5

On Castes and Comedians:

The language ofpower in recent Tamil cinema

K. RA VI SRINIV AS and SUNDAR KAALI

opular cinema frustrates all search for realistic portrayals

P of the configUrations of class.. caste or gender in contem·

porary Indian society. As a secondary modeling system with
highly developed and conventionalized codes, popular Tamil
cinema, too. has over the years evolved particular modes or
representing these categorics. One should not, therefore. be
surprised to find a relatively small number of occupational cate-
gories and castes repre."ICnted in such films. These representations
hardly ever corTespond to actual social categories. In tbis respect.
popular Tamil cinema is analogous to a game of chess with a
limited number of 8ctants and highly conventionalized rules.
Consider, for instance, the genre of neo-nativism in Tamil film.
As a genre that bas dominated the scene Cor more than a decade
now, it bas evolved particular narrational strategies and modes of
representation. Apart [rom the role played by the village com-
munity, which (unctions as a collective actant in the sense in which
Greimas uses it,' there are others like that of the landlord, the
serf. the barber, the washennan, the doctor. the teacher, and the
militaryman that are regular features of the genre. The recurrence
of these categories points to their positioning in popular Tamil
film as crucial nodes of narrational and discursive significance.
This leads us to examine their quality as act ants rluher than their
characterological significance in psychological.rcalistic tcnns.
The doctor, the teacher and the militaryman are mostly
depicted as outsiders and intruders.' But while the militaryman
and the teacher are usually portrayed as benefactors and
 The language ql power in recent Tsml1 cinema· 209
liberators, the doctor "is, in most eases, vicious and villainous. In
contrast to these categories. however, the landlord, the serf, the
barber and the washerman are total insiders.l The landlord and
the serf represent opposite poles of the village community and
intra-community contradiction is Signalled in their opposition.
The teacher as a~ outsider signifies the coming of literacyl
education and hence is portrayed as a benefactor (see, for
instance. Pudhia Varppuhal, Annskki!J; RaSBve Unnai Nambi
Kad8lora-k-Kavidhaihal, Mundhanai Mudicchu, Onna lrukka-k-
Kafthuklamum, Pudhu NelJu Pudhu Natfhu, Uzhavan, Thirumadhi
Palanicchamy and Ponda,,; Sanna Keltukkanum). The doctor,
however. is always viewed with a bit of suspicion and from /6
VayadhimJe to Vaidhehi Ka/yanam remains a complete outsider
capable of seducing women and polluting the community. In fact.
in Vaidhehi Ka/yanam an alJopathic doctor is contrasted with a
local doctor practising traditional medicine. The local doctor is a
quaek but nevertheless stands Cor justice and the interests of the
community. The militaryman, on the contrary, is always
benevolent, though an outsider. He signifies an intermediary or
liminal presence, a link that articulates the village community and
the wider society. He stands for the legitimate interests of the
community but also assists in the transgression oC its norms when
they become ossified and oppressive. This pattern is well evident
in Rasaye Unmfi Nambi, PayUflU Pavunudhan, Kozhi Kooyudhu,
Dhsyani-k-Kanavuhaland Kizhskkc Pohum Rail. Note should be
taken oC the diHereDcc between the militaryman, who fights the
liquor baron in R as8vc Unnai Nambi and his counterpart in
Kizhakke Pohum Rail. who stands up against the community in
helping the hero and the heroine in their radical act of
transgressing caste norms.
If the militaryman as an intermediary, linking the traditional
and the modem, signifies deep-scated afUjeljcs about martiality
in contemporary Tamil society. in (jlms like Vedhsm Pudhidhu,
Enga Dow KavalkaTan and Thcvar Mahan, these anxieties find
ye t other complex modes of expression. In Enga Dow Kaya1karan,
the hero comes in a long line of Xayalkarsns(lraditiooal policemen
of the village) who are known for valour and uprightne.ss, While
the hero renounces the profeSSion in favour of some soft
alternative, circumstances, however, force him to take up arms
against injustice and prove his valour! This is one film in whieh
reference to caste names is ·explicit. The hero belongs to the
210 • Secret Politics of Our Desires
nevsrcommunity, which is traditionally a manial community in
Tamil Nadu. However, the faLller's name. Veera Thevar, and the
grandfather's name, Pandimuni Thevar, poinl to the symbolic
character of the hero's descent. It should be noted LIla! vceram
in Tamil means valour whereas Pandimuniis the name of a fierce
folk deity in southern Tamil Nadu. This immediately elevates the
hero's line of descent 10 a mythical plane and delimits the possibili.
ties of extra·textual referentiality. In fact, LIIc framed photographs
of both the father and the grandfather, hanging on the walls of
the hero's house, portray men with huge moustaches and, thus,
are at once iconic and symbolic. Other signifiers, like the
traditional sword (arivsl) of the hero's ancestors. which hangs on
the wall and is used by him at critical moments in the film, also
bave the same kind of associations. The sword is investcd with
supernatural/magical power and is capable of destroying enemy
weapolU.
