Spoilers ahead…
Najma is a nurse. She heals the wounds on Soorya’s body – but can she heal the wounds that a patriarchal society inflicts on its most vulnerable (i.e. women).
Sarjun KM’s Burqa is set in Chennai, and it opens on the eve of a riot in December. The date is not mentioned, but perhaps it’s December 6, marking yet another anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. Or maybe it’s some other issue that’s become a flash point. Whatever the case, the thing to note is that there are events that continue to inflame people. A curfew has been imposed. The violence outside is the perfect backdrop for a story that questions the “emotional violence” perpetrated in the name of religion, like the Islamic custom of iddah or iddat. Wikipedia defines it as the period after the death of a husband or after a divorce, during which a woman is confined to home and may not marry another man. One of its main purposes is to ensure that if a child is born to the woman, it’s that of the divorced/dead prior husband.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/tamil/movie/review/burqa/
And you can watch the video review here:
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