Kannada Cinema

In 2013 AD, Indian film industry is a hundred years old. For many, the centenarian Indian film industry means Bollywood. But in actuality, Indian cinema consists not only of a relatively small segment of Hindi cinema called Bollywood, but also many more regional cinemas which account for approximately 84 per cent of the films produced in India. Kannada cinema, one of the South Indian language cinemas, produces more than 125 films annually; but has not received sufficient attention from the critics, students and scholars of film studies. Girish Kasaravalli, an internationally renowned Kannada film director, has been making socially conscious films and thus contributing to Indian society and its own self-understanding. Some of the themes which keep recurring in his films are casteism, women and identity, inter-relationships and violence done to elders. In his films—discussed here—Girish Kasaravalli critiques the practice of discrimination based on caste system (also known by its more vicious practice called untouchability) in Indian society. This article employs textual analysis to examine three of his films—Ghatashraddha, Bannada Vesha and Thayi Saheba—to explore the practice of casteism in Indian society as represented by him, and Kasaravalli’s vision of his society and human being vis-à-vis the caste system.