The hero of Engs Ooru Kava/karan. in his love for the heroine
belonging to the Valluvar caste. points to another facet of this
mlirtiaIity·related anxiety. The VaiJuvars, though a low.ranking
caste in Tamil Nadu, are unique in that they are associated with
a sort of intellectual activity like astrology, which is usually the
domain of upperoCaste specialists. The coming together of the
heroine and the hero would. thus. signify an aspiration for simul·
taneously reaffirming martiality and entry into the realm of
learning and the learned.s
Wh.ile the hero in Engs Ooro Kavalkarsn initially renounces
martiality and i§ forced to reilffirm it at the end of the film , the
protagonist'! in Vcdhsm Pudhidhu and Thevsr Mahan repreS¢nt
very different position~ in this regard. In Vedham Pudhidhu, the
protagonist Balu·t-Thevar is a highly revered village headman. A
kind·hearled man known for his generosity, he remains resolutely
atheist. His son, educatcd in the city. falls in love with a Brahmin
girl, the daughter of a Vedic scholar in his native village, and this
causes a series o[ happening5 leading to his death. The girl runs
away from her Calks on the eve of her marriage to another man
and subsequently the father of tho girl dies. Her younger brother
is brought up in the Thcvar household. Onec in the household,
he makes Balu-t·Thevar see th.ings in a new light. Alone point,
Balu-t·Thevar even gives up his weapons, throws them into the
river in an act of simultaneously renouncing martiality and his
caste identity. The Brahmin girl returns to the village and, when
 The language of power in rcccni Tamil cinema· 211
the whole village, which is against h~r stay there, urges her to
leave, it is Balu-t-Thevar who slands up for her and is killed by
an enraged community. In his violent death, however, the
protagonist in Vcdlam Pudhidhu affirms anti-martial values and
a transgression of caste norms.
Thevar Mahan, the recent blockbuster, brings to the fore this
very same problem albeit in a quile different manner. At the
beginning of the film, the hero Saktivel (played by Kamalhasan),
the younger son of Periya Thevar (played by Sivaji Ganesan),
returns to his native village lifter completing his studies in England.
While Periya Thevar is an epitome of traditional authority, being
a highly revered landlord in the village and headman of the village
panchayat, Saktivel, by contrast, is portrayed as a modem young
man with cosmopolitan sensibilities. He brings along with him a
girlfriend, who hails from Andhra Pradesh and whom he wishes
to marry. He has plans to start a chain of restaurants in the citi,es
and initially has no intention of slaying in his native place. His
plans are, however, disrupted by certain happenings in the Village
on his arrival. He is caught up in a family feud, that between his
father, and his uncle and his son, the villain. Subsequent develop-
ments lelld to the death of Periya Thevar and Saktivel is gradually
transformed into being his father's legitimate heir. The family
feud intensifies and reaches a ctimax when the villain bombs the
temple car during the annual festival. An enraged hero desperately
pursues the villain and demands his submission (0 tb.e rule of law
and, when the latter refuses to submit al\d retaliates, has to kill
him, after which he courts arrest The film closes with the hero's
exhortation to the villagers to renoun~ martiality, and his
elevation to the position of a demi.god who worked for the cause
of peace.
A mythical line of descent is constructed in the opening
sequence of the film. nll~ opening shot shows a photograph of
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Pan to a photograph of Muthu-
ramalinga Thevar. Dissolve. Periya Thevllr surrounded by his
grandchildren is shown in slow motion. The old man Periya Thevar
makes a remark about his moustache. He says that his moustache
still retains the traditional stiffness. If the moustache is understood
8S a sign of manliness and martiaIity (c!. the photographs in Engs
Ooru Ksvslksron), then the mythical ancestry traced for tbe hero
becomes highly signi6cant. From the hero's real (ather the line
goes up to thc caste hero-eum-politic:al leader, Muthuramalinga

•
 The language of powtJr in recent Tamil cinema • 213
to subjectify the spectator on Ihe other. The hero's aide-cum-
comedian repeats the slogan 'Ihe body for the earth and the life
Cor the lord' even at crilical moments, as Cor in$lance when he
loses his hand in a riol for Ihe sake of the hero. TM, incidentally,
is a fan club slogan.
On the occasion when the hero gives refuge to the villagers
arcected by the nood engincc:red by the villain, the nature of this
act of munificence finds open expression. At one point, the hero
feels terribly sad on wilnessing the gruesome scenes of the flood·
affccted village and refuses to cat. In that instance, Periya ThevBr,
in a piece of advice, stresses the importance of the vitality and
strength needed in order to be a 'saviour' of the community. This,
in fact, clearly points 10 the nature of generosity that sprinp from
patronage-unmistakeably the source of CBSle power and
permeated by sinews of manhood.
This clement of generosity is expressed on a different plane in
tbe relation between the hero and his wife. He marries her quite
unexpectedly when her marriage to another man arra nged by the
hero himself is disrupted by the bridegroom absconding, fearing
retaliation from the villain. The hero. in the act of marrying her
(instead of his girlfriend), salvages not only the honour of the
girl but also the interests of the community at large, jeopardized
by the villain. This is one instance where the narrative reaffinns
authority in terms of both caste and gender. 1o
In fact, caste relalions are always mediated by gender and, as
VRsanlh and Kalpana Kanoabiran argue, 'a practical under-
standing of caste that is ungendered' is impossible:
Gender within C3.Ste society is thus defined and structured in SIIth •
manner th.t the 'manhood' of the taue ii defined both by the deuce of
eontrol men uercise oyer ....omen and the degree of passivity of the
women of the elste. By the ume argument, demoMI,..tmS control by
hum il iating women of another caste is • cetUlin way of reducing the
manhood of that CU1e."
