Is rightist Draupathi turning Dravidian Tamil cinema on its head?

Tamil cinema saw a watershed moment in the 1980s as directors like Bharathirajaa, K Bhagyaraj, Kasturi Raja, R Sundarrajan and others brought hitherto unseen villages to the big screen.

Charmed by Dravidian idealism, they often broached subjects like caste and superstition laced in a love story. Often they would put a hero, from a lower caste, opposite a heroine from a higher caste, and the relationship would face opposition from the father or family of the heroine. Violence, logic and wit aside, these films would always end with love winning over caste.

In addition, some of these films would have a flashback, notes writer Stalin Rajangam in his book Enbathugalin Tamil Cinema, wherein an upper caste woman who loved a lower caste man became a victim of honour killing and was later turned into a deity and worshipped by both the caste groups.

“The lovers, when they had no other go, came to these deities and sought her blessings and eventually, their love wins in the end.”

These symbolisms struck a chord with the uneducated masses then, politically and emotionally, ensuring the films had a good run at the box office.

However, in the 90s and 2000s, Kollywood departed from such village-centric themes to modernity and globalisation, where love stories had other villainous elements.

In the last decade, there was a revival of such films, with Gauravam (2013), Yendru Thaniyum (2016) directed by well-known documentary filmmaker Bharathi Krishnakumar, Munthirikkadu (2018) that were set in urban milieu and raised voice against issues like honour killing.

These came against the backdrop of the 2012 inter-caste violence in Dharmapuri and July 2013 alleged honour killing of Dalit youth Ilavarasan for his relationship with Divya, a caste Hindu girl.

Made on shoe-string budgets by first-time directors, most of these films were amateur, and hence, were unable to draw large crowd.

On the other hand, films such as Kabali (2016), Pariyerum Perumal (2018), Asuran (2019), with popular stars drew crowds and critical acceptance as they portrayed lower caste men gaining respect in society.

What could be seen from these was that when a hero from a lower caste was shown as making a respectable achieving against the odds, the films would have a good run but when they talked about serious issues — which were often avoided by big stars and production houses, leaving it to amateurs — the viewership was slim.

Draupathi vs Kanni Maadam

However, the recently released Draupathi, has bucked this trend. Directed by Mohan G, it has non-stars Richard Rishi and Sheela Rajkumar in lead roles and in fact, turns the normal honour killing narrative on its head, apparently inspired by a statement by S Ramadoss, PMK founder and leader of Vanniyar community.

The villain in the film is strongman who strongly resembles a leading Dalit politician, who is out to grab land in a village for hydrocarbon development project. When denied by a caste Hindu family, the apparently humiliated leader hires a youth with money, bike and a mobile phone to woo the younger daughter of the family. But when the youth fails in his mission, the leader goes on to create a fake marriage certificate and blackmail the family. They kill of the girl and injure her pregnant sister Draupathi, an activist and wife of the hero, and then accuse the hero of honour killing.

The story seems to be strongly inspired by Ramadoss’s comments following the killing of Ilavarasan — that Dalit youths lured caste Hindu girls into love and cheated them by creating fake marriage certificates and extorting the girl’s families. He had even termed these relationships as Naadaga Kaadhal (love drama).

There were other hints too. The lead characters are shown as from Jambu Maharishi gotra, which is said to be that of the Vanniyars. And there are dialogues which have references to Ilavarasan, whose body was found on a railway track.

Draupathi’s success comes against the slump of another honour killing film, Kanni Maadam, directed by ‘Bose’ Venkat of Metti Oli fame.

This film revolves around an inter-caste couple Kathir and Malar who elope to the city and get married. They find refuge in their neighbours Anbu and Shankar. However, Kathir is killed in an accident and Anbu takes guardianship of Malar, who is now pregnant. The turn of events emerges with the flashback of Anbu, whose father is in jail for honour-killing his younger daughter and her husband for marrying the lower-caste man, a scene which resembles the 2016 killing of Sankar of Sankar-Kausalya of Udumalpet. When Anbu’s father comes out of jail on parole and returns home, he mistakes Malar for Anbu’s wife and is enraged that he too had married a lower caste girl. When Anbu is away, he kills Malar, and is in turn killed by Anbu.

