Dhabari Quruvi: Of unwed Irula mothers in Kerala and a tribal cast

Like many tribal hamlets in India, Attappady offers breathtaking scenic views, having the Nilgiris to its north and Silent Valley to its west. The splendour of nature unfortunately doesn’t reflect in the lives of people who belong to various indigenous communities in this tribal taluk of Kerala’s Palakkad district. Poverty, malnutrition, unemployment, infant mortality, and the unwed mothers… the list of problems is unending. It was not to find an instant solution to the woes of the tribal people that Priyanandanan, a national award winning filmmaker, went to Attappady in 2020. The idea was to make a movie to motivate the tribal community, particularly the unwed mothers, who are ‘clueless’ about what to expect from life.

Priyanandanan stayed in Attappady for almost six months, to shoot Dhabari Quruvi which tells the story of a tribal girl who rises to proclaim her solitary rights on her body and decisions upon it. The 104-minute-long movie in Irula — a Dravidian language spoken by the indigenous Irula community — is the first film in the history of Indian cinema to star people only from the indigenous communities. Dhabari Quruvi, an Irula phrase, means a sparrow whose father remains unknown, an image which explains the troublesome lives of many unwed mothers and their children in the indigenous community.

When Priyanandanan decided to make a movie to highlight the issues of the tribal community in Attappady, he didn’t go for ‘established actors’. He chose 60 people belonging to various tribal communities of Attappady to act in his movie. And the language he chose was Irula, mainly because he wanted the community’s social and cultural expressions in its own language.

“Filmmakers normally use outsiders as actors and a common language as a medium when they make a movie based on the issues of tribal people. I wanted to change it and that’s why I used people from various tribal communities as actors in the movie. Barring award winning playback singer Nanjiyamma (known for her title song Kalakkatha in the famous Malayalam movie Ayyappanum Koshiyum), all those who acted in the movie were new to acting. They are ordinary people belonging to tribal communities such as Irula, Kurumba and Muduga,” said Priyanandanan.

Going with people who have no clue in acting came with its own set of challenges.

“They haven’t seen a shooting before. They didn’t know how to act, as they had never acted in their lives. But it is easy to train fresh hands who have no inhibitions or are not coming with preconceived notions,” he said.

Priyanandanan could have used Malayalam or Tamil as a medium in the movie, but he used ‘Irula’ because he wanted to retain the emotional and cultural flow of the community. “I speak only Malayalam. I wanted to stick to Irula because the language was spoken not only by the members of the Irula community but also people belonging to other communities such as Kurumba and Muduga. I didn’t want their emotions to be curtailed so I used Irula as a medium of conversation in the movie,” he said.

Dhabari Quruvi had its world premiere in the Indian Panorama section of the 53rd International Film Festival of India held in Goa in November, 2022. It was also screened at the recently held 27th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) in Thiruvananthapuram. Priyanandanan said he has used the possibility of cinema as a medium to highlight the agonies of the marginalised and the oppressed in society. It shows the story of tribal girl who is at the receiving end of several societal prejudices, but fights back.

“As a filmmaker, it is my duty to tell such stories,” said Priyanandanan, whose film Pulijanmam won the National Film Award for best feature film in 2006.

Dhabari Quruvi begins with a performance of Ramar Koothu, a folk art form based on the stories of Kamba Ramayanam. The film then focuses on the stories of three tribal girls in Attappady. The agonies of Pappathi (Meenakshi) rose when she got to know that she was pregnant. With her friend Rami (Shyamini), she tries to get the foetus aborted. The duo met traditional healers in and outside the village but nothing helped. Pappathi wanted to go for abortion as she didn’t want to add to the unwed mothers in the village. As Pappathi and Rami try to find solutions, they come across Muruki (Anu Prashobhini), a neighbour, who represents the unwed mothers in the hamlet. Even though the tribal hamlet is not new to unwed mothers, the movie exposes the struggles that Pappathi overcomes and emerges as a strong woman.

For Meenakshi and Shyamini, the two tribal girls in Attappady, the opportunity to work in Dhabari Quruvi was like a dream-come-true. “We have seen movies on television, but we never had any idea about how a movie was made. We were chosen for the roles after a screening process. We did what sir [Priyanandanan] told us to do. We never knew the movie would make us popular,” they said. Meenashi and Shyamini attended the 53rd International Film Festival of India held in Goa in November, where Dhabari Quruvi was premiered. They also shared their experience with people at the recently held 27th International Film Festival of Kerala as well.

Attappady consists of three panchayats called Agali, Pudur and Sholayur. The climatic condition of this region varies. “Attappady has seven different climatic conditions. We had to select the locations that suited the conflicts of the characters. After the screenplay was done, we were in search of locations in Attappady. I stayed there for almost six months,” he said. “Knowing the tribal community and their culture was important. I got to know more about it when I started staying with them in Attappady. We did our homework well because we had a shoestring budget.”

Although the government brings in various welfare schemes for the indigenous people in India, they hardly reach them in most cases. As a result, they always remain the victims of exploitation and subjugation. “I made this movie to motivate the girls in the tribal hamlets. As a filmmaker, one needs to record or document the happenings in society. I am happy with the responses that I got after the screening of the movie at two international film festivals. I want more people to see the movie,” Priyanandanan said.