Gender is, thus, 'defined by Ihe capacity to a&8tess and appro-
priale the other. '11
Exercising control over the female body, then, should be seen
as signifying the affirmation of caste power on several levels. The
female body as a bounded entity is, in this case, a sign oC the
entire group whose boundaries are to be guarded against threats
from the outside.13 In Thevsr Mshsn, for instance, the he ro is
provoked when the villain's men make certain snide remarks aboul
214 • !kcrcl Politics oj' Our Desires
his virility. In an attemp t to prove his valour a nd thus demonslrale
his manliness. the he ro engages in a slickfight with the villain's
men. H e , o f course, defeats the opponent and the fight sequence
flows into a song and dance sequence. The sequence starts with
the hero singing about his valour a nd showing orr his victory over
the opponenL However, it gradually lIhifts to a display of his
manliness and sexual prowess in relatio n to his woman. But
sometimes the re is an element of ambiguity about the person
being addressed. Whereas the hero initially engages in proving
his manliness and valour by m aki ng chalk marks on the body of
the villain using his fighting.stick, he now urges him to wear the
kumkumlsandalpaste marks worn by women o n their fo rehead.
He also teases the villain by asking him to give up his man's
dothing and weat a saree and flowers like a woman. However.
the line ' I will smash your hip and you will sit veiled in shame' is
not at all explicit about the person being addressed. Even if il is
assumed to be addressed 10 the villain and a imed at mocking his
unmanliness (=: wo manliness). the image track shows a victorious
hero carrying on with his girlfriend and no longer engaging in
villain-baiting. The fig hting.stick itself is put 10 a totally different
use in the later part o f the sequence. The manner in which it
traverses the fe male bodyscapc docs not leave o ne in any doubt
about its phallic characte r. This n arra tive continuity and the
collision of the visual a nd,8ural planes dearJy mark an e ncounter
and close associa tion between sexualily and violence and the
gendered na ture of caste power. The sequence confirms that caste
power is phallic in character and springs from castrating the man
o f the other group on the one hand a nd organizing the sexuality
of the woman of one's own group on the other.l'
That the ge nea logical formation is reaffinned a nd caste power
reproduced in this fashion in 1'hevor Mahon is evidenced hy other
instance s in the narrative. While the: elder son o f Periya Thevar
has produced a male heir and is a drunkard incapable of saving
the ho nour of the fa mily, there ~~ hope that the hyper-virile hero
will do so when his wife announces her pregnancy towards end
o f the film,l'
This valorization of the genealogical rormatio n, in fact, gocs
against the professed paeirlSffi of the film. Though the he ro decries
martiality a t the end after killing the villain, and surrenders to
the police, this in no way challenges caste authority. since the
Jailer i~ predicated upon the genealogical form ation. This is the
 The language of po .....er in ffcenf THmil c:in,'ma • 215
sing1e major difference between the professed pacifism of Vcdham
Pudhidhu and Thevar Mahan. While in the former the pacifism
or the hero and his violent dellth are premised on and necessarily
entail subversion and transgression of caste norms, the opp05ite
happens in thc case of the latter where Ihey are artinned rather
than challenged. It should be noted that the narrative in Vedhllm
Pudhidhu is not really concerned with the continuation of the
descent. While there is a clear indica lion Ihal the Brahmin boy is
seen by Balu-t-Thevar as his surrogate son and the resemblance
between his name, Sankaran and that of the son, Sankarapandi,
necessarily points to Iheir identities, the narrative shuns anchoring
the continuity of the line of descent at the moment of closure.
This is partly due to the fact that the identification itself entails a
transgression of caste norms and renunciation of caste identity.
The son's death, if seen in this light, could signify a failure of an
initial project of transgression in which the casle identity still
remains intact. The valori7.ation of the 5CCOnd projcct of bringing
in the Brahmin boy and girl to the Thevar household is. thus, not
a narrational strategy aiming lit an eventual resolution of the
conflict in a family reunion, but rather a plot-trickery that
precludes the possibility of such resolution.
The pacifism of the Thcvar Mahan hero, nevertheless. serves
anotller purpose. In the act of courting IlJTest after killing the
villain, the hero signifies a 10lal submission or the traditional
authority of the village community to state power.16 In Ihe film,
while the villagers are used to settle disputes in the panchayat
and, in extreme cases. through violent means, the hero right rrom
the beginning insists on stale intervention in this regard . He
repeatedly seeks the help of the police and on one occasion even
brings in the district collector, who happens to be his eiassmate,
and other government officials as arbiters to sett1e the temple
dispute between his rather and uncle. The narrative, then, should
be seen to consolidate caste authority by channeling it through a
systcm of patronage on the one hand and articulating the village
community with the Slate by disarming it on the otherY
Unlike the Proppian hero who is initially in a state of
conjunction wilh society and then undertakes his journey to
accomplish heroic deeds in the outer world, the hero in Thcvar
Mahan is initially disjunct from the community and slowly makes
his way through it to achieve conjunction. 11 Rather lhan leaving
thc community for his heroic exploits, he, in ract, performs all his
 The language of power in recent Tamil cinema' 217
Hc, in fact, openly challcnges the traditional authority of the
village. I?
In an attcmpt to resolvc on a symbolic level the tension that
exists between the lower and upper agrarian castes, popular Tamil
film sometimes plays with secmingly real caste categories. In Altha
Un Koyiiik. for instance, the upper..castc Nayakkars and the lower-
caste Chakkiliy3rs (leather workers) arc placed in opposition. The
heroine, a Nayakkar girl. falls in love with the )ow-caste hero
who works for her family and is, for that reason, poisoned and
killed by her own kin. In the next ge neration, however, an upper
caste hero falls in love with a Chakkiliyar girl and, with the help
of the hero in the earlier plot, eventually succeeds in marrying
her.
