'Oh Butterfly' Movie Review: A Messy But Watchable Triangular Hate Story

There are a hundred metaphors to choose from in Oh Butterfly; even the “butterfly” in the film’s title is open to multiple interpretations. For one, you may think of Gowri (Nivedhithaa Sathish) as the titular butterfly as she struggles through the fag end of her metamorphosis. Her cocoon is a trap laid out by her mind because she believes she was responsible for her husband’s death. She lives in perennial guilt, fuelled by intrusive thoughts when we meet her for the first time. Right from a tennis ball to a kitchen knife, everyday household objects have the power to trigger something catastrophic in her. As the movie progresses, what we could be seeing in Gowri slowly emerges from this trap as she finally finds a way to fly away, primarily from her old self.

And then the film also leads itself to be read as a case study on the butterfly effect. Tiny, harmless actions at the start have a way of avalanching into disaster. A micro-aggression between Gowri and Arjun right at the beginning may have been the basis for Gowri’s lifelong guilt. Or was this microaggression simply a result of Gowri’s self-sabotaging decision to marry Arjun, just to spite an ex?

All readings seem fair and valid in Vijay Ranganathan’s debut feature. Written like a chamber drama involving three highly volatile characters, the film flips between past and present to show us the days that resulted in Gowri’s present state of mind. With most of the story taking place in hindsight as Gowri narrates incidents of a fateful night, the film also takes the form of a confession, as this unreliable narrator recalls her husband’s mysterious death. And yet it feels unfair to simply call it a confession. This is not a crime drama about Gowri trying to stay away from the police or the judiciary. Both the crime and punishment appear to be internal for Gowri as she explains the sequence of events to her estranged sister Ranjani (Lakshmi Priya). Ranjani herself has found her path in spirituality and together, we see these sisters dismantling Gowri’s mindset to help her return to a state of relative normalcy.

The film is in its elements as long as it sticks to this abstract zone, coming together best when you think of it as a complex thought exercise. But at the core of it, Oh Butterfly can also feel repetitive and obvious, especially when the film spells out everything we see on screen in as many words. The issue isn’t exactly with the conversational format as it has to do with the writing that has gone into each character. While Gowri appears to be a fully developed person with real feelings and regret, one cannot say the same about the others. Take the case of Suriya, Gowri’s ex, who wanders into the plot. Even if we humour the coincidences leading to his entry, it still does not explain the plausibility of such a character. He appears more like an archetype rather than a real person, right from his costumes to his motorbike, his hairstyle to the reason why he’s back in Gowri’s life. Among other things, this is also a reason why exchanges between Arjun, Gowri and Suriya feel too rehearsed and artificial. As a film that’s predominantly set within a small wooden cabin in Kurinji, these exchanges needed to feel explosive for us to empathise with what’s happened to Gowri. But as we see the three characters argue, debate and quarrel, we’re not seeing three messy people, dealing with the result of their selfishness…we’re just looking at the three of them as people who do not require our empathy. 

But we remain fairly engaged, not because we want to see Gowri emerge out of this mess. We engage because the film has been broken down into pieces of a puzzle (there’s a metaphor for this, too), as we try to make sense of the causes that led to this effect on Gowri. Nivedhithaa Sathish, as Gowri, holds it all in place as the guilt-ridden protagonist, struggling to deal with multiple heartbreaks. More than the weight of the baggage she’s been forced to shoulder, the quality of her performance comes through strongest when we finally see Gowri escape the loop of guilt. Oh Butterfly might not be compelling cinema from the word go, but its appeal lies in making you see layers within deeply flawed people and the prisons they build for themselves.