Like most other Malayalis today, I was watching Kalamandalam Sathyabhama’s unapologetic, fierce and for lack of better terms, shameless, fight with the journalists, defending and emphatically reiterating her crass thoughts on regressive beauty standards and who she believes to be “eligible” to fit the bill to being a Mohiniyattam artiste. While her classless discourse and the language she used show the level of her indecency, making a caricature of herself, what caught my attention was the pure conviction with which she spoke.

It just shows how unbelievably deep-rooted her beliefs are and how she knows for sure that nothing will happen to her, that she doesn’t even need to pretend that she is least bothered about political correctness, that she can spew this venom in its most toxic form, because in her mind she is right. She sincerely believes that she is being a crusader for the “ugly” truth. And that is what makes someone like her scary. Even scarier are the ones who might not say a word, but still believe deep inside that she is simply someone with the freedom of expression. Amazing what kind of shit goes down even in the 21st century!

Also published on Medium.