Caste supremacy claimed by agrarian landowning castes is
symbolically challenged in two other important films, CheraIJ
Pandian and Rakbyi Koyil In o,cTan Psndian, the ancestral
house of the leading Kavundar family of the village is divided by
a huge wall !lCpafllting the households of Lbe two sons of the
deceased head of the family. 80m of two different women, one
belonging to the Kavundar community, a landowning upper caste,
and the other a dalit woman, they represent two different value
systems in tenns of caste. While the Kavundar son is proud of
his Kavundar heritage lind refuses to grant the other any right or
respect in family mailers, the other son and his sister constantly
amnn their common heritage lind long to be accepted as part of
the fonner's kin. This, however, is not forthcoming, and the dalit
son and his sister have to make enonnous sacrifices before the
family is reunited. In fact, the sister gets killed and in the final
sequence the two brothers hold each other's alms in supporting
the dying sister's body. This clearly suggests that it is not just a
case of family reunion, but the resolution of the caste problem
posed earlier by the film. At a climactic moment, the Kavundar
son's ",ife engages in vehement rhetoric, challenging her husband's
uppcr-caste pride, which changes his mind The resolution of the
problem, however, docs not automatically entail a symbolic
dissolution of caste boundaries. In fact, Ihe mix up of the previous
generation is nullified by depicting the dalil son and daughter as
devoid of any progeny.
Similarly, in Rskkayi Koyil, the upper-eas.le pride of the
heroine's father, a leading Kavundar of the village, is challenged
at a final moment in the narrative when IUs old mOlher reveals
218 • Secret Politics of Our D c:>irC.)·
his hidden identity. While the Kavundar and the whole village
have been sct to punish the heroine and the hero (who bclong.'1
to a low-caste a nd wo rks for the heroine's father) by burning
them alive for having loved each other, the Kavundar's mot her,
e nraged by these events, reveals the secret of his birth to a low-
caste woman and his Kavundar father. Stunned by the revelation,
the Kavundar sels the lovers free. But unable to cope with Ihe
reality of his binh, he kills himself by the very same knife he
used to cut the rope that lied the lovers.

Let us now move on 10 consider Ihe structure of comedy in

popular Tamil film . A serio us e xamination of the structure
immediately reveals its caste overt ones. Especially noteworthy is
the dominant mode of comedy over the past several years which
comprises two comedians.. one of whom is in a dominant position
and the other subservient (these are usually played by IWO we ll-
known comedians in Tamil cincma. Kavundamani and Senthil.
though the re are exccptio ns). The dominant one constantly bulliC!l,
exercises aUlhority over, a nd is scornful lowards Ihe physical
appearance and personality of the subservient one.lI> The latter is
clever at dodging this direct and indirect violencc, and eventually
succeeds in outwitting the (orme r. Tho ugh this is nothing new in
tenns of structure and is well represented in a variety of comedy
traditions, ranging from circus clowning to the Laurel and Hardy
films ,ll its caste implicatio ns are partic ula rly strong in Tamil
cinema and this adds a different dimension 10 the basic structure
o f comedy.
In Ponnukketth8 Purushan, for instance, Kav undamani a nd
Senthil work in a cinema hall. Kavundamani is the projectionist
while Senthil, a man of lowly origins.. wo rks as a counler clerk.
Senthil flirts with a scavenger woman belonging 10 a low casle.
Kavundamani, who is envious of this., discloses the matter to the
girl's relatives a nd tricb Senlhil inlo marrying the girl. Kavunda-
mani is averse not only to Senthil and his lover bul also her
kin·group as a who le. In fact. he often talks aboul them as a
'stinking lot', referring to their inferior caste status. Alter marriage,
the in-laws of Sentrul (represented not just as a family but as an
entire kin group) wish to watch a movie in the cinema hall in
which he works. .When Senthil asks the owner of the hall for a
free show for them, Kav undamani o pposes the idea. on the
grounds that the who le hall would start to stink and no amount
 The lunguage of power in recent Tamil cinern4 • 219
of cleaning age nt would get rid of the smell. However. the owner
does grant pennission and during the show, the low.caste men
smoke a lot and the women chew large quantities of betel leaves.
In an unexpected comic development, the cigarette smoke coming
out of the hall is mistaken for that of a fire and the villagers rush
to the cinema to douse the fire. Drenched in a downpour of wate r,
the low.caste men and women leave the hall.
The whole episode of e ntering the cinema hall, watching the
movie and latcr emerging (rom it drenched in water could be
seen as signifying a process of purification. U The references to
scavenging a nd 'stinking' obviously point to such a reading.
Another instance that anchors the caste connotations of the
Kavundamani-Senthil comedy is the scene where Senthil wcars
sunglasses to imitate Kavundamani and t he latter breaks them.
l{avundamani, in fact, cxpliciLly expresses caste hatred when be
says, ' What would be the value of my sunglasses i( peoplc like
you started to wear them?' However, keeping with the basic
Slructure of the comedy, the bossiness of Kavundamani is reversed
finally when he falls prey to the schemes of a deceitful woman,
who pretends to be a rich girl from the city.
At this point, we need to probe into the narTational and
psychological mechanisms involved in the production of comic
effect in order to nrrive at a deeper understanding of the caste
connotations of the Kavundamani-Senthil comedy in Tamil film .
