16 sacrificing wife. “It must be my fault then,” she reassures him. Given what transpires between Chinn Amma and her husband, itis not surprising that she turns away Pillai. ‘She is much too insecure to fight the patriarchy and its attempts to control her, Nor ‘can she reject the double standards imposed on her by a society that has been patently unfair to her kind, The shot of her standing in the doorways, bidding Pillai farewell, reveals her barely concealed desire for him. ‘Taught to repress such illicit desires and their forbidden pleasures, she chooses to live out her repressions by conforming to her prescribed role of the morality married woman. ‘The film has a brief coda that is disorienting at first. During the goodbye scene, the camera cuts from Chinnu Amma at the doorway to a slow pan that stops at 1 young woman in pink sari. She is in a room with other women, listening toa female voice speaking off screen. The voice states how if she had had a child, he would have looked after her in her old age, but what mattered to her most was keeping honour and virtue intact, We realize the voice belong to the elderly Chinnu Amma, who has just narrated the story of herself and now seeks to justify her choice to reject Pillai. Despite her attitude of moral righteousness, her tone is wistful and suggests the opposite —a sense of regret has remained with her, Also, the fact that she needs to tell her story (often?) isin itself a sign that she can't let go of her past. Chinmu Amma is doomed: like so many others to live ou the lie behind which she hides. However the ‘coda manages to offera glimmer of hope. ‘The juxtaposition of past and present, of old age and youth, suggests that the new generation of women in their colourful saris and bright faces will not falter when stis the time for them to decide. Hopefully, they will choose passion over a deadening morality and not remain trapped in the doorway. Scanned with CamScanner