How a censored report released after five years triggered a ‘WeToo’ Wave in Malayalam cinema

Minor tremors lead to major explosions; Pandemonium sets in

What began as minor ripples went on to lead to a major explosion. A good five days later, chaos ensued, that too on the very day AMMA chose to publicly respond to the Hema report.

A Bengali actress accused senior director-actor and chairman of the State Chalachithra Academy, Ranjith, of sexual misconduct, while she was auditioning for his 2009 film Paleri Manikyam. After dilly-dallying for a day, while the Left leadership clearly distanced itself from him, he chose to step down.

A double-dhamaka followed, as senior actor and general secretary of AMMA, Siddique, too chose to step down after a young actress accused him of sexual assault — an allegation that she had made public in 2019 about a 2016 incident. As the industry grappled with the two high-profile resignations, a floodgate of revelations was opened, akin to the MeToo movement in the Hollywood.

A slew of actors and filmmakers including actor-turned-politician M Mukesh, Jayasurya, Maniyampilla Raju, Baburaj, Edavela Babu, Sudheesh, VK Prakash and Sreekumar Menon came under the shadow of suspicion, after allegations of misconduct were levelled against them. In a span of hours, an array of junior artistes and young actresses had levelled a series of accusations of sexual violations and exploitations. What’s more, on August 27, the whole AMMA executive led by president veteran actor Mohanlal dramatically resigned.

Differing voices in actors’ outfit

The mass resignation of the powerful actors’ body happened after a few open revolts spilled out into the public eye. The resentment within the outfit was amply felt, after few senior actors including its vice president and senior character actor, Jagadeesh, openly dismissing the organisation’s official position and calling for an immediate probe into all allegations.

If an actress had given a statement that someone had persistently knocked on the door of her room at night with wrong intent, it ought to be investigated, said Jagadeesh, referring to remarks in the Hema report about a persistent issue cited by many actresses — the dreaded knocking on doors at night.

Close on the heels, followed superstar Prithviraj who openly admitted of lapses on the part of AMMA, and demanded action on the Hema report. Popular actor Tovino Thomas too expressed his opinion in favour of looking into complaints.

A confused government – the political angle!

The whole Hema report fiasco in fact exposes the kind of confusion within the government when it comes to dealing with sexual crimes of such a high-profile nature. The CPM-led government, which has a declared stance of zero tolerance towards anti-women crimes, is finding it increasingly difficult to deal with the after-effects of the Hema report.

While demands came from various corners to initiate legal actions against those named, the government chose to insist that it cannot do so, unless the aggrieved come forward and file fresh complaints, setting the backdrop for a political slug-fest. The chaotic mess that followed forced the Kerala High Court to intervene, asking how the authorities could ignore the recommendations!

The government did form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe all the revelations that kept tumbling out of the closet. Ironically, the carefully worded statement didn’t make any mention of the Hema panel and its content. The SIT got on to the job immediately, as a few artistes approached the team with complaints, including one against actor turned CPM MLA M Mukesh. With persistent calls, even from within the Left, for Mukesh’s resignation, the CPM chose, as usual, to drag its feet over the whole issue.