kaali ( 1980 tamil film )
kaali (1980) tamil movie cd - rip 320kbps mp3 songs music by ilaiyaraaja - starmusiq. com
this article is about 1980 film starring rajnikanth. for 2012 film, see murattu kaalai (2012 film) .
kaali is a 1980 telugu - language indian feature film directed by i. v. sasi, starring rajinikanth and chiranjeevi .
is a tamil drama movie, directed by i v sasi. the cast of kaali (1980) includes rajinikanth, seema .
' kaali' is the title of a 1980 rajinikanth starrer. this is the first time a vijay antony film will have the title of a superstar film of yesteryear .
the film was simultaneously made in tamil - language as kaali with rajinikanth, while vijayakumar played chiranjeevis role .
kaali is a 1980 tamil - language indian feature film directed by i. v. sasi and produced by hem - nag, starring rajinikanth, seema, phataphat jayalakshmi and vijayakumar .
vairamuthu began his lyricist career through the rajinikanth film' kaali' (1980). debuting in the film nizhalgal (1980) with the lyrics for the song
idhu oru ponmalai pozhudhu
. his partnership with academy award winning composer a. r. rahman has resulted in critical praise, awards, and box office hits .
1950s tamil film was largely used as a platform to articulate dravidian identity and tamil nationalism. the founding of the
kaali is a 1980 tamil action, drama film, directed by i. v. sasi and produced by hem nag productions. this film stars rajinikanth, vijayakumar, seema, phataphat jayalaxmi in the lead role. the films soundtrack and background score were composed by ilaiyaraaja with lyrics by kannadasan, vairamuthu .
tailor made film for rajinikanth. his fans are fingertipped with each and every frame of this film
a simple film that centers on the lives of 5 educated youngsters in madurai during 1980 in madurai, their joys and sorrows. subramaniapuram not just marks the beginning is a birth of new streamline of extraordinary film .
vijay antony has just announced that his next film will be directed by kiruthiga and it has been titled as' kaali'. the film will be produced by the actor - music director' s home banner. vijay antony film corporation .
yes, and also in a tamil film... can' t remember the name now .
murattu kaalai (english: rogue bull) is a 1980 tamil film produced by avm productions. directed by sp. muthuraman, the film stars rajinikanth, jaishankar, rati agnihotri and sumalatha in the prominent roles. this was the first film for rajinikanth with avm productions. avm had stopped producing films by 1970 and murattukaalai was their re - entry into tamil films. this film boasts of the highest budget ever for a rajini starrer at that time .
iruvar - an epic of two tamil political iconic people. brave attempt ever made in tamil cinema .
pride of tamil cinema and its culture. this made a new record for tamil industry in national awards
( tamil film - stars are popular not only by virtue of their cinematic appeal but also because of the close links they maintain with political parties and the checkered political career of the tamil film industry itself) .
more details about the cast, crew and commencement of' kaali' are expected to arrive soon .
sivathamby, karthigesu. 1981. tamil film as a medium of political communication. madras: new century book house .
kaali, sundar. 2000. “narrating seduction: vicissitudes of the sexed subject in tamil nativity film. ” pp. 168–90 in making meaning in indian cinema, edited r. vasudevan. new delhi: oxford university press .
sreenivasan muktha. 1993. tamil thiraipada varalaru (the history of tamil cinema). madras: gangai puthaga nilayam .
pandian, anand. 2008. “cinema in the countryside: popular tamil film and the remaking of rural life. ” pp. 124–38 in tamil cinema: the cultural politics of india’s other film industry, edited by s. velayutham. abingdon: routledge .
vijay' s best action entertainer as a kabadi player. this is the first film did reach 50 crs. in tamil cinema
likewise, whilst volumes have been devoted to discussing the significance of caste in tamil politics, there has been less attention paid to the ways in which caste is played out in the cultural sphere of film (but see srinivas and kaali 1998) .
forrester, duncan. 1976. “factions and film stars: tamil nadu politics since 1971. ” asian survey 16 (3): 283–96 .
adithyan is an indian film score and soundtrack composer. he has predominantly scored music for tamil films apart from working in telugu and malayalam films .
superstar rajinikanth is all set to kick - start his next with director ranjith, in a week' s time. we hear that the team is busy zeroing in on the title of the project. as of now, the name kaali is doing the rounds. interestingly, kaali was the name of karthi in the director' s earlier outing madras. in fact, the working title of the film was also kaali, which was eventually changed to madras .
after the hit film' yaman', actor vijay antony will be acting in a film directed by kiruthiga udhayanidhi, the wife of actor - producer udhayanidhi stalin and the director of the 2013 romance film' vanakkam chennai' .
these films revealed the hidden caste biases of dravidian politics and film - making .
caste assertion, in other words, is both reflected and reinforced through film .
hardgrave, robert. 1973. “politics and film in tamil nadu: the stars and the dmk. ” asian survey 13 (3): 288–305 .
a message for the society and its done. it is regarded as one of the saddest film of tamil cinema ever produced though it has a slightly positive end
krishnan, rajan. 2008. “imaginary geographies: the makings of ‘south’ in contemporary tamil cinema. ” pp. 139–53 in tamil cinema: the cultural politics of india’s other film industry, edited by s. velayutham. abingdon: routledge .
he was awarded the national film award six times for best lyricist, the most won by any indian lyricist. he is a recipient of kalaimamani, while also winning awards from the government of tamil nadu for his contribution to tamil literature .
