Ethir Neechal - a summary
Hi kids
It's really all my grandparents talk about at this rate, and as a erratic, occasional episode watcher, I take it upon myself to dot-point in a post before hitting the specifics (meaning I sporadically watch the occasional episode and string together the whatevers because there's more than 700 episodes and I have only one braincell).
INTRODUCTION
We start with Janani, a successfully graduated from university human lady (I'm on my last straw with my second year, struggling so very hard to not pull the plug on my life because I'm an idiot box), who was vibing as one does until her father is all "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife" and marries her off into the first family he finds, which he thinks, will be nice to his kid and let her climb corporate ranks and ultimately get a cushy CEO job.
Turns out the family is full of misogynistic dicks. Oops. Her ambitions of becoming a CEO of god knows what crumble but this lady starts asking questions and starts a revolt, a feminist movement if you will, to help the women of the family give their "fuck you" to the patriarchy.
THE CHARACTERS
Janani: lady who was raised right by her dad to have some self-respect and honestly needs a fucking nap.
Le brothers:
I only start with them because fleshing out who the sisters are and why they are the way they are is easier with context (spoiler, these guys are dipshits)
Brother no 1 - Gunasekaran: Janani's brother in law and the head of the misogynist family. He's the dude we hate, psychologically fucks up the other three brothers by making sure, like him, they don't get an education and thus can't think for themselves, believes women should be stuck in the kitchen, raising kids then burying themselves alive. He makes sure that these women have educations from universities before degrading them completely. He's a real one.
Brother no 2 - Gnanasekaran: Bro has no fucking clue about what life is but I think he may have half a braincell floating in there so there's that.
Brother no 3 - Kathir: Bro has no braincell. Bro lacks anything in there. Bro and critical thinking are Venn diagrams with their circles not within existence of each other.
Brother no 4 - Shakthi: Bro desperately needs a therapist but because this is a desi serial depicting a backwards family, I bet you my goofy Batman magnet he will never see one. He's married to Janani and is essentially malewife. We don't mind him eventually.
Le co-sisters
Eshwari: married to Gunasekaran and I fucking love this lady because she reminds me of my grandma and my grandma is the bestest. She's a vibe, needs a therapist and lots of hugs for having a husband that fucked up.
Renuka: married to Gnanasekaran. She's observant, and sort of the in between, I love her and she needs a therapist and somehow strikes me as a possible cat lady if she'd never married this jackass. I mean this as the biggest compliment possible.
Nandhini: my grandpa's first favourite and my second. She's a sass master, spirit crushed by the dicks of this family and she deserves all the hugs. She's comic relief and smart about how she talks (brash as well, which is where Renuka levels her out).
The Other Characters
Pattamal: absolute BAMF. She's Gunasekaran's grandma and she's kicked ass and taken names. Highly educated, crapped by this family and found her feet once Janani enters and starts the "wtf are you guys smoking, this is not the 1800's".
Aathirai: Sister to the brothers, a piece of shit in the beginning by bullying her sister-in-laws and pulling absolutely no weight around her brothers. Then when her brother marries her off to some insane, far more abusive family she sees the light and starts to help the sister-in-laws. More on that later.
Visalatchi: the mother of the three brothers, toxic patriarchal mindset, is a garbage person to women in the household despite being one. She sees almost no wrong in her sons.
Wooo that was a rant. More to come. There's plenty to unpack with the garbled stuff I've got over the episodes I've seen and my grandma's narrations for the ones I've missed.
Gonna hit the coma, the best eight hours out of the rest of my idiot twenty four hours.
Outis
