Just like any other die-hard Rajini (Thaliiivaru) fan, I am obviously inclined to claim the commercial success of the movie KABALI, by itself, as a succes of the movie. However , it appeared to me that the movie has few other positive social elements which many of us may find worth noticing.
Thalaivar is usually known for his roles as an obedient son(to his mother), protective father, securing brother (of his sisters), suggestive husband who rarely listens to his wife instead teaches how a women should be (I remember a few dialogues from the movies Padaiyappa & Baba suggesting 'womenly' attributes ). However, Kabali is a step in the right direction where Thaliiivaru confirms to his wife's commands, lets his young daughter the task of securing him etc. It is quite obvious to expect so from Pa.Ranjith who himself claims that his movies give equal & strong, if not dominant, screen presence to female characters. It was quite evident in the movie with a character Xxxxxx( mother of Attakathi Dinesh's character). The way the lady expresses her anguish balancing her self-respect & mental agony is indicative of the strength a woman yields within herself. Kabali's wife & daughter are obviously strong. Also unlike other usual movies, Pa.Ranjith's characterisation of female roles portray women's strength, economic contribution, and more importantly a very loud voice as an indicator of their suppressed power perhaps. Particularly in this movie , the role of Fathima & Meena as the main pillars of a rehabilitation centre cum school warrants appreciation understanding the nuances in it.
I, myself, is a patron of promising fair-skin-products, sun-screen-filters etc because mainstream media & casual social interaction imbibes within me the belief "All that is Fair is lovely, & only Fair is Handsome." Thus I might have gone convinced when Thaliivaru is usually painted in 'White' to give a fairy make over for him. But presenting him without such extra-alagu elements & even having a scene portraying the female lead to be attracted mainly to the black skin of Kabali shall give a sense of associativity to many of us & painlessly questions the basic notion "Black skin is not that appealing." I have seen people evaluate bridal pairs as follows:
" Beautiful bride for an unmatching Karrruppppuuuu groom; Bride looks pretty & homely (latchanamaa is the exact Tamil word usage I have heard then) despite being black. "
I have a natural affinity towards looking for unique cultural elements portrayed through movies viz the local slang, domestic cuisines etc. I did observe the repeated usage of the word PONNI(I think so) in this movie. I think it might be used to express anything in its superlative degree among Malaysian Tamils. Dialogues like PONNI taste, PONNIIII Azhagu etc were present . Similarly there were local words referring to drugs,weapons etc (Katti Maathrathu,sarakku in Malaysia (vs) Tamilnadu). CHADAIYAN was used to refer to Chinese it seems. It might very well come along with all prejudices associated with such usage , as we could see in the case of referring to South Indians as Madrasis, North Indians as Saettu etc. The common social outlook about a Madrasi is that he is black skinned, nationally non-integrative, enimical to Hindi, speaks a very very difficult language Tamil. Also as a token of respect Tamils use the suffix "R" while "N" is usually a denigrating reference. Eg: The names of all castes in Tamilnadu's official records were corrected like BrahmanaR, MukkuvaR, VannaaR, VellaalaR from the previously apparent demeaning references like "BrahmanaN, MukkuvaN, VannaaN". So ChadaiyaN may have in itself similar prejudices ,I guess. Any attempts at correcting such racial prejudices could be tried through Cinema , not just capturing it in its reality.
Having captured the life of people from North Chennai as realistically as possible including their interests in Hip-Hop, foot ball, actual MADRAS slang etc the natural next level progress for Pa.Ranjith was to initiate some debates about the problems people belonging to socially backward & marginalised classes face. Although many social groups have had their lives captured in mainstream cinema through a variety of movies, the screen space provided for people belonging to further lower social strata was very limited & Pa.Ranjith has filled such vacuum with his movies so far. To quote a scene from the movie Kabali, if we closely observe the facial reaction of Yogi(Kabali's daugther) when she meets a person claiming to be coming from MADRAS and juxtapose it with her reaction when the same person helps securing her family, the guilt within her was expressed subtly. The power of visual media is that it does not require dialogues all the time to convey emotions. Visuals suffice. Such skin based, face focused, slang determined prejudices we have for our fellow beings are covertly dealt with in this movie.
In an era of globalization & urban centric economic development, it becomes very mandatory for every social group to live in comity with fellow groups, tolerant to & accomodative of various cultural practices. That certainly requires basic understanding of each others cultural space & to act accordingly. Cinema could help in achieving this however without providing any space for honouring repressive social practices & without pitting different social groups against each other.