) is an indian film score and soundtrack composer. he has predominantly scored music for
in kaali, the telugu version rajinikanth reprised the same role while chiranjeevi replaced vijayakumar. this was the first time that rajinikanth and chiranjeevi acted together. seema enacted dual roles in this film. kaikala satyanarayana plays the main villain in both the versions .
irudhi sutru - out and out entertaining boxing film. the performance of lead characters is top notch
a temperamental farmer gets embroiled in a bloody clan feud in a southern tamil nadu village .
a wall creates perturbation between two factions of a political party. kaali and his buddy anbu, who is a political aspirant, get embroiled in this brutal political rivalry .
( we must learn to live as one, 1992) which openly discusses dalit questions. however, not only is it a comedy, it stands as an exception which “shatters the stability of the delicate logistical constructs around which are organized the discursive hegemonies of caste society” (srinivas and kaali 1998: 221–22). srinivas and kaali are right to point to the utopian aspirations embodied in the film, but it is important to stress that for the most part dalits are not only portrayed in humiliating ways, their options in film making are limited. when the name of a. l. vijay’s film starring the actor vikram was announced as
it is important to note here that such films are not confined to the south. in the film
the film was screened alongside other rajini films - pokkiri raja, paayum puli and manithan at albert theatre as a part of film festival during rajinikanth' s birthday on 12 december 2013. [ 6 ]
this is the pioneer of vigilante type of movies in tamil. a dream debut for majestic shanker
. the star cast includes prakash raj, dinesh and kalaiyarasan. rajinikanth had earlier worked in a film titled
the music was composed by ilaiyaraaja. the film had vairamuthu' s first written song. [ 5 ]
tamil full movie | veera [ hd ] | blockbuster movie | ft. rajinikanth, meena, roja
following police firing on pallars in 2011, teltumbde quotes tamil social historian v. geetha to note :
had fights and as expected the reaction was 'this is how a chiranjeevi film should be.' then came
srinivas, k. ravi and sundar kaali. 1998. “on castes and comedians: the language of power in recent tamil cinema. ” pp. 208–27 in the secret politics of our desires: innocence, culpability and indian popular cinema, edited by a. nandy. delhi: oxford university press .
vanamagan - tamil full movie | jayam ravi | sayesha saigal | a. l. vijay | harris jayaraj
thevarmagan - an unforgettable tamil movie of all time and what a remarkable performances from those legends. complete rarity
the best remake film in a contemporary style. for the first time ever in cinema, remake is better than original
a different film from balu mahendra sir. the sheer brilliance of kamal in last 20 minutes makes you rofl! !
, in which tamil superstar rajinikanth reads dalit books, speaks of ambedkar, and portrays a strong dalit hero .
epic, refreshing love story of all time in tamil. period. i second this to mouna ragam - alaipayuthey
aayirathil oruvan - brilliant try! ! one cannot do such a film within this budget. it was misunderstood by the audience
unlike the films discussed by kaali (2000) in which the heros can never achieve manhood and remain tragic characters, 3m films reaffirm the tropes of masculinity and honor. now, exceptions to the rule in these films see the audience collapse into laughter at these scenes, marking their recognition of the hegemonic norm. the transition from the emasculated, insufficient male described by kaali, to the virile protagonist of the films discussed here is epitomized in
“dalits in tamil nadu continue to pay with their lives for marrying outside their caste while parties look the other way. ”
despite a number of dalit actors and directors and a global icon in music director illaiyaraja, the dalit upsurge of the 1990s has yet to be reflected cinematically in like manner. srinivas and kaali (1998: 221–22) discuss sekar’s
( master, our thevar master) excised from the film. more recently, followers of militant pallar founder - leader of federation for the progress of tamil people, john pandian, smashed glass cases in a cinema hall during a screening of c. sundar’s
and if we talk about later films, people reacted differently to every film and interestingly too. some said i acted my age in
there are some neo - nativist films where the metaphor of traditional masculinity collapses to become an object of comic relief. in the film
( devendra film company). the first production they mooted was to depict one of their leaders, thekkampatti balasundarasu, to be titled
gopalan, lalitha. 1998. “tamil cinema: history, culture, theory. ” screen 39 (2): 196–200 .
