Unnimaya’s love affair with Madhavan (Vineeth) begins with stolen glances and shy smiles. He also takes it upon himself to initiate her remarriage with a friend, which never happens. When an elderly Namboothiri starts beating Unnimaya black and blue during the Smarthavicharam, it is Kunjunni who stops him and is even prepared to take on the child’s paternity to save her. Right from the beginning he has revolted against his father’s marriages and has only sympathy for the young Unnimaya. In that large stifling space, the only voice of dissent turns out to be her stepson, Kunjunni (Manoj K Jayan) who despises everything his community stands for.
When she becomes widowed, Unnimaya takes time to grasp that - apart from wearing plain dreary clothes - even the tiny pleasures of life have been snatched away from her. A stricken Unnimaya can only watch helplessly as her elderly husband bangs the third wife’s head against the wall till it bleeds. It does not help that the third wife (Bindu Panicker) is deranged. The young bride is already on a warpath against her husband’s second wife and third wife. But it does not last long as he gets up almost immediately, gasping. As he impatiently attempts to feel her up, the bride seems to be lying there motionless, in a state of shock. On their wedding night when the bejeweled Unnimaya is gently pushed into the room, we feel an overwhelming sense of pity for the young bride, who perhaps would not have imagined such a fate in her wildest dreams. Unnimaya, in her early 20s, educated and hailing from a progressive family, is forced to marry the old Namboothiri due to financial stress. The film goes back and forth into Unnimaya’s past and present as is evident in that opening song, where she is ushered into the illam as the fourth wife of the 60-year-old Palakunnathu Namboothiri (Jaggannatha Varma).
MT spins an engaging narrative, weaving a brief romance, enticingly blending Kathakali and placing it within the constraints of the community. There are references to Thathrikutty, the Namboothiri woman who challenged brahmin patriarchy by willfully sleeping with 65 men and was later ostracised. Written by MT Vasudevan Nair, directed by Hariharan, Parinayam is a powerful social commentary that throws light on the denigrating patriarchal system that existed in the Namboothiri community during the early 1900s and the pitiable state of women in the community. When she refuses to submit to their inquisition, they order the domestic worker not to give her a drop of water. The Smarthan (Thilakan) is ruthless, ridiculing and humiliating her with questions about her pregnancy, even as the onlookers break into peals of laughter. She is made to recite the plight of the victim all over again. They begin with the domestic worker (Dasivicharam) who is stationed outside the outhouse. The Smarthavicharam, where a Namboothiri slips into the role of a smarthan (judge) surrounded by other Brahmins, is disturbingly played out like the ordeals rape survivors are subjected to in the court of law. For them, this is a celebratory occasion-gloating about their multiple wives and mistresses, enquiring about the food, indulging in nourishing oil baths, and occasionally smirking at the “sadhanam” (inanimate object) locked in the outhouse. A stream of old, garrulous paan-chewing Namboothiri men have gathered for the impending trial. The accused Unnimaya (Mohini), the young widow of Palakunnathu Namboothiri, has been imprisoned in a dark, dingy room. “For a widow, laughter is more frightening than weeping/ Priestly class, do you know the pain and agony of it?/ It is the fire of this agony that is forever blazing inside namboodiri houses” - Lalithambika AntharjanamĪt the expansive and decadent Palakunnathu tharavadu, the arena is all set for a Smarthavicharam (inquiry into conduct).