Both films open with heroes being arrested. And in both, Royapettah area in Chennai plays a key role. However, while Draupathi is getting a steady run in theatres, Kanni Maadam was pulled out within a week of release.

Political backing of films

To a certain extent, political backing has helped films runs amid controversies, but not always. For instance, after watching Asuran, DMK chief MK Stalin tweeted appreciation. This triggered a discussion about Panchami lands (lands reserved for Dalits that was a key aspect in the film) and Ramadoss went on to allege that DMK’s mouthpiece Murasoli’s office was built on a Panchami land.

Ramadoss appreciated Draupathi and Kanni Maadam was hailed by Thol. Thirumavalavan of VCK and Dravidar Kazhagam chief Veeramani. However, Kanni Maadam has not had a good run despite favourable reviews.

Writer Rajangam says films like Draupathi run well as people from other dominant castes like that film.

“The Dalits have been made a common enemy not only by Vanniyars but also by all other dominant castes such as Thevar, Kongu Vellalar, etc. They feel that their power of dominance has been taken away by Dalits due to their upliftment through education,” he says.

Another aspect of Draupathi is in the treatment of women over land.

Rajangam says this is because dominant communities think that their honour and power lies in possessing a land. “If they lose land, they feel that they have lost their powers. Likewise, they feel the community’s honour lies in their women. So they don’t allow them to love or marry outside their caste. If a woman loved or married a man defying their caste, they feel that their power and honour are wrested from them.”

Suguna Diwakar, author of Arasiyal Cinemakkalum Cinemakkalin Arasiyalum, however, says films like Kanni Maadam lose out because of amateur filmmaking and lack of promotions.

“Films like Draupathi got publicity only because of its instigating trailers. When leaders like Ramadoss are supporting it, the particular community members go to the theatres,” he says, raising doubt over whether it would have had an impact on the average film viewer.

Welcoming the debate on fake register marriages, he, however, said that claiming that only a particular community was indulging in such activities was condemnable.

“Draupathi was made without any political conscience,” he charges.

Countering the opposition against the film, Mohan G says that the movie tells “their” (the caste-Hindus’) side of arguments on ‘love drama’ and honour killing.

But this is where the problem lies, points out Rajangam.

“Directors like Pa Ranjith, Mari Selvaraj are making films to tell their pains caused by the caste system and also provide solutions to end such discriminations. But directors like Mohan G say how their caste’s power structure is destroyed by the empowerment of Dalits. Their films do not provide any solutions but increase the incidents of honour killings,” he says.

Dravidianism losing out to rightist narrative?

Subaguna Rajan, editor, Kaatchi Pizhai, a film magazine, says taking Dravidian ideologies such as inter-caste marriage is the need of the hour to counter such right-wing narrative.

“Leaders like Periyar fought against the caste system. Because of that, a conscience against casteism has been instilled among people. But we cannot claim that the state has wiped out caste hierarchy. Earlier, the state had Brahmin- and non-Brahmin narrative. In the last 30 years, due to Dalit uprisings, we are witnessing a narrative between middle castes and Dalits. So the fight against the caste has now changed its dimensions,” he says.

Unfortunately, with these kinds of films, every other caste thinks itself higher than others, and celebrates this, he notes.

“Today even the Pallars, a Scheduled Caste, are not ready to call themselves Dalits. They think that their caste is higher than Paraiyars and Arunthathiyars. This ‘self-caste pride’ has caused a division among Dalits itself. Due to this, Dalits too have started to celebrate such kind of films,” Rajan says.

Rajangam puts this in another way. “There is no doubt that Periyar’s followers and the Left worked with the Dalits for their upliftment. But they never went to dominant castes and had a discussion (for reconciliation among castes). So far, Tamil Nadu has not seen such any organisation initiate this process. We need such kind of movements which brings dominant castes to the discussion table,” he stresses.

Suguna Diwakar believes that just one film like Draupathi will not have much impact on people and says it is wrong to think that Tamil Nadu is turning right based on this film.

Independent film reviewer Chellappa, in jest, quips that an honour-killing convict “could turn good after seeing such drab films”.