looks like e. t. of tamil cinema. but, still a way ahead from the original, because of its content
taking this argument further, srinivas and kaali (1998) emphasize the significance of the film’s soundtrack, which belied claims by the actor and producer that they were critiquing a culture of violence and domination. it was the genealogical praising of the thevar caste in the song lyrics, they argue, that made the film such a huge box office success, and it is not surprising that the soundtrack to the film is now an essential part of the playlist at thevar gatherings. this does not necessarily mean that the audience who made this a major hit subscribed to the common - sense that valorizes thevars since it has all the ingredients of a hit movie in the casting of kamal hasan and music by illaiyaraja (pre - eminent tamil music composer), who is himself a dalit .
pandian argues that film has “come to provide a language for the social life of kinship and attachment” (2008: 131). certainly, many of these films have been adopted by thevars in southern tamil nadu through posters, symbols, banners and the playing of film songs and dialogue at cultural events. as kaali (2000: 186) argues, “identification with ego - ideals on the screen need not inevitably entail ‘misrecognitions of self, ’ but, in many cases, could involve elements of empowerment” and identity change. the portrayal of thevar violence and valor on screen and their positive reception, serve to embolden thevars and legitimize their use of violence .
indeed, film historian theodore baskaran (1996: ii) goes as far as to argue that: “tamil cinema has grown to become the most domineering influence in the cultural and political life in tamil nadu. ” film stars have a larger - than - life presence in the real world and female stars have been deified during their active period in the industry. the emergence of cinema in tamil nadu and its subsequent role in nurturing and promoting a dravidian identity and politics have been the focus of several monographs (see forrester 1976; hardgrave 1973; pandian 1992). that history, whilst relevant, is not our focus here and so we refer readers to the aforementioned texts .
baskaran, theodore. 1996. the eye of the serpent: an introduction to tamil cinema. madras: east - west books .
( god’s chosen daughter) instead. the fact that this latter term was acceptable highlights both the significance accorded to thevar, and the interplay between caste and patriarchy (cf. srinivas and kaali 1998: 214; economic and political weekly 2013) .
mega star chiranjeevi born konidela siva sankara vara prasad is an indian actor, producer and politician. he was the minister of state with independent charge for the ministry of tourism, government of india. prior to politics, chiranjeevi has attended the madras film institute, and had worked primarily in telugu cinema, in addition to tamil, kannada and hindi films. he made his acting debut in 1978, with the film punadhirallu .
to understand this genre, however, we need to start with the archetypal celebration of thevar dominance. according to krishnan (2008), “it is a kamal hassan [ one of the two most famous tamil actors, and not himself a thevar ] film of high authenticity markers called
where signs, weapons and dialogue all speak to the caste’s dominance. the advertising for the film reinforced the association between caste and violence. in madurai, which has a stronger visual culture than other cities in tamil nadu, a 40 - foot cut - out was installed showing the
the ways in which film plots feed into politics was graphically illustrated in 2013, when dr. ramadoss, the founder - leader of the vanniyar centered
hardgrave, robert. 1979. when stars displace gods: the folk culture of cinema in tamil nadu. new delhi: usha publications .
the filmography in 3m films reinforces this attempt through the juxtaposition of national heroes such as subhas chandra bose, thevar leaders such as muthuramalinga thevar and the film’s protagonist, or through scripts that assert the valor of the thevars. the culmination of 20 years of caste - based cinema may be seen in the film
actions that conform to this image (cf. srinivas and kaali 1998). the common - sense, as simon (1987) notes, is always contested and resisted but may, for a period, shape the way in which people see themselves and others .
one question that might arise at this juncture is how the film - makers communicate the caste of the characters to the audience. in some instances, as with
very well scripted movie in recent times. the whole cast was stunning in the film .
alto respecto
to the director duo pushkar and gayathri! !
hardgrave, robert. 1969. the nadars of tamil nad: the political culture of a community in change. berkeley: university of california press .
( son of thevar, bharathan 1992) —meaning ‘son of thevar’—that can be said to have inaugurated the era of the south being represented as primarily a sickle bearing space. ” stalin rajangam, a dalit cultural critic who has written extensively on the caste component and narrative structures of tamil film concurs; he says that
firstly, it is important to note that there are no representatives of the kshatriya category of warrior or kingly castes in tamil nadu (washbrook 1976) .
the members and leaders of the dmk identified themselves with the medium and used the stars for their election campaigns to appeal to a largely illiterate tamil electorate .
anand, s. 2005. “politics, tamil cinema eshtyle. ” outlook, 30 may, 2005. retrieved semptember 30, 2013 (urltoken) .
leonard, dickens. 2015. “spectacle spaces: production of caste in recent tamil films. ” south asian popular culture 13 (2): 155–73 .
ravindran, gopalan. 2008. “malaysian tamils and transnational tamil cinema: diasporic identities, ‘crisis heterotopia’ and ‘aura. ’” jurnal skrin malaysia 5: 99–118 .
a film set in 1940s india, during the country' s struggle for independence. the young daughter of an english governor falls in love with a local indian boy .
