Here's why Asif Ali’s latest Malayalam film left me shocked and disappointed

Dubai: Just when you think Malayalam cinema is making progressive strides and taking one for the women’s team, along comes Malayalam-language Eid release Aabhyanthara Kuttavaali — a deeply disturbing misfire disguised as a well-intentioned satire.

Directed by debutant Sethunath Padmakumar and starring Asif Ali, the film had a premise brimming with potential: what happens when laws meant to protect women from abuse are misused by women themselves.

It’s a complicated question — but instead of exploring that grey area with nuance, the film turns into a full-blown screech-fest where men are the misunderstood martyrs and women are painted as manipulative, vindictive, or just plain mute shrews.

The young bride who takes her in-laws to court is written as the ultimate caricature — a woman weaponising the law for her own gain. Even the female lawyer, who could have brought some moral balance, is bizarrely silent in court, unable or unwilling to defend the male protagonist.

I was especially disappointed in Asif Ali, who has recently taken such thoughtful creative risks in films like Kishkinda Kaandam.

But here, he leans into a male-saviour narrative with no self-awareness, playing the misunderstood victim with zero complexity.

Instead of challenging the script’s shallow worldview or elevating it with subtlety, he simply coasts. It’s not just the film that failed — Asif Ali’s decision to sign on to this tone-deaf project is what truly let me down.

To make things worse, the film almost says something important. It hints at how women are often forced into marriages, and even begins to explore an emotionally rich friendship between two women. But when that relationship starts to suggest intimacy or solidarity beyond surface level, the film quickly sanitises it — erasing all subtext. It wants credit for "batting for women’s choices" while ultimately reinforcing regressive, male-centric narratives.

Aabhyanthara Kuttavaali could have been a sharp, necessary look at how systems meant to protect women can be twisted — but instead, it becomes a cautionary tale of how not to tell that story. A cop-out from start to finish.

Aabhyanthara Kuttavaali is out in UAE cinemas now