's corpse was one of the things Mohan included to expand the screenplay.[5] This subplot was inspired by a TV series in which one of his troupe members acted as a corpse.[7] Mohan's wife wrote the screenplay while he was explaining every scene. The title Magalir Mattum, which translates to "Ladies Only" had been suggested by Mohan because buses carrying this text "were quite popular then and people would instantly connect to the subject of the film."[5]

Singeetam Srinivasa Rao was hired to direct,[5] while Haasan produced the film under his banner Raaj Kamal Films International.[8] Haasan wanted P. C. Sreeram to be the cinematographer, but since he was busy with Thiruda Thiruda (1993), his assistant Thirunavukarasu, who later became known as Tirru, was recruited instead.[5] The film was Thirunavukarasu's first as an independent cinematographer; he previously assisted Sreeram in Haasan's Thevar Magan (1992).[9] Thirunavukarasu has stated that Rao "almost summarily dismissed" him because he did not generally work with novices, "but I was able to prove my technical worth in the opening shots, with a lot of help from Kamal, who had immense faith in my capabilities".[10] R. Velraj worked as an assistant cinematographer in the film.[11] P. N. Satish worked as the editor,[12] and Haasan's then-wife Sarika designed the costumes.[13]

Casting

For the three female leads, Rao wanted actresses who were good friends in real life, so he cast Revathi, Urvashi, and Rohini. He noted, "When we were doing their combination scenes there was so much life in it because they were friends."[14] Rohini was offered to play Pappamma, a de-glamorised servant; she recalled that she agreed to do it "without a second thought" and since she grew up in Chennai, she "didn't have to work on the slang".[5][15] Urvashi recalled that Haasan asked her to "choose the one you'd be interested"; she liked Pappamma due to "rawness that stems from her family situation", but chose to act as Janaki because "she's a character that audiences relate to".[16] Revathi was cast as Sathya;[1] as with Rohini and Urvashi, she agreed to act in the film without second thoughts.[8]

Nassar was chosen to portray G. K. Pandian, his first humour oriented character.[5] Mohan was initially apprehensive about casting Nassar in a comical role as he was known mainly for serious negative roles, but Haasan remained adamant.[7] Director Bharathiraja and poet Vairamuthu were initially approached for the character of the office supervisor Thamizhavan; however producer Kalaipuli S. Thanu appeared in that role, and Magalir Mattum was his only film as an actor.[5][17] Haasan decided to cast Nagesh as the corpse of the terrorist, and Mohan felt he was the "best choice".[7] Though the character of the office boss was originally written as a woman, the cast wanted Haasan to play that role and he assented.[16] Sathya, then known mainly for playing servant roles, was cast against type as Pandian's sidekick Madhavi.[18]

Filming

Magalir Mattum entered production in the first half of 1993. It was one of the few films launched during a period of a ban imposed on film production in Tamil Nadu by distributors' associations.[19] The set of the office was established on the second floor of a building that was being constructed at the then Vauhini Studios.[5] While filming the scene where the corpse is being carried by the protagonists, Nagesh was asked by Rao to keep a smirk on his face throughout the sequence. Rao told him to let his body go totally limp; this proved difficult for both him and the three female leads, as they had to carry his entire weight.[8]

The stunt scene involving Nagesh was filmed on a set erected at Campa Cola. The team waited for three months to film the song "Karavai Maadu" as all three lead actresses had to be in it. It was ultimately decided to film the portions separately with Nassar depending upon the availability of actress on that day. Raghuram, who choreographed the song, completed it in such a way that "the shots could later be edited and made to look like they all shot together".[5] The final length of the film was 3,612 metres (11,850 ft).[12]

Themes

Magalir Mattum revolves around workplace harassment and male gaze.[16][20] Writing for Sify, Sowmya Rajendran said the film addresses many issues that women employees face, such as "feminization of poverty, the problems of a middle-class, new mother who has to get back to work to make a living" and the "anger of a single, talented woman who has to keep her temper in check if she’s to retain her job".[21] The protagonists – Sathya, Janaki and Pappamma – are representatives of three different classes of society.[22] Urvashi has stated that the film's idea was to show that "women, irrespective of class difference, face the same problems in a patriarchal society." She described Janaki as exhibiting "a typical middle-class mentality", Pappamma as her opposite who "carries a bold and brazen attitude", and Sathya as "an independent woman who's very precise about things".[16]