if it were not for my birthday, i wouldn' t be speaking about the film at all. to be frank, the pleasure i derive during the making of a film ends with its completion. after the film, i feel relieved as if a big burden is off my shoulders. and i ask myself, what next? but i' m satisfied i could give the audience what they expected. our feelings apart, giving them what they want, i think, is the right thing to do. be it the style, song - dances or fights. this success has shown s me what to do in my next film and i am on that job .
what this example, and the prominent role of cinema in tamil politics, tell us is that films have an important role and life outside the cinema halls .
justifying his stance, dr. krishnasamy argued that “in tamil nadu, cinema is closely linked with social and political life, unlike in any other state. ”
in the dramatic finale to the film, kamal hassan vanquishes the villain in a gory beheading scene that was greeted with whoops and cheers in the theatres of madurai. one of the authors experienced the same film in the western city of coimbatore where the audience were muted in their response and there were murmurings about the excessive use of violence. whilst audience participation in the form of cheering, whistles and applause is widespread, it is the celebration of violence that stands out here. in pandian’s (2015) ethnography of film - making in tamil nadu he emphasizes the silence during harrowing scenes. it is our contention that the violence is celebrated here due to its association with caste dominance .
in the end a compromise was reached in which the title of the film was changed and the plot line subtly altered to avoid being seen as a direct follow - up .
( love, 2004), for example, he sees a classic expression of the tamil psyche as constituted in tamil cinema; one which is “torn between the threatening pre - modern assertion of caste and an allegedly ‘egalitarian, ’ free market space of modern individuals. ” in the film a dalit boy who “presumes” to court a thevar girl is grievously assaulted. taking our cue from krishnan’s work, it is possible to discern how such tropes are reproduced in a range of different films. thus, in
blackburn, stuart. 1978. “the kallars: a tamil ‘criminal tribe’ reconsidered. ” south asia: journal of south asian studies 1 (1): 38–51 .
gorringe, hugo. 2012. “caste and politics in tamil nadu. ” seminar 633 (may 2012): 38–42. retrieved june 20, 2017 (urltoken) .
a woman from a village in tamil nadu marries a sophisticated city dweller and moves with him to kashmir, where all is rosy - until he gets kidnapped by militants .
their continued subordination and subservience in tamil films, from this perspective, serve to reinforce caste pride for thevars even as it reminds dalits of their place (karthikeyan 2013) .
pandian, m. s. s. 1996a. “tamil cultural elites and cinema: outline of an argument. ” economic and political weekly 31 (15): 950–55 .
whilst this paper does not emerge directly from a particular research project, both authors have been engaged in long - standing research and writing on caste and politics in tamil nadu .
( love, 2004) —a low budget film about a romance between a couple of unspecified castes who are, nevertheless identifiable as a thevar girl and a dalit boy. when the couple is discovered, the girls’ family beat the boy to a pulp. crucially, for our argument, the representations on screen are transposed into the caste politics of everyday tamil nadu :
they argue that the hero’s courting of arrest at the end of the film “signifies a total submission of the authority of the village community to state power. ” in line with our analysis of
whilst much has been written about the significance of caste in tamil politics, there has been less attention paid to the ways in which caste is played out in the cultural sphere .
rajangam, stalin. 2008. ariya uthadum unadu, thiravida uthadum undadu (both aryan lips and dravidian lips are yours: essays on tamil cinema). chennai: thenthisai publication .
the power of this common - sense argument is such that it is not just thevar actors, producers and cinematographers who adopt this formula. the commercial success of such films has made them immensely popular, which has a ripple effect that influences the way other films focused on southern tamil nadu are shot. even non - thevar directors like gangai amaran are not immune. his film
grasping the inter - relationship between filmic eulogies and caste violence, dalit movements have sought to contest dominant depictions of caste pride and valor. this is best illustrated in the controversy surrounding kamal hassan’s film
( elephant herdsman, 2012) for its implied critique of cross - caste marriage (karthikeyan 2013). tamil films, thus, buttress the supposed virtues of caste traditions and purity .
a man accepts a challenge to act as the chief minister of tamil nadu for one day only, and makes such a success of it that soon he is embroiled in political intrigue .
tamil caste politics is complex, yet our analysis depends upon a basic understanding of caste dynamics in the state. in what follows, therefore, we begin with an overview of the key caste clusters discussed in this paper. we move, then, to a brief review of the literature on tamil cinema, and an analysis of the films before closing with a wider discussion .
this, he concluded, is what tamil cinema’s representation of madurai has achieved. it is the films which have created this exaggerated stereotype, and their social consequences, that concern us here .
what makes tamil cinema stand out, however, is its umbilical link to politics. cinema in the state grew hand in hand with the regional nationalist parties, helping to by - pass congress—who failed to realize the significance of the medium—in the process (hardgrave 2008: 61). congressmen never realized the power of film, says kannadhasan, song - writer for the tamil screen and one of the founders of the dmk. “they decried the cinema. we used it. ” (hardgrave 2008: 61). we would argue that tamil films since independence, may be divided into political as well as artistic genres. until the 1970s the dominant political message was dravidian. this overlapped somewhat with films showcasing a communist or socialist message between the late 1960s and mid - 1980s .
thus, when a film cast them in a less glorified and flattering light they were quick to respond. in madurai, theni and kovilpatti districts, for instance, cinema halls were damaged during the screening of
an aspiring director targets a ruthless gangster because he wants to make a violent gangster film. his discreet attempts to research the gangster fail miserably. finally when he gets caught snooping, things hit the fan .
the film sensitively portrays the struggles of a father whose main priority in life is the well being of his children, and who is determined to see his children grow up to become decent, successful persons .
