A ‘tractor’ of worries and exploitation that farmers don’t want to ride

India is the world’s largest tractor market by volume, nearly 2.5 times of China and 3.5 of the US, according to a report published in a leading English daily recently. At least 9.5 lakh units were sold domestically in 2022-23 and four million cumulatively in the last five years, it said.

Machines have taken over the role of traditional ploughing practises in many villages. The Mattu Pongal, a thanks-giving celebration to the cattle for their contribution to farming, has been symbolic in many parts of Tamil Nadu since the arrival of tractors. Technological advancement apart, the sudden rise of mechanisation in the field of agriculture brings in a sense of financial uncertainty in the life of many single and small-scale farmers.

Some private sectors betray innocent farmers, using their fraudulent marketing strategy. A native of Tamil Nadu’s Salem, Ramesh Yanthra is not new to this kind of exploitation. Coming from a traditional agriculture family, Ramesh has been a witness to the hardships that his friends and relatives undergo due to fake policies and corrupt microfinancing in the farming sector. He wanted to address this issue through a medium that he is familiar with.

The result was Tractor, a narrative feature film in which the struggles faced by Indian farmers with tractor loan repayment underscore the need for comprehensive solutions that go beyond mere financial assistance. “Sustainable agricultural practices, coupled with supportive policies and literacy initiatives, can empower farmers to overcome these challenges and secure a more resilient future for themselves and their communities,” says Ramesh Yanthra, director of Tractor, which was honoured with the jury award at the 14th Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival held in New Delhi recently.

The 107-minute-long movie in Tamil portrays the story of Muthuvel, a young farmer, who lives with his wife and mother in a hilly terrain. He happens to hear about the launch of a new financial investment scheme and invests his money in it. After a slight delay, the company announces that Muthu is the lucky winner of the first prize, a tractor. As Muthu awaits the arrival of his prize (tractor), he decides to purchase accessories for the tractor, such as ploughs, top hoods and trailers by selling his livestock.

The vehicle, however, is not delivered on the scheduled day. After a couple of months, Muthu gets a call from the tractor showroom and a brand new tractor arrives. A few months later, Muthu realises that the tractor is under a bank loan and he has to clear the pending EMI amount. Muthu tries to sell his tractor, but he cannot do it as the tractor is under bank hypothecation. He runs from pillar to post to pay the monthly instalments, but fails mainly due to poor returns from his farm. During the following year, the harvest festival Pongal is celebrated without livestock and replaced with the tractor. As Muthu's family watches TV news, they hear about the confiscation of a tractor from a farmer by using brutal police force in a place called Thanjavur. Muthu’s wife, Selvi decides to do away with the tractor. She takes the vehicle to the top of the hill, leaves it there and returns.

The idea struck Ramesh when he saw a video on a social networking site in which some policemen forcefully took the custody of a tractor from a farmer in Thanjavur in 2016. “Even though I was aware of the hardships that farmers undergo due to exploitation, the video disturbed me a lot. The police used force to kick the owner out of his tractor. They beat him and finally took him away. There are a number of incidents in which my relatives and friends lost their cattle and land by falling into the traps laid by the agents of multi-level marketing. I wanted to expose those things through a feature film,” says Ramesh, who is known for his documentaries Gudiyam Caves, and The Father of Indian Prehistory.

The story begins on a Mattu Pongal day and ends on the same festival day the next year. The one year marks the transformation, from the traditional to the mechanised, from the real bulls to the figurines of bullheads on the front bumper and bonnet of the tractors. A lot of things take place in the lives of farmers during this one-year period. “Although many farmers have shifted to tractors, they still keep a small figurine of the bull head on the bonnet or bumper of their tractors. This is pure gratitude towards their cattle which they worship as gods. The story is fictional, but many of its sequences are based on real events. The farmers, particularly those in the southern part of India, are becoming victims of many financial scams due to lack of awareness and illiteracy. I hope my film will create a sense of awareness about the issue among farmers,” says Ramesh.

The shooting of Tractor was done in Salem and its surrounding areas. Ramesh has a reason for it. “I am a native of Salem. And I grew up listening to the problems being faced by farmers here. I used the local dialect in the script to get the feel of the place. I chose the Kalvarayan hill as it is serene as well as scenic. The location suits the basic characteristics of my story,” says Ramesh, an alumnus of the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai. Ramesh moved to the field of information technology after completing his BFA.

The real estate mafia and the micro-financial agencies pose main threats to the farmers today. While the real estate companies manage to buy the land from farmers at a meagre rate, the financial agencies offer ‘loans’ to buy tractors and other products for agriculture.

“Most of the time, farmers aren't able to gain profit from farming due to drastic changes in the climate. It affects the monthly income of a farmer. But the financial agencies expect their instalment every month from the farmer. The farmers will not be able to pay their instalment on a monthly basis due to inconsistency in farming. Lack of money will lead one to poverty and suicide,” says Ramesh.

Without a background score, the movie talks about the hardships that many farmers undergo in real ambience. Ramesh says it is deliberate. “Emotions don’t need a background score. They flow as they are. I want to make the film raw. Instead of using the background score, I used sync sound and real ambience sound. We recorded the audience sound on-site and we incorporated natural sounds. This adds a naturalness to the story. Tractor is more than a mere cinematic entertainment. I want the movie to raise meaningful debates and naturally showcase the atrocities that corporate culture is doing in the lives of our farmers,” he says.

Produced by Jayanthan, under the banner Friday Entertainment (France), the crew of the movie includes mostly new-comers. “This is my first feature film. The male lead (Prabakaran Jayaraman) and female lead (Sweetha Pradhap) are new faces on the screen. We are happy that Tractor has been honoured with the jury award at the recently held 14th Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival. We hope this recognition will open up more opportunities for the film to reach a wider audience. We are planning to go to the market segment of the Cannes Film Festival with an international premiere status,” says Ramesh.