According to Unberto Eco,
... (the ] comic effect is realized when: ( i) there is the violation of a rule ... ;
(ii) the violation is commilled b)' someone with whom we do not
sympathize beeaus.e he is an ignoble. inferior, and repulsive (animal-like)
charaeter; (Hi) therefore we feel superior to his misbehaviour and to his
sorrow for having broken the rule; (iv) however in recogn~ng that the
rule hal been broken. we do not feel concerned; on the contrary we in
some wa)' welcome the violation: we are. so 10 speak. revenscd by the
comic character who hu chUen&ed the repre"lve power of the role
(which involves no risk to us. since we commit the violation onl)'
vicariOU$ly); (v) our pleasure ;5 a mixed one because we enjoy not onl)'
the brcakins of the rule but .Iso the disgrace of an animal·like individua l;
(vi) at the same lime we are neither concerned with the defence of the
rule nor eompelled towards compassion for such In Inferior beln,,"
This animalization of the comedian that e nables the spectator to
derive sadistic pleasure from the comedy is. however. never
complete:
Aurcuion and superiority tend oflen 10 oscilla te across and between
220 • Secret PoHtics 01 OUT Desires
the viewer Ind the ehl rleters, on the one hind, and the chlrleters
themselves. 011 the other. The viewer's .wessien, possibly Implified by
the pressures of identific.tion involved in Ihe proceloS of the comic, is
arlicuilled in to the narrlltive of the film itsel! lind in to the p;attem of
relation between the o:haraclers involved.!'
The narci.o;sistic trait of the viewing subject which finds expression
in his/her identification with the bossy comedian and the animal-
ization of the 'inferiOr" comedian is of len annihilated towards the
end of the narrative when their positions are reversed. The comic
moment, thus, scrves temporarily to feed the ego and the subject's
narcissism, but is inherently unstahle.Z!I 'The moment of identi-
fication necessary to the comic process is unstable, too, to that
extent If the superiority of the ego over the othe r is to be
attained, then the ego has to identify with the other first. '16 The
oscillation produced in such a situation would, however, be
ultimately contained by the narration il-;elf, as any excess in this
direction would lead to a disruption of the plot-space of the hero
on the one hand, and a violation of the ego-space of the viewer
on the other. n Comedy, therefore, 'represents a temporary
suspension of the social structure, or ralher it makes a littJc
disturbance in which the particular structuring of society becomes
less relevant than another.'1S An eventual restoration of order is
a necessary precondition of this suspension of order and Ihal is
why Eco calls it 'authorized uansgrcssion.'20
If this restoration of order and Ihe re-stabilization of the subject
are to be effectively resisted, a radically different discursive
mode has to be employed. 'For the Law is not simply a matter
or the ideological content of discourse, but of the orders of
the articulation or meaning and sense themselves. 'lI) Such a
radical problematization of the conventions of narration and
spectator positioning is attempted by V. Sekar's Onna lrukka-k-
Katthulckanum.
While the caste character of the structure of the comedy is
faidy pronounced in many Tamil films, it is usually confined 10 a
sub-plot that runs parallel to the main plot. Thc comedians arc
commonly found to be the herolheroine's aides and are played
by supporting aetors!actresses.J1 Although this sub-plot is by no
means disjunctive [rom the main plot and, in most cases, shows it
through compositional parallels and commonalities.'" the comedian
very rarely tums out to be the protagonist. This is more so in the
case of Kavundamani-Senthil comedy with overtones of caste.
 Thr: language of power in rect:nt Tamil cinema· 221
Onna frukka·k·Katthukkanum subverts this basic narrative
strUClUrc and the ideological assumptions on which it rests. The
entire film is narrated in a comic mode and addresses the caste
quc:stion quite daringly. The narrative is centered on the caste
contradictions in a village. On the one side are the upper-easte
landlord (who is also the president of the village panchayat) and
his kin, the astrologer-Brahmin and other upper-caste people. On
the other side are the dalits: the Vettiyan (the viUage servant in
charge of cremating dead bodies who, in most parts of Tamil
Nadu, belongs to the Paraiyar caste) and his kin, the leather-
workers (the Chakkiliyars), the washennen (the VannarslEhali.~)
and the barbc:TlI (Ambaltars Navidhars). The latter live in a colony
outside the village proper and are mostly illiterate. The landlord
nnd other uppcr-caste men thrive on thcir illiteracy and poverty
and the person who devises and suggests sehemes for him is the
Brahmin. A schoolteacher intervene5 in this situation and serves
as a harbinger of change. He makes the children of the dalit
colony attend school and urges the educated unemployed among
the dalits to 51art small businesses. He even brings television to
the village and thi5 helps to create an awareneu among the
oppre5Sed. The landlord's IIttempts to slail the: change: fail and
when the dalits start asserting themselves they arc excommuni-
cated at one point by the upper-castes. An infuriated landlord
even scts fire to the colony and burns down the huts. The dalits
are now caught between two extreme options: that of leaving the
village to lead a frec life elsewhere or 5ubmitting to thc authority
of the upper castes. The tcacher disapproves of both these options
and urgcs them to stay and fight for their rights. The dalits
eventually decide 10 do .so and in the meantime a considerable
number of uppcr-caste people break with the landlord and his
men and decide to conciliate the dalits. When an enraged group
of villagcTll finally wants to punish the landlord {or his deeds and
demands an apology, he cannot reckon with the (act and kills
himself by self·immolation.
