The Color Purple review: A powerful portrait of sisterhood and solidarity

Director Blitz Bazawule’s The Color Purple, adapted from Alice Walker’s epistolary novel (1982) of the same name, not only accomplishes the daunting task of adapting an iconic novel into a musical, it also does justice to depicting the story’s underlying themes — sisterhood, female solidarity and intersectional feminism.

Fantasia Barrino plays Celie, a young woman in Georgia who is separated from her sister Nettie (Halle Bailey) after her abusive husband Albert ‘Mister’ exiles her from his farmhouse. “So many winters gray/And summer's blue/ Days are getting tougher to get through/ What kind of a God are you?” Celie sings as she mourns her separation from her babies — Olivia and Adam and endures abuse by Mister.

An evocative expression of queer desire

In comes a storm, one that shakes up Georgia and makes all the birds in the sky move in circles, signaling an apocalypse — Shug Avery! Taraji P. Henson, who has received critical acclaim for her role in the TV series Empire, plays the sultry, bold and empowered Jazz singer whose sex appeal “makes men weak in the knees”. A stunning musical number sets the stage for what’s about to come — “Skirt so short will shock your mom/ Make a man wanna break the law” sing the fellas on the side as ladies croon, “Lock up your men and their friends too/Shug Avery is a snake, she’s gonna poison you”.

The town’s reaction to Shug’s arrival shows how much of a threat an empowered woman is to both men (who make sexual advances at the woman) and women, whose internalized misogyny makes them despise her. In a telling scene, a young Nettie calls Shug a ‘loose woman’, one cannot be tied down by a man. ‘I want to be a loose woman too’, Celie says, not knowing the term is meant to slut-shame women who are in control of their sexuality.

As Mister tries to win back Shug, Celie grows infatuated with her. In a scene from the film, Celie rubs soap on Shug’s back while Shug is in her room, sitting in a bathtub. I uttered the loudest gasp in the theatre when the room transformed into a gramophone, with the bathtub lying on the revolving record and Celie serenading Shug singing, “I wash her body/It feels like I am praying/ I try not to look but my eyes are not obeying”. It is arguably the most powerful and evocative expression of queer desire in a musical in recent times.

A glimpse of systemic patriarchy

The second loudest gasp from this critic came when Shug made a grand entrance at Harpo’s (Corey Hawkins) jukebox on a boat, gliding through the swamps in the dead of the night. As she enters the jukebox, she breaks into a musical number — as men and women dance and tap their feet to Jazz music, the fuse blows off. Darkness engulfs the space.

In comes the moonlight — shining through the wooden openings as the townsfolk continue with their dance routine unbothered. One is instantly reminded of Michael Jackson’s iconic music video Smooth Criminal which featured a similar set design. Bit by bit, Shug inspires Celie to stand up for herself. “If God loves me, why did he take away my babies?”Celie asks Shug. “Sounds like men did that,” she quips.

Danielle Brooks plays Sofia, a spunky, outspoken and emboldened Georgian woman who, much like Shug, wouldn’t let men walk all over her. In a telling scene, Albert says “Some women you just can’t tame”, referring to Sofia who, quite bravely, stands her ground as patriarchy tries to bog her down. Celie, having spent her life under Albert’s thumb, advises Harpo to beat Sofia. “I said that because I am jealous of you. You do what I can’t. You fight”, Celie confesses to Sofia in a heartbreaking moment — a testimony to how systemic patriarchy turns women against women.

Antidote to the White feminism

Sofia pays a heavy price for her grit and audacity. She is imprisoned for having slighted the mayor’s wife. After her release from prison, Sofia is not the same — she has lost her smile and candour. A broken and battered Sofia bursts into laughter one day when Celie calls Albert a ‘sack of dead horse shit’ — her laugh soon turns into a cry. The same happened with me as a viewer, I smiled at first and then teared up, realizing Sofia had lost her spark.

In the 1985 film The Color Purple, which was helmed by Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey had played Sofia. Brooks has earned herself a much-deserved nomination as the Best Supporting Actress at the 96th Academy Awards for playing Sofia. Undoubtedly, Brooks is just as immaculate in her portrayal of Sofia as Winfrey and lives up to her legacy.

Both Oprah Winfrey and Steven Speilberg serve as producers for the film. There’s also a cameo appearance by the legendary Whoopi Goldberg, who played Celie in the 1985 film and shot to fame thereafter. Besides the callbacks and tributes to earlier adaptations, the musical also experiments with the style and ropes in Black women musicians to play pivotal roles in the film.

Musician H.E.R, who recently performed at the Superbowl with Usher, plays Mary Agnes (Squeak), Harpo’s new girlfriend. She too aspires to be a singer in Memphis like Shug. Singer Ciara plays the older Nettie, who reunites with Celie having returned from a mission in Africa, courtesy Albert who, for once, does the right thing and helps Celie reunite with her kin.

A deeply moving piece of feminist cinema, The Color Purple is a masterfully crafted symphony of emotions which echoes the sound of female solidarity and sisterhood through the harmonicas, banjos and country music. The film is a testimony to the importance of intersectional feminism or womanism — the perfect antidote to the White feminism one has come to despise of late owing to the discourse around Barbie Oscar snub. The film shows just why it is important to be inclusive in one’s feminism and not leave out women of colour.

Should you watch The Color Purple in theatres? To quote Shug “I think it pisses God off when you walk past the color purple and don’t notice it.”

The Color Purple is now playing in theatres