Magalir Mattum (1994 film)

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.

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

• Dhananjayan, G. (2011). The Best of Tamil Cinema, 1931 to 2010: 1977–2010. Galatta Media. ISBN 978-81-921043-0-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Rajadhyaksha, Ashish; Willemen, Paul, eds. (1998) [1994]. Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (PDF). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-563579-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

• Magalir Mattum at IMDb
• Magalir Mattum at Complete Index to World Film