Unlike the usual template in which all contradictions, including
that of caste, are resolvcd in the coming together of the hero and
the heroine who embody polar Opposiliom., this film is a daring
attempt at simultaneously making a break with conventional
narrative strategics and openly dillCuMing the dali! question..u
There is no hcro/heroine of the usual sort in the film. In fact, the
Vettiyan (played by Kavundamani), the barber (played by
222 • Secret Politics of Our Desires
SenlhH), the teacher and the landlord vie with each other for the
position of protagonist. The two romantic relatio nships, one
between the Vannar youth and lhe daughter of the landlord and
the othe r between the Vannar girl and the Olakkiliyar boy, arc
reduced to marginal significance in thc narrative. This, besides
ele vating the comedians to the status of protagonists, further
serves the purpose oC foregrounding the caste problematic that
ad heres in the structure of the comedy itself.
The comic in the film, then. could be said to operate on a
meta-meta-semiotic plane and effect a radical reordering of the
dominant narrational a nd discursive modes.loO And in so doing. it
decisively destabilizes the position of the spectating subjcct. When
the plot-space of the hero is occupied by the outcasteioomedian
in the film , it shatters the stability of the delicate logical constructs
around which are organized Ihe discursive hegemonies of caste
society. That such an operation could be accomplished in the
fe"alm of popular film attests to its sensitivilY, not only to the
collective anxieties of the present, but also LO the collective
aspira tions and dreams for a (uture."

NOTES
ram of this chapter were pre!lellled in the seminar on 1llevar mahan
and Caste Discounc in Tamil Film' organized by the Mldurai Research
Circle in FebrullJ 1993. The authors wish 10 thank. J, Vuanthan, ~uel
Sudlonlndha, Suresh r aul , A.R. KumfIT, J. Kan nan. K. Ravichandn.n.
Seshadri Rajan Ind Film News Anandan for ~hC"i r kind help in ~he
preparation of the chapter.
\. For an uemplification of the nOlion of collective actant, see AJgird~.
Julien Greimas, 'Des.cription and Nlrr.~ivity: "The Piece of S~ring''''
New Litcnry H /stoq, 1989,20(3), pp. 615-26; sec pp. 615-16.
2. For I n interC$ting comPilliwn of outsiders in Hollywood and In dian
films, see J. Vaunlhan, ' (..eave the Outsider Alone' , Rlmfarc, 1979,
27(20),1'1'. 4S-7. He argues "that the figure of the pure outsider in the
Hollywood tradi tion ca nnot be realized in the India n situation, still
pervaded by kinship relltions.
Chak.ravarthy, while discussing Bhan.tiraja', films, highlights the
nanative signirlCaocc o f Ihe 'outsider' in his films. A<XOTding to him ,
Ihe village in Bharalinja's films i. a se lf-con tai ncd univcrse and il is
the coming of the out sider thlt brings abou t I ny change In it.
Chak.raVinhy, ' Bhara tirajlvin Cinema', /1/;' O<;tobcr 1986, 1'1'. 3-9. sec
p. S.
3. The names of the barber and ....ashcrman castes. which in reali.y are
224 • Secret PoHtics of Our Desires
resolved,. TIle laller is upreased variously as genermity bc;tween lovers,
bc;t"M:en close kin, bc;tween friends, and bc;tween the individual and the
communily. The generosilY in nu,YIf( M~lIlfl/ is , o n the contrary,
exprcssc:d in terms o f p,atron-ciienl relations and is. thut. • iiOurce of
caste power.
9. James C. Scott, 'Patron-Client Polities and Political Change in Southeasl
Asia', ThtJ American PoIifigJ ScicIlCfl Review, 1972, 66(1), pp. 91_1 \3:
SIlt p. 93.
10. ct. similar acts of munificence performed by the hema in N~ylfh.II
Ind Chifll/ll-k-X,,'utubr. Both these film, are pervaded by the element
of p,atronage, and the: hero's generosity in marrying a girl of lowly origin
is a signifialnt ractor in the constit lltion of tbe Image of the patron.
I!. Vasanth Kannabiran and Kalp,ana Kannabiran, 'Caste and Gender:
Understand;ns Dynamics of Power and Violence', ECOI/omie 'lid
Poiiriclfl Weekly, 14 Scptembc;r, 1991, pp. 2130-3; Ke p. 2131.
12. Ibid., p. 2131.
13. For a discussion of the continual ellchlnge of meanings bc;twccn Ihe
social body Ind the physical body, 5« Mary Douglas, NlfwflJISymbob.·
E~plorlJtionl in Colmalon (New York: Plntheon Books. 1982).
According to her. ' the human body is always treated a5 an image of
society and ... there aln be no natural ... ay of considering the body that
does nol inval\/<; I t the ume lime a socill dimension.' She IUnC5I,
Ihll 'bodily control is an expression of socill conlrn!' and thaI 'there is
lillie prOSp«1 of sllccessfully imposing bodily oon lrol with oul the
correspondin, social forms' (ibid., pp. 70-1). ct. lhe historical account
of the disaplining of the female body in Western societies by Micllel
Foucault. in 71Ie HilfOlJ' of Suu~lity. Vol. I; An Introdu~tion. Tr~ns.
Roben Hurley (New York: Vintage Books. 1980).
14. Another inslance wllere the doopUnin! of tbe female body finds open
npreasion is the scene in which Ihe fllher and the son ~re ea'in,
logether. TIle hero is quite embarrassed by the 'i mproper ' m~nner in
which his girlfriend is Kited. He is quick \(I point oul Ihe 'proper' way.
which she promptly follows.