( herd of angry elephants, vikram sugumaran, 2013), which portrays the family feud of a piramalai kallar headman who has two wives. so powerful is the common - sense established in part through cinema, that film historian rajan krishnan referred to the film as a social ethnography of the everyday life of piramalai kallars (krishnan 2014). the film, with blood dripping violence, has sequences and lyrics relaying a commonly held belief among the kallars in and around madurai about their past. the dialogue insists that the criminal tribes act and madurai jail were designed for them as the british were unable to control them. the film’s director noted that even now kallars will greet members of the community who are released from prison with ritualized celebrations and gifts. “i am not exaggerating, ” he insisted, “i have captured their everyday life. ”
kaali (2000: 174) argues that the “generic recoding” of cinematic discourses “that occurs in the late 1970s amounts, above all, to a radical refiguring of the phallus. ” his fine - grained analysis of a number of films points to the emasculation of heroes in the face of feisty heroines, the complexities of modern life and the faltering hold of traditional authority .
set in rural villages in tamilnadu. the film looks at female infanticide and the hatred that surrounds the birth of a female child. infanticide was uncomplained in those days a father blames... see full summary »
pursuit of the everyday has taken tamil ﬁlmmakers far beyond the studio conﬁnes of kodambakkam, into the shoreline quarters and slum alley - ways of chennai and into countryside tracts far from that capital city. ”
away from politics, sreenivasan argues that there were three phases of tamil cinema between 1931—when the first “talkie” was released—and 1985. these were the puranic, mythological and folklore period (1931–50) when films resembled the street theatre of earlier folk artists and had nothing to do with real life; the melodrama period (1951–75) which reveled in exaggeration, excessive dialogue and escapism; and finally, the move towards social realism (1976–85) when tamil cinema came to terms with “partly realistic and anti - sentimental stories” (sreenivasan 1993: 25–26). whilst sreenivasan’s analysis is interesting and important in charting the successive stages of tamil cinema, it is focused on the form, production values and styles that the various films took. were this all that there was to tamil cinema it would not be as sociologically significant as it is .
( battle rooster, 2005) the hero makes no such claim, but the film illustrates both his thevar caste and his madurai location to explain his ability to take on and defeat the villains from elsewhere in the state .
his leadership of the all india forward bloc in tamil nadu, and his struggles against the classification and repression of thevar castes (particularly sections of the kallars and maravars) under the colonial criminal tribes act .
anandhi, s. , j. jeyaranjan and rajan krishnan. 2002. “work, caste and competing masculinities: notes from a tamil village. ” economic and political weekly 37 (43): 4397–406 .
every second counts but one has to be very honest about the production values was little weak. can be a really good short film but it also worked well with the limited sets. hatoff to karthick naren. promising debutant .
is a very different film to those described above, but it still re - asserts the hegemonic narrative or common - sense that equates thevars with honor. the thevar caste, in other words, in the words of a song from
, spearheaded by periyar e. v. ramasami naicker and his “self - respect movement, ” in many ways had a direct influence in changing the structures of film making and inevitably led to the creation of a distinct tamil cinema that disrupted attempts to construct a sense of a nation through cinema (leonard 2015). these films departed from the earlier focus on religious and nationalist sentiments and articulated a rationalist critique of social ills. the founder of the
and, belying the actor’s claims of neutrality, debates about the film ended up with “puthiya tamilagam opposing it and splinter groups of the all - india forward bloc [ a thevar front ] and some mukkulathor outfits offering to provide protection. ”
) of the hero or his family is questioned or challenged. crucially for our argument, the cinematic offerings most closely adhering to the 3m formula have not only provided a discourse through which to discuss caste, but also offered a template according to which dominant castes have sought to reimagine and reinforce their dominance. in metonymically linking film stars to political figures, such films suggest that thevars have a right and a duty to uphold their honor. for example, the title song in the film
( battle rooster, lingusamy, 2005) interposes images of the village headman (thevar) and his son watching cocks, bulls and rams fighting in the ring with shots of the headman swinging a sickle or giving alms to the poor and the needy. the dominant caste landlords, we are thus reminded, are patriarchs who are equally at home with violence as with benevolent patronage (cf. srinivas and kaali 1998) .
tamil cinema has been amongst the most socially and politically significant industries in the state; films form an integral part of the social, cultural and political life of the people here perhaps more than in any other region in india .
