Unseen battle

Today as I came across a few lines from a novel I thought back to a movie I watched years ago known as "Meesha Madhavan".

 I wanted to highlight a particular scene from the movie regarding a soldier. The scene is portrayed in a humourous way but if we look at it differently it's a very serious situation faced by many survivors.

In the scene, we see a soldier who comes back from the front living with his wife. He goes to the temple and while he is praying the sound of crackers reminds him of the war zone and out of habit he lies on the ground. The memory of him in the front was triggered by the sound and it is the result of the trauma.

The soldier known as Pattalam Purushu, who does not often appear on screen but during his presence, we see the psychological scars that he has during the time he served in the military. We also find him suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The psychological scars that he carries become an obstacle to adapting to normal civilian life and we see the trauma unintentionally surfacing during the temple scene. The character is often isolated and as an audience, we can see the alienation that takes place within his community.

These serious realities are portrayed with a comic effect making the audience feel lighthearted and also think deeply about the sufferings of the soldiers and how they need the community to stay together to overcome the trauma.