Soundtrack
Magalir Mattum
Soundtrack album by
Ilaiyaraaja
ReleasedDecember 1993
GenreFeature film soundtrack
Length23:38
LabelAVM Audio

The soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, while the lyrics for all the songs were written by Vaali. It was released under the label AVM Audio in December 1993.[23][24] Ilaiyaraaja, using the technique of M. B. Sreenivasan, composed the title track as a choir song.[5] Urvashi was initially displeased with "Karavai Maadu" because it contained lyrics she considered were degrading, but after Vaali explained to her why he wrote those words, she was convinced.[16]

Tamil tracklist[23]
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Magalir Mattum"VaaliChorus5:58
2."Karavai Maadu"VaaliS. P. Balasubrahmanyam, S. Janaki6:06
3."Mothu Mothuunnu"VaaliS. Janaki6:38
4."Veettai Thaandi"VaaliS. Janaki4:57
Malayalam tracklist[25]
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Veettil Ninne"Mankombu GopalakrishnanS. Janaki 
2."Thattaanam Muttile"Mankombu GopalakrishnanS. Janaki 
3."Sthreejanamennum"Mankombu GopalakrishnanChorus 
4."Cricket Ball Onnu"Mankombu GopalakrishnanM. G. Sreekumar, S. Janaki 
Telugu tracklist[26]
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Bandakesi"RajashriK. S. Chithra 
2."Chakkani Chilakalu"RajashriK. S. Chithra, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam 
3."Udyogaalu"RajashriK. S. Chithra 
4."Aadadhi Ante"RajashriK. S. Chithra 

Release

Magalir Mattum was released on 25 February 1994.[27] No distributor was willing to buy the film since it featured no romance or a hero; as a result, Haasan had to distribute it himself.[28] Despite this, the film was a commercial success, running for over 175 days in theatres,[29] and becoming a silver jubilee film.[30] Urvashi attributed the film's success to the fact that it "told the sufferings through comedy", and may have been rejected by audiences if it was a serious film.[16] For her performance, she won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize for Best Actress.[31]

Reception

On 25 February 1994, Malini Mannath of The Indian Express called the film "a welcome breath of fresh air". She went on to praise Nassar's performance, saying that "his expressions are a treat to watch [..] he can do comedy too with ease". She also praised the performances of Revathi and Rohini and complimented Urvashi "with her sense of comedy who come out the best the humour and punchlines coming naturally".[32] The review board of Ananda Vikatan said the filmmakers must be appreciated for presenting a high-class comedy entertainer without any vulgarity or double entendre dialogues and becoming a benchmark for humour. They said that among the three female leads, Urvashi had lived through the character of a Brahmin girl and made them laugh throughout the film. The review board praised the cinematography and wrote that the filmmakers certainly moved a few steps ahead in their effort to present a neat and entertaining comedy film, and gave Magalir Mattum a rating of 44 marks out of 100.[6] On 12 March, K. Vijiyan of New Straits Times praised Haasan and Mohan's writing, the performances of the lead actors, and concluded, "Ladies, Kamalhassan has made this movie just for you. Make that man in your life tak you away for this one and he will probably also enjoy it too".[18]

Other versions

Magalir Mattum was dubbed in Malayalam as Ladies Only,[25] and in Telugu as Adavallaku Matrame.[33][34] The film was remade in Hindi as Ladies Only in 1997 by Dinesh Shailendra. Seema Biswas, Shilpa Shirodkar and Heera Rajagopal were cast as the female leads and Randhir Kapoor was selected to reprise Nassar's character. Haasan produced the film and appeared as the corpse. Though the film was completed, it failed to have a theatrical release.[35][36]

Legacy

Magalir Mattum attained cult status,[20] and became a milestone in Tamil cinema for the topics it addresses, being regarded as an early example of the Me Too movement in India.[5][16] Nassar's character of Pandian attained iconic status, and later became "the face of all memes and posts related to harassment at the workplace."[37] Producer Suriya obtained permission to reuse the film's title; his production Magalir Mattum, also featuring Urvashi and Nassar, was released in 2017.[38]

References
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Bibliography
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