Thalaivar is usually known for his roles as an obedient son(to his mother), protective father, securing brother (of his sisters), suggestive husband who rarely listens to his wife instead teaches how a women should be (I remember a few dialogues from the movies Padaiyappa & Baba suggesting 'womenly' attributes ). However, Kabali is a step in the right direction where Thaliiivaru confirms to his wife's commands, lets his young daughter the task of securing him etc. It is quite obvious to expect so from Pa.Ranjith who himself claims that his movies give equal & strong, if not dominant, screen presence to female characters. It was quite evident in the movie with a character Xxxxxx( mother of Attakathi Dinesh's character). The way the lady expresses her anguish balancing her self-respect & mental agony is indicative of the strength a woman yields within herself. Kabali's wife & daughter are obviously strong. Also unlike other usual movies, Pa.Ranjith's characterisation of female roles portray women's strength, economic contribution, and more importantly a very loud voice as an indicator of their suppressed power perhaps. Particularly in this movie , the role of Fathima & Meena as the main pillars of a rehabilitation centre cum school warrants appreciation understanding the nuances in it.
I, myself, is a patron of promising fair-skin-products, sun-screen-filters etc because mainstream media & casual social interaction imbibes within me the belief "All that is Fair is lovely, & only Fair is Handsome." Thus I might have gone convinced when Thaliivaru is usually painted in 'White' to give a fairy make over for him. But presenting him without such extra-alagu elements & even having a scene portraying the female lead to be attracted mainly to the black skin of Kabali shall give a sense of associativity to many of us & painlessly questions the basic notion "Black skin is not that appealing." I have seen people evaluate bridal pairs as follows:
" Beautiful bride for an unmatching Karrruppppuuuu groom; Bride looks pretty & homely (latchanamaa is the exact Tamil word usage I have heard then) despite being black. "
I have a natural affinity towards looking for unique cultural elements portrayed through movies viz the local slang, domestic cuisines etc. I did observe the repeated usage of the word PONNI(I think so) in this movie. I think it might be used to express anything in its superlative degree among Malaysian Tamils. Dialogues like PONNI taste, PONNIIII Azhagu etc were present . Similarly there were local words referring to drugs,weapons etc (Katti Maathrathu,sarakku in Malaysia (vs) Tamilnadu). CHADAIYAN was used to refer to Chinese it seems. It might very well come along with all prejudices associated with such usage , as we could see in the case of referring to South Indians as Madrasis, North Indians as Saettu etc. The common social outlook about a Madrasi is that he is black skinned, nationally non-integrative, enimical to Hindi, speaks a very very difficult language Tamil. Also as a token of respect Tamils use the suffix "R" while "N" is usually a denigrating reference. Eg: The names of all castes in Tamilnadu's official records were corrected like BrahmanaR, MukkuvaR, VannaaR, VellaalaR from the previously apparent demeaning references like "BrahmanaN, MukkuvaN, VannaaN". So ChadaiyaN may have in itself similar prejudices ,I guess. Any attempts at correcting such racial prejudices could be tried through Cinema , not just capturing it in its reality.
Having captured the life of people from North Chennai as realistically as possible including their interests in Hip-Hop, foot ball, actual MADRAS slang etc the natural next level progress for Pa.Ranjith was to initiate some debates about the problems people belonging to socially backward & marginalised classes face. Although many social groups have had their lives captured in mainstream cinema through a variety of movies, the screen space provided for people belonging to further lower social strata was very limited & Pa.Ranjith has filled such vacuum with his movies so far. To quote a scene from the movie Kabali, if we closely observe the facial reaction of Yogi(Kabali's daugther) when she meets a person claiming to be coming from MADRAS and juxtapose it with her reaction when the same person helps securing her family, the guilt within her was expressed subtly. The power of visual media is that it does not require dialogues all the time to convey emotions. Visuals suffice. Such skin based, face focused, slang determined prejudices we have for our fellow beings are covertly dealt with in this movie.
In an era of globalization & urban centric economic development, it becomes very mandatory for every social group to live in comity with fellow groups, tolerant to & accomodative of various cultural practices. That certainly requires basic understanding of each others cultural space & to act accordingly. Cinema could help in achieving this however without providing any space for honouring repressive social practices & without pitting different social groups against each other.
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