( 2016, ranjith). in this paper, it is the caste - centric films of the 1990s and 2000s that we focus upon, but a bit more detail on these developments in tamil cinema is in order first .
as pandian (2015: 10) argues: “one of the most distinctive qualities of recent tamil cinema is its concern for nativity, a word that the industry uses as a shorthand for everyday habits, customs, and spaces .
this is the ultimate raw movie never seen before in tamil cinema. you can do 100 movies but none to this one. it is tough to think, write and deliver as a movie. but it was done by debutante ram
bose later quit congress and formed the forward bloc and muthuramalinga thevar, as an ardent supporter, became his lieutenant in the madras presidency. after the formation of the forward bloc, bose visited madurai in 1939. thevar’s association with bose metonymically implies martial prowess, because he saw gandhian non - violence as inimical to the interests of the indian freedom struggle and formed the indian national army to fight the british (srinivas and kaali 2002) .
( village or town, 1972). madurai is a former capital of the pandya kingdom, and a seat of learning as evidenced by the holding of one of the tamil sangams (assemblies of poets and writers) there in the 4
aishwarya, a convent - girl from a wealthy family in the town of madurai (tamil nadu) falls in love with a young motor - mechanic, murugan whom she encounters in the street. faced with the... see full summary »
in september 2008, it was revealed that tamil nadu chief minister m. karunanidhi’s grandson gunanidhi was set to produce a remake of the film. [ 20 ] murattukaalai was remade with sundar c. and sneha playing the lead roles. jaishankar' s character was played by suman and surulirajan' s character was played by vivek, his character was changed as transgender in the remake. the remake version was released in 2012 after a long delay to negative reviews and failed to repeat the success of the original. [ 21 ]
( gorringe field notes 2010). thus, the central emphasis on caste pride, valor and honor in the 3m films has arguably had a performative effect that has served to engender new forms of caste expression, representation and identity in contemporary tamil nadu .
it is hard not to be overwhelmed by a superstar and harder not to be touched by a man, who is humane and modest. chiranjeevi, mega star of the telugu film industry, is the undisputed king, but he dons the mantle with utmost dignity and responsibility .
was deliberately used to mobilize thevars during the pallar - thevar riots that flared up repeatedly between 1995 and 1998. thevars in riot torn villages screened the film (rajangam 2008: 60), and its songs were used to instigate inter - caste violence (ravindran 2008) .
) in tamil culture, and rajangam (2008) observes that these twin concepts have long been the basic raw material of tamil cinema. honor and valor are individual traits, but acquire a collective significance in tamil politics. honor, here, refers to the standing and status of castes in particular and is entwined with the enforcement of chastity (cf. rege 2013). valor, in this context, refers to men’s capacity to protect their women and the honor of their family and caste (dickey 1993). honor in films (as in social life), thus is gendered; women protect their chastity whilst men protect their masculinity, respect and their women. valor in films, as rajangam shows, is bound up with a strong emphasis on traditional masculinity .
century bc. it is an ancient city, best known for its central meenakshi temple around which the city has grown. in earlier films, madurai was portrayed as a site of knowledge production and center of tamil antiquity as encapsulated in the temple. in movies like
while this may make sense in the popular “logic” of imagination, critical thought should hasten to warn of the dangers of stereotyping and the limitations of representative practices of cinema, particularly given the salience and circulation of cinema in tamil nadu (krishnan 2008: 150) .
, likewise, kamal returns from abroad and finds himself embroiled in conflicts over honor and caste and engaged in traditional caste pursuits like bull - taming. this highlights how “valor”—as celebrated in tamil cinema—is primarily glorified violence, which supersedes any literary, cultural or social achievements. in
( a large sickle) and dead men lie all around. there is neither remorse nor fear in the eyes of the male protagonist. why should he? after all, violence is natural to the caste he belongs to, so believes tamil cinema (srivathsan 2007) .
to prompt introspection and reform in the tamil south. instead it has fuelled caste conflicts, resulting in an exaggerated sense of caste pride and an emphasis on caste symbolism that has periodically pockmarked the southern regions of the state with violence, and continues to inform caste politics today .
washbrook, david. 1989. “caste, class and dominance in modern tamil nadu. ” pp. 204–64 in dominance and state power in india. vol. 1, edited by f. frankel and m. s. a. rao. delhi: oxford university press .
immortalized this incident in a folk song which goes: “in that age in madurai they humiliated those of us with handlebar moustaches; but in this age, almost one crore [ 10 million ] panthers move across tamil land sporting big sickle like moustaches” (field notes, 2012) .
( the hunter, babu sivan, 2009), for instance, the fact that the hero is a college student is an irrelevance next to his ability to fight. “if i hit you” one of the film songs puts it, “you won’t be able to bear it”—thus asserting his superiority over the villains .
