An Essential Trilogy

This is not a movie review. Yet Spoilers Ahead…

I remember Director Mysskin’s talk in a reality show that a creator is one who uses a torch light to show the common man what he has to see or missed in his hazy observation. Globalisation has affected our lives so radically that we have seen its impact on our culture too. Kaaka Muttai by director Manikandan which talks about the aspiration of two boys who reside in a slum to taste a Pizza is my favorite. There were few other films which tried to capture such conflicts between the haves and have-nots. But I certainly believe that Director Ram’s trilogy is an important one. I don’t intend to evaluate the cinematic credentials of his movies which I am thoroughly incapable and incompetent of. The following paragraphs intend only to narrate what as a common man I observed in his movies,  what his movies tried to honestly convey, to see where he shone the light.

The sharpest criticism which his three films face are on the rarity of the protagonists, that such characters do not and cannot exist, that they are too radically sketched. But as a director does not he have the liberty of portraying the way he wants? Maybe he is comfortable in conveying his ideas through a radical prism. He is happy that his protagonists are infectiously imperfect.

Kattradhu Thamizh (2007) tried to highlight the chasm between the ones who stood on the plateau of the corporate sector (specifically software) and the ones who stared at them from the abyss. I use the word abyss because the transformation the services sector brought to the Indian social system was enormous. The protagonist Prabhakar (played by Actor Jiiva) was one who missed the bus, or he got on the wrong bus because he chose a degree which does not give him a high paid job.

The increase in foreign exchange reserves brought about by the Software sector does not make sense to the man who works to make ends meet. The boom in the IT sector significantly altered the way of employment, the type of profession what one aspired to achieve and where one aspires to get placed. Landscape change was predominant where sectors which could not compete with them lost space, especially lakes, which gets a voice over in Taramani (2017). It altered the way we wanted our children to get educated.

One of the serious aspects of the movie Thanga Meengal (2013)dealt with was on education system itself. The protagonist of the movie works as vessel polisher. The character is undoubtedly flawed, one who failed to pursue his education for love, which affects his employment fortunes. But does it mean that their stories should not be told? There is a scene where his employer says to Kalyani (played by Director Ram) that people are not interested in their profession anymore, that Departmental stores have changed the way things function.

Photo Courtesy: Chanze photo art 

One can’t help but think about the informal sector jobs which were lost since liberalization was pursued as part of our new economic policy. Though statistics show that India has become a 2 trillion dollar economy no one can deny the fact that inequality between segments of the society is wider than ever. Mat makers competing with synthetic yoga mats, trolley tailors with readymade garments the unequal fights go on and on.

Thanga Meengal’s primary premise was on the under -construction -under –staffed-beside-the-train-private-school which the protagonist’s daughter was studying in. If the education system and methodologies are flawed I do not find the reason why one should blame the child. When the education system in our society is prehistoric and does it really matter whether the child learns in a private or a public school?

Talking about children the protagonist Kalyani was a child in himself who did not take proper decisions in his life. Maybe his father was to blame for ‘his’ child’s flaws. Taramani throws light on the subject where a single mother Althea (played by Andrea – she is the protagonist) in the climax realizes the negative impact her child when she does not spend considerable time parenting him.

But the primary premise is about the complexity of relationships. Althea enters into a relationship with Prabhunath (played by Vasanth Ravi) who comes from a different world – both social and economic. There is a scene where Althea defends Prabhunath when her colleague questions his behavior – she says that he comes from a different culture.

Yet it was not just the twists and turns in the post globalized love hate relationship but the story swerves through the lonely women and men of the pre globalized world, the ones who had hung onto arranged marriages for the sake of it – honest conversations. Walking out of the theatre I was thinking about the romantic quotient which could have existed between our parents, our uncles and aunts, chithis and chithappas. It does not take much time to realize that there was no quotient in the first place, only reminders.

And as a fitting end, the movie had glimpses of the person inside the corporate world – where there are no labor unions, where there are no channels for reporting sexual harassment, where in spite of all the hits you take you have to take the blame. With Taramani Ram’s trilogy comes a full circle.

It captured the lives of all three people: ATMக்கு வெளியில் இருப்பவர்(the person outside the ATM – Kattradhu Tamizh), ATMமைக் கண்டிடாடதவர் (the person who has never seen the ATM – Thanga Meengal), ATMக்கு ஊள்ளே இருப்பவர் (the person inside the ATM – Taramani).

Love the three films or hate them, criticise the impracticality of the characters or embrace them, they cannot be ignored. Thank you, Director Ram. 

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Chanze Photo Art