One should mention in tbis connection Ihlt the 'modem' girlfriend is
portrayed u an erolic woman with a rree·nowin, body (her dress, hairdo
and body movcmen .. combined with ber di.position conslruct such an
imlge); the 'tradition.l' wife is restrli ned and II limes frigid, with I
well-conl8ined Ind bounded body.
15. We Ire indebled to T. Sivlkumar (or this observl tion.
16. We I~ &Tlleful 10 RavikumlT and T. Sivakumar for this observa\ion.
17. 1llc particullr manner in which the qUC5tion of maniality and vi olence
is posited in the nlrrative and rC$Olved towlrd the end is. however. nOI
the lasl word in Ihe life of the film. Like whit hlppens to III lelllS
when Ihey circulate in SOCieIY, people tend 10 'fIOlch' into Ihe hegemonic
scmtolie field of the primary texl Ind generate Iheir own popular
mCinings and pleasura II the xcondlry Ind lerti lry levels from this
film liso. Sec John Fiske. Unden,,,nding Popullr Culture (Boston:
Unwin Hyman, 1989). The elK of I huee (40 feet) eut-oU\ in ,.t-dura'
 The language of power in recenl Tamil cinema· 225
sllowing Ille iml~e of Ille '11IcVllr Mlhw hero wilh the utnr.·!arge sword
in lIis lIand iIIuslrlles Ihis poinl. The posiliOlling of lhe CUl-out was
itself highly sirnificanl as it faced the gianl stalut of MUlhuramalinga
11,eVlr. Durinllhc anllivcrsary celebralions of Muthuramalingl TheVir
(Guru Puja). when objections were raised 'Iainstlhc eut-out. Ihe sword·
parI WIS remo~e d and placed behind the SlrUClure denoling the
conceal ment of the weapon. H()"o1Icver. duc 10 popular pressure Ihe
SWOrd.palt was restored 10 its place Iller.
18. cr. Grcimas, 'Description and NaTTali~ily'. p. 616.
19. This ambivalence in affirming eilher Ihe Ifadilional or Ihe modem is
discernible al50 in the case of maniage. The Ir.dition.1 notion of
marriage IS an instilulion to consolidate Ihe inlercsts of Ihe kindred by
strenglhening Ihe bonds tllrough reciproc a l u:ehangc is also
problematizcd in popular film. Prdercntial marriagc to ooe', ClOSS oousin
or malemll unde is, thuli, posited as the only oplion .vailable for a
woman in ccrlain films and IS impossible in OIhers. in Pavunu
P3vunudhlln. M3n V3S3n,i, and En Ras:lvin MllnllJJ'k. Ihc laner iJ
powerfully cxprcucd. In bolh ~vunu P.llilnudhan and Man VlSMill:
marriage 10 tile cousin/uncle remains a drellm for the heroine up to Ihe
1151 and lhc is forced to remain sintJc III her life. In En RlSDrin manasiie
Ihe heroine's farced mlrriage 10 her fUll ie, uneducaled unclc cnm in a
Iragedy. She dislike. Ihe rough and loogh hero righl from th~ ~ginning
and when it happens 1118! sIle should marry him. she cannot. fOl" a long
lime, reckon wilh Ihe fact. She kee~ a ~y.:hologicil disTlnce from him
III tne lime nd a desperate hero !lilimatcl), (orces her into the sexuII
leI and sIle conceives. When at last she comes 10 re.li7.c her husbllnd's
immcnse unexpressed lo~e fOf her and chlnges her mind. ;1 is 100 laiC
.nd she is killed in an aceident. Efforts made 10 arrange a mlrriage
belwecn hcr youn&er siSler and the hero also fail as he comel 10 know
of hcr love for anolher man. an cducaled YOUIlJ$ler (rom the city. The
film closes with Ihe hero's brave act of bringinJ Ihe lovers toselher in
mllrriagc, .midst violent opposilion. He letl killed in the p"Xdll.
20. Comedy in the period beginning wilh the emergence of the nco-nativist
genre in Ihe late 1970s is largely eharaeteriud by mOl;kcry o( the
physical appearance o( tbe comedian. Even IOOUgh ~uch comedy was,
10 some exlent. existent in the earlier period also, the pcdomin.nt mode
wa~ IICrb31 comedy combined with elllggeTilcd gesliClllllion. Thll Ihe
physical appc"llKC of the cornedian becomes highly slanUicant In the
laler period could be allribulcd 10 cenain developmenTS In lhc late 1970s
and 19110s with the emergence of Ihe nco-naliviu genre. This period
"'oil Ihe rise of not·so-goodiookinJ mcn as heroes and stars and ;S, Ihus.
marked by I signifICant lunlformation in the discursive (ormations
cort:5tilutlng the diegelie and exua-diegetie worlds o( liars .nd herocl.
The shi(1 in the comedy mode could, then, be seen IS .n lltempt 10
come 10 terms wllh IhiJ 1T11U(ormllion .nd Ihe rcorderiltJ of Ihe
psychol~1 medlanisms that underlie the popular iml&inalion on whK:h
it il premised. The .nimaliulion of the ' inferior' comedian in Tamil
l'lIm could, thereto",. be read IS an ClIpreHion o( cerla;n o:ultural
226 • Secref Polilics of Our Desires
anXIeties specific to the textual history of Tamil cinema, and, 10 that
eXlent , I Klf-reflexivc endeavour.