( god’s chosen son, 2011), there was an outcry from thevar groups who have trademarked that phrase for pasumpon muthuramalinga thevar and were particularly infuriated by the fact that the main actor in question was a dalit who is celebrated by pallar youth as one of their own. eventually the film was released as
as stacy (1991) notes, audience identification with themes and characters may entail “processes of transformation and the production of new identities, combining the spectator’s existing identity with her desired identity” (in kaali 2000: 186–87). in the madurai formula films, we contend, sections of the upwardly mobile thevar caste found an articulation of virility, valor and unbending dominance which they could mimic and aspire towards. crucially, as anandhi, jeyaranjan and krishnan (2002) observe, this has become a template for other castes—including dalits—to follow .
firstly we welcome the attempt to contextualize such films within the social relations of south tamil nadu. what we would add is that the riots of the 1990s were merely the visible manifestation of thevar caste dominance, which continues into the present day as seen in the problems surrounding the holding of reserved
was if anything the reverse. films, once they are released, have a life of their own that is beyond the intentions and direction of the film makers. in this sense, we find krishnan’s reading of the films somewhat limited. at several points, for instance, he makes arguments to the effect that :
the recurrent reference to the “generosity” and munificence of dominant caste heroes became a staple of neo - nativist films in 1980s and 1990s as well. unlike the dravidian oeuvre, however, these films are much more explicit about the caste backgrounds of the protagonists. srinivas and kaali (1998: 212) note how they tap into patron - client relations and serve to reproduce “caste power. ” in keeping with this emphasis, the heroines are expected to be chaste and faithful to preserve caste purity. there is huge significance attached to the concepts of honor (
hero brandishing an extra - large sword. more significantly still—as though to reinforce the association between life and art—the cut - out was positioned so that it faced the huge statue of muthuramalinga thevar in the heart of the city. during the annual “guru puja” (leader worship—processions and events to mark the anniversary of his birth), when followers of thevar shut down the city to pay respects to and garland the statue, objections were raised against the cut - out and its glorification of violence. consequently the sword was removed and placed behind the hoarding for a while. due to popular pressure, however, it was later restored (srinivas and kaali 1998: 225). thus, as early as this, we see the imbrication of cinematic themes with popular forms of action and representation. srivathsan captured this in his review of violence in tamil movies :
the moustache here becomes synonymous with tradition and social power and this knowledge is simultaneously deployed and reinforced in films. the close association between caste standing and facial hair is emphasized in one song where even background photographs of sivaji ganesan (acclaimed tamil actor) —who portrays the character of periya thevar—have been altered to sport an upturned moustache to be more in keeping with the thrust of the film. few men, as oldstone - moore (2011) argues, have groomed themselves in complete ignorance of the social implications and, we would add, still fewer directors shoot films in ignorance of the connotations that their character’s facial hair may have .
such processes are not unique to tamil nadu, but reflect the wider processes of caste consolidation and power. sevea (2014), thus, offers a similar analysis of the way in which punjabi films construct a jatt - centric hegemonic code that reinforces social dominance and provides a template against which other caste groups are judged .
( madurai hero, 1956), which made m. g. ramachandran the matinee idol of tamil cinema and took him to the subaltern masses, the emphasis was less on the 3m’s that dominate such films today. indeed, the script narrates the folklore legend of a subaltern hero who was hired by the nayak king to
the neo - nativity genre by films that reaffirmed “authority in terms of both caste and gender. ” pandian (2008) likewise observes the “nativistic turn” in tamil cinema, which saw the cinema industry begin to explore the tamil countryside and its people, paying particular attention to rural customs, forms of worship and agriculture. pandian argues that this shift embedded cinema in the lives of the rural masses and became “incitements to live in a particular fashion” (2008: 125). he notes the ways in which people draw on film in everyday life and conversation and concludes “these films are taken by rural subjects as a way of expressing the quality of their own struggles with the substance of the countryside. ” we would echo pandian’s argument save for one crucial amendment. pandian mentions in passing that these films may offer a “cinematic ode to the customs and traditions of the piramalai kallar caste” (2008: 131), but does not probe into the impact of this caste focus on the rural or mass audience .
), that archetypal symbol of traditional masculinity, caste pride, and feudalism which is most popular in madurai district. the backward and caste - bound nature of madurai in these films, is reinforced in accounts of the city’s frenetic fans who treat film stars as demigods (dickey 1993). it was in madurai that fans cut off fingers and limbs and offered them to god when mgr suffered a stroke, praying for his recovery. in his analysis of recent films, krishnan (2008) shows how madurai is now constructed in the narrative space of tamil cinema as the antithesis of the modern, and a place where people are still ruled by caste, clans, and kinship networks .
while the modern state is compromised by electoral politics allowing such hooligans to exercise control over politicians or elected representatives, it is nevertheless capable of producing neutral individuals like saami [ an honest and heroic policeman from the 2003 film of the same name ] in its administration who can annihilate the anti - state bodies and their caste - criminal networks (2008: 142) .
