News

OpinionThe trope of basing a film’s appeal on the anxiety of the parents and families of young women is not new. It is, in fact, one of the most tried and tested formulae for ensuring commercial success.Screengrab“If you have a daughter, you must watch this movie” is an appeal made by several films to pull audiences into theatres. Sudipto Sen’s The Kerala Story does the same while trying to cover up its myopic, no-nuance representation of religious radicalisation in Kerala by playing up the age-old patriarchal fear families have about their daughters whose bodies, they are taught to believe, are repositories of their collective dignity. This trope of basing a film’s appeal on the anxiety of the parents and families of young women is not new. It is, in fact, one of the most tried and tested formulae of ensuring commercial success, given that it...

Review Natchathiram Nagargiradhu holds an unflinching mirror to how caste, class, gender and sexuality are used to protect endogamy in romance.Bharathy SingaravelCourtesy/TrailerScreengrabCan love be ‘universal and pure’? Is desire as easy as being drawn towards another? Or are all our interactions inherently political? Director Pa Ranjith’s Natchathiram Nagargirathu rips open trite definitions of romance, laying bare the darkness and absurdities that lie beneath. Set in Puducherry, with Dushara Vijayan, Kalaiarasan and Kalidas Jayaram in lead roles, the film holds an unflinching mirror to how caste, class, gender and sexuality are used to bestow or revoke the validity of romantic love between people. Dushara, Kalai and Kalidas play theatre actors with a small troupe. The film sets off with the troupe trying to decide what their next play is going to be about. Discussions turn to each of their interpretations of love and desire, and very soon, conflict slips in.

KollywoodMohan G is back with yet another film that spouts his violent, casteist propaganda, creating false narratives about romance, masculinity, social justice and anti-caste ideology.Bharathy SingaravelAs if Mohan G’s Draupathi (2020) wasn’t enough of a casteist, violent, propaganda film to suffer through, he seems all set to come back with yet another tale on the righteousness of dominant caste men and the “evil” specter of inter-caste, inter-religious love and social justice activists who are of course in his view, morally bankrupt and power-hungry. His upcoming Rudra Thandavam, the trailer for which released recently, stars Richard Rishi, Radha Ravi and Gautham Vasudev Menon among others. Tamil cinema has had an unfortunate dimension of propagating caste pride for a long time. A trend that took form in the mid-eighties and became even more prevalent in the nineties when land-owing intermediate castes, usually the Thevar caste cluster and Gounders were depicted...

CinemaThe attempts to turn caste crimes into stories about familial love are not only dishonest, they are also dangerous. Sowmya RajendranOn June 21, director Ram Gopal Varma announced his next project, Murder. The film, he said, will be a "heart wrenching story based on Amrutha and Maruthi Rao saga (sic)", and added that it's about the "dangers of a father loving a daughter too much." The film that the director plans to make is about the inter-caste marriage of Pranay, a Dalit man, and Amrutha, a dominant caste woman. And while Rgv – who frequently announces one controversial project after another – may consider himself a maverick who “swims against the tide”, in this case, he's very much within the mainstream narrative. Coincidentally, the movie's poster came out a day before the Madras High Court acquitted Chinnasamy, the prime accused in the murder of Sankar, a Dalit youth who was brutally hacked to...

Film ReviewWhat little change that a 'Paraiyerum Perumal' and 'Asuran' has wrought, can be damaged by a movie like Draupathi. Priyanka ThirumurthyIt was quarter to 11 in the morning, and the scheduled show for Draupathi, a Tamil film directed by Mohan G was delayed. Renting the air were screams of delight coming from within the hall where the movie's climax was still underway. This vocal expression of approval continued as the crowds streamed out after the movie, and increased when they noticed the film's protagonist Richard Rishi leaving the theatre, waving to male fans of all ages. The fanatic shouts only grew in volume as I entered the cinema hall to witness a movie which reduced women to property, demonised a community and fanned casteist sentiments to the audience in the garb of 'rich vs poor' narrative. As its trailer indicates, Draupathi is a film which carries propaganda against inter-caste marriages.