Prøve GULL - Gratis

Cinema As Healing Balm

Outlook

|

October 29, 2018

A film on caste oppression and honour killings has touched Tamil hearts

- G.C. Shekhar in Chennai

Cinema As Healing Balm

KARUPPI, the black hunting dog, is merely a symbol. From its free-spirited roaming of the countryside to being tied down to the railway tracks to be crushed by the roaring wheels of a train, Karuppi exemplifies how those held captive by the manacles of caste are oppressed by the more powerful in society. The treatment meted out to his dog in the opening scene is literally extended over the next two hours to the hero—a law student from a village inhabited by Dalits. For its intense yet non-inimical portrayal of this constant struggle for basic social decency, the movie Pariyerum Perumal (The God Who Rides a Horse), named after the main protagonist, will go down as a watershed moment in Tamil cinema.

Directed by debutant Mari Selvaraj, a Dalit filmmaker, the movie has proved to be a commercial success even while earning critical acclaim for treating a sensitive subject with great finesse. Its chosen method is not to raise the hackles of the elite castes, but to make them pause and ponder—especially about the recent spate of honour killings. The film shows a mason bumping off Dalit men and, at times, even elite-caste girls for inter-caste relationships. All in the name of caste pride.

Through the entire journey of the hero, brilliantly portrayed by Kadhir, not once do the caste names ring out. Instead, the context of Tirunelveli district, known for caste clashes between Thevars and Dalits, sets the tone for a conflict passed down generations. Whether the mental trauma he undergoes in his college, the physical abuse at the hands of the heroine’s relatives or the public humiliation of his father, the film is an unforgiving reminder of repression in the name of caste.

Outlook

Denne historien er fra October 29, 2018-utgaven av Outlook.

Abonner på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av kuraterte premiumhistorier og over 9000 magasiner og aviser.

Allerede abonnent?

FLERE HISTORIER FRA Outlook

Outlook

Free the Word

Book bans are about fear, control and the desperate need to manage public imagination

time to read

7 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

Outlook

Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaye to Kya Hai

Guru Dutt, whose birth centenary falls this July, created cinematic masterpieces amid the fog of his own uncertainty

time to read

6 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

Outlook

When the Words Stop

Our worst algorithms have come home to haunt us. The nightmare is no longer something we dream up. It is dreamt on our behalf

time to read

16 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

Outlook

Rath Jatra

Is Mamata Banerjee's embrace of Lord Jagannath the latest counter to the BJP's Ram-centric politics?

time to read

5 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

Zan, Zindagi, Azadi

As missiles fall silent—for now—it's time to explore whether the heart of the Iran-Israel conflict lies in a deeper battle over culture and values

time to read

3 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

Outlook

The She Voter

Political parties in Bihar are looking to woo women voters—who constitute almost half of the vote bank—ahead of the state Assembly election

time to read

7 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

Outlook

Veil, Women and Warfare

Policies—whether in the West or in the Muslim world—are imposed on women, not developed with them or for them. How they dress becomes shorthand for community honour, nationalism or piety

time to read

8 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

Outlook

Forever Hotel

This novel is a flawed, luminous, maximalist love letter to Kolkata’s layered soul

time to read

4 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

Outlook

Regimentation

The US has zero moral authority to want to tell the Tehran regime to behave itself or be nice to its own people

time to read

5 mins

July 11, 2025

Outlook

The Way We War

Modern warfare is a shape-shifting entity and the information explosion has expanded the battlespace far beyond the battlefield

time to read

5 mins

July 11, 2025