at the time of writing, in 2016, tamil nadu was still reeling from the cold - blooded murder of a dalit man, sankar, in broad daylight following a love marriage to a thevar woman (the economic times 2026). the murder—caught on cctv—was widely condemned, but the two main dravidian parties remained silent on the topic .
it is, we contend, possible to chart the imbrication of cinema and caste politics by tracing alterations to the narrative depictions of caste through the 1980s. from the mid - 1980s onwards, the characteristics and traits discussed above came to be portrayed as linked to particular castes. kaali (2000), thus, discusses a dramatic departure in the 1970s during which the “phallic affirmation” of nativism (which was part of the social realism phase and focused on depicting real life as opposed to myths and legends) gave way to a genre of neo - nativity films in which the social insufficiency or “castration” of the protagonist was the dominant theme .
however, pranam khareedu was released earlier at the box office. chiru known for his break dancing skills, chiranjeevi acted sofar in 149 films and his 150th film is on its way. in 2006, chiranjeevi was honoured with the padma bhushan, india’s third highest civilian award, for his contributions to indian cinema, and was presented with an honorary doctorate from andhra university .
thus, even in the overt condemnation of caste violence, dalits are stripped of their agency and rendered passive recipients. other popular film tropes similarly conspire to relegate dalits to the margins. the emphasis on bull - taming is a case in point, since dalits were historically barred from taking part in such contests and have only begun to enter them since the dalit struggles of the 1990s .
washbrook (1989) notes that social dominance in tamil nadu is fragmented, with various caste groups exerting dominance over sub - regions. this fragmentation is attributed in great part to the ecology of the state, with caste composition and dynamics closely related to settlement patterns and forms of agriculture (subramanian 1999: 18). river valleys witnessed greater concentrations of people and division of labor, with dalits comprising the vast bulk of landless agricultural laborers. the plains and hills, by contrast, witnessed different configurations of power and dominance in which control over irrigation tanks provided social capital and material resources to dominant castes (mosse 1997). given this, analysts in tamil nadu have to be sensitive to the regional specificities of caste relations across the state .
following caste - based challenges to dravidian politics from intermediate caste groups like the thevars and vanniyars—and their demands for a greater allocation of resources and increased political recognition—the 1990s saw the flourishing of nativist (a form of social realism) cinema that openly celebrated and portrayed caste identities and characters. it is only in the 2010s that we see the film industry starting to acknowledge and represent dalit struggles in films such as
that the close association between caste and valor is to the fore. when kamal hasan’s character, who has been in singapore for many years, returns to tame a bull as though he has never been away the film suggests that caste is an innate and immutable essence rather than a code of conduct. this maps onto changes in caste composition and practice in which an emphasis on conduct gave way in the early 20
our argument here is not that all the films that follow this formula are the same or that they adopt similar ways of glorifying thevars. genres, as srinivas and kaali (1998: 174) quote neale (1990) as saying, are processes that are “dominated by repetition, but they are also marked fundamentally by difference, variation and change. ” some of the films critique the violent sub - culture associated with thevars. nevertheless, all of them, continue to re - inscribe the association of thevars with sickles, machetes and caste violence, and portray muthuramalinga thevar as a revered and universally admired leader. irrespective of the directors’ intent, the films are taken to celebrate the dominance of the caste cluster .
kamal hassan’s character returns from london with hippie - style long hair but, after the death of his father, he gives up colored clothes, rids himself of his locks and sports a big moustache that marks him out as capable of filling his father’s shoes. critically, in the film, this responsibility should have gone to the elder brother, but his masculinity is at stake due to his alcoholism and lack of valor.
kaali is a 1980 tamil – telugu bilingual-film directed by i. v. sasi , and produced by hem-nag . it stars rajinikanth , seema , phataphat jayalakshmi , vijayakumar and shubha in prominent roles . chiranjeevi reprises vijayakumar 's role in the telugu version . this was the first film that had rajinikanth and chiranjeevi together . seema enacted dual roles in this film . kaikala satyanarayana plays the main villain in both the versions . the cinematography was handled by ashok kumar . 
kaali is a 1980 tamil – telugu bilingual-film directed by i. v. sasi, and produced by hem-nag. it stars rajinikanth, seema, phataphat jayalakshmi, vijayakumar and shubha in prominent roles. chiranjeevi reprises vijayakumar's role in the telugu version. this was the first film that had rajinikanth and chiranjeevi together. seema enacted dual roles in this film. kaikala satyanarayana plays the main villain in both the versions. the cinematography was handled by ashok kumar.
kaali is a 1980 tamil – telugu bilingual-film directed by i. v. sasi, and produced by hem-nag. it stars rajinikanth, seema, phataphat jayalakshmi, vijayakumar and shubha in prominent roles. chiranjeevi reprises vijayakumar's role in the telugu version. this was the first film that had rajinikanth and chiranjeevi together. seema enacted dual roles in this film. kaikala satyanarayana plays the main villain in both the versions. the cinematography was handled by ashok kumar.