21 . For a semiotic Inillysis of arcus c\a.vnins, sce Paul Bouissac, 'Oown
Pcrfonnln<;es as Me\.aCIIlturll TcxlS', in Circ~ find Culture: A Stlmio/;c
Apprwcl! ( Bloomington; Indiana Univen.ity Press. 1976). pp. 151-15.
22. cr. Sivalhamby's characteriution of the cinema hall as ' the first
pcrfonnlnce cenlle in which III the Tlmils lit under the SlIme roof.
Ute basis of the SCIOns is not on the hierarchic position of the patron
but essentially on hb purchasing power.' Klrthi,csu Sivalhlmby, The
Tllmil F-i1m liS It Medium of Political Communklttion (Madras; New
Century BooIc House Private Ltd., 1981). p. HI.
23. Umberto Eco, 'FrlmC'll of Comic -Freedom', in Thomas A. Sebcok (cd.).
c"rnjv,I!(Amsterdam: Mouton. 1984), pp. 1-9~ sec p. 2,
24. SIeve Neale, 'Psyclloanalysis and Comedy'. Screen. 19111 , 22(2). pp.
29-44: sec p. 12.
25. Ibid., p. 35.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid .. p. )II.
lH. MirY Dou&lu. 'Jokes'. in Implicit Meanings (London and Bos lon;
Rou tledge and Kepn Paul. \975), pp. 90-114, p. 107.
2'1. Eco, 'Frames of Comic Frecdom', p. 6.
)(I. Nellie, ' l" ychonllly,il Bnd Comedy', p. 41.
31. It should Ix: noted in this conneclion that a sep.t3te comedy tnck
distinct from the main plot i, absent in 7"he't'lIr Mllhlln. This dimin;~hn
thc role of Ihe comedy in the telt and effcetivdy nlllrginaliUI the
comedian to occupy an obscure position anloog thc 10YII cJitOls of the
patron. The ideolo,ical underpinnings of this narrative strategy arc
obvious.
32. ~e. for instance. the structural plrallels between the main plo t lnd the
comedy sub-plot in Plldahorrj and Pllttiklrllrh PaUltnill1lll. In Scnfamil
P;mu, howc't'er. a sin&le (bul significant) Irait of the hero's character is
echoed in the charlcter of the o;omediln in the comedy ttack. A thi rd
type of structurin, is found in Ke/;nJi Kanmlln;whre . eVen though a
distinct comedy sub-plot is non-cxistent. the comedian's habit of
dreanllnS is similarly an echo of the hallucinations eXlXrienced b~ the
protagonist.
33. Note how the film rcsisl$ I ny eonsolldation ot the genellOJical form.tion .
Senlhillnd his rather often quam:. and exchange blows. On one occasion
when the (at her tries to prevent the construction of the new schoo!
buildin, in the daHt colony, Scnthil beats him up .nd innicl$ I severe
held injury on him.
Thevllr Mahin, by conuast, plays down the possibilities o f
disagreement between father and son. The initil' COIIITl,I or opposition
between the 'modern' son and the 'traditional' fl ther mellows as the
IUItTllive proa:ed!! to make I leptimlle heir-a powerrul patron in the
father ', mould----out of the son. This consolidation of the ,enealosin)
(onnation is continually reinforced by the son', tear and respect (or his
rather.
 The language of power in recent Tamil cinema· 227
34. II is this type of come dy thaI Eco celebrales (he: calls it 'humour'). For
£Co, the 'byper-Bakhtiniall ideology of carn ival as IIc/UiJ/liberation' is,
in fact, una cceplable. Eeo, 'Frames', p. J. As an alternative 10 Ihe
u.ru,re!iSional Iheory wbich maintains tbal all comedy is basically
slObversive, he suggcsts that Ihe only ,elluine form of humour is the
one Ihat 'works in the inletSlices between narrative lind discursive
Sl ructun:s; the allempt of the hcro to comply with the frame or to viol ate
;1 is developed by the f:1bu/~. while Ihe illtervcnlion of the luthor, wOO
renders expliat the presupposed rule. belongs to the discursive activity
and represents I melasemiotic series of statemenlS aboul Ihe culturll
blickground of the f;,buJi. Eco, 'FramC5', p. 8. Cf. Ihe comedy of lhe
forOUlI dc:((IfUttuction type luuested by John Ellis, quoted in Mitk
Eatoo, 'Laush1er in the Dark '. St=en, 1981. 22(2), pp. 21-8; see p. 22.
Or, to pul it in 1..olman's tel1T\5, the eomediln IS prollgoniSI in Ihe
film nol only ctOSSC$ the prohibition boundary of the plol·space like all
normal heroes. but .lso violltes the sub-plot by dismaDtlin, the
conventionll rllIrratiooal mode, thus making a rupture in the ideolOJiCIII
(ormation thaI suslains it. Juri; 1..olman, Semiotics of CiMmll, Trani.
Mlrk E. Suino (Ann Arbor. University of Mkhi&an Press, 1976), pp.
65-<1.
JS. That the direl;lor of the film iao mdeed. conscious of this opcntion is
aU"slcU by his ea rlier W<>fk. N"""g:l/um Herodh:m. in which he Illempts
to lay bafe' the mechanisllIs of film-llIllking and. thu5, dcmyslif)' the
entire p"xess. The film. naturally, evoked II 101 of oppositIon from within
Ihe ram industry.