22 Female Kottayam

Movie Review: What makes Ashiq Abu’s 22 Female Kottayam upsetting is the way the female lead character is portrayed in the movie. Tessa K Abraham, played by Rima Kallingal, is always willing to surrender, initially out of love and then to achieve her end. Her body is her only strength when it comes to taking on men.

“You don’t have to do it for free,” Tessa shamelessly assures a rich man to whom she clings to exact revenge. The statement is shocking.

Tessa, who at one moment appears an imposing figure, suddenly looks very feeble. Her submission reduces her to a weakling for whom one can have only pity. Her deeds imply that men are indomitable but for their lust and that is perhaps the only way women can overpower them.

But Kallingal exhibits boldness in emoting Tessa, which is undone by a script laden with contradictions. Fahad Fazil is engaging not just in the hilarious booze scene but throughout the film. T G Ravi appears as the warmest character in the film even as the frames by Shyju Khalid are soaked in a luminous tone. Ashiq Abu in his keenness to empower his lead character orchestrates one of the most unnatural climax scenes produced of late. The film has a theme as old as the Kannaki myth but comes nowhere near in terms of inspiration.