Karnan : Film Review

Outline of the Film

Mari Selvaraj’s extraordinary bravery in communicating the truth about the voiceless is incredibly admirable. While the film is set in 1997, there were frequent fights between the Hindu intermediate caste and outcaste in the southern region of Tamil Nadu.

Every person has a constitutionally protected right to the bus stop, which enables them to shine in the public sphere. However, the Dalits of Podiyankulam village are unable to access it due to the predominate intermediate caste groups of neighbouring village Melur. Because of the influence of Melur’s municipal government, Podiyankulam continues to be refused a bus stop despite repeated petitions. A young man named Karnan is horrified by the government’s indifference and its employees’ tactics for preventing Dalits from using public resources.

Melur and Podiyankulam’s enmity is getting worse when Karnan, his companions, and Yema Raja vandalized a bus for failing to halt. Kannabiran, the superintendent of police, shows up at the site after receiving a complaint from the bus owner. Kannabiran, a member of the dominant community of Melur, perceives caste hegemony to be correct and natural despite being an IPS officer. Although the dispute is sorted cordially by the bus owner and the locals of Podiyankulam, Kannabiran’s ego is wounded since he believes the locals should always be maintained in their line. He summons the village elders of Podiyankulam to appear and sign at the area police station only to mercilessly torture them for an hour and imprison them overnight. He verbally abuses them and instructs the local police to initiate irrelevant cases against them.

Karnan’s declaration regarding the fight for the rights of his village has been compared to the release of a restrained donkey, symbolically. The Dalit people who venerate the headless monument draw attention to the cultural history of Buddhism, which was initially destroyed by Brahmanism. The headless image on the wall also made think of the Dalit figurehead, Immanuvel Sekar, who fought for the rights of the people and was allegedly assassinated by Muthuramalinga Thevar’s ¹ henchmen.

The government ought to take steps to provide all of its citizens equal access to resources through its own policies, but this has never happened in India, especially when it comes to the Dalits and other minority groups. Such subjugation vastly impacts the destiny of Dalit aspirants. Karnan meets with the customary castiest roadblocks in his pursuit of a position as a military servant. He finally becomes eligible for the post. Unfortunately, his aspiration was hampered by the circumstances in his village.

The insolence of caste vigilantes is depicted in a scene where IPS officer Kannabiran gets irritated when he learns that the village chief of the Dalit village has the name of a character from the epic Mahabharata. And, that becomes the primary justification for degrading and oppressing the villagers. This scene serves as an example of how caste-conscious Hindus would react if they learned that Dalits were leading respectable lives.

Portrayal of Female Characters

In Ranjith’s films (such as Kabali, Kaala, Madras and Sarpatta Parambarai), the female characters frequently exhibit great bravery and brashness, and the story revolves around women most of the time. For instance, Ranjith frequently includes in-depth verses spoken by women in his films. Women are even portrayed as rebels who go down and fight, which is another thing. In simple terms, his heroines are astute political observers. In contrast to his colleague Pa Ranjith, Mari Selvaraj chose to represent women as the weaker sex, portraying them as being less powerful. It is analogous to other patriarchal films that depict women as mythological ideals.

Like other Tamil films, both of his films were made entirely for men and were based on patriarchal views. The female protagonist of Pariyerum Perumal is characterized as a lovely and innocent woman who has no knowledge of politics or society. She is portrayed as a person who, until the very end, could not comprehend the caste crimes which have been committed to her friend (the male protagonist). Will a woman not comprehend the anguish her companion is undergoing in today’s day and age indeed when young children have complex thought processes? It would have been better if she could have added a line that realized the injustices being done to her fellow man and assured him that ‘this society will change one day’. However, it did not happen in any scenes.

Instead, Mari handed these lyrics to the heroine’s father in the climax scene of Pariyerum Perumal and depicted the heroine as an immature woman who was ignorant of the social trends of the time. Besides, the male protagonist refers to numerous women as ‘angels’—sort of mythical women. When the climax music starts playing in the background, the camera pans in on a jasmine blossom (the heroine), who is trapped in between a couple of distinctive tea cups: one is milk blended and the other is a black (which denotes her dad and the friend—Pariyen, respectively). This underscores the notion that a woman may get by with just being an angel—someone who knows nothing.

Similar to how the protagonist’s older sister in Karnan strikes him to warn him off a girl when she finds out he is seeing her, but she stays mute and does nothing to help when her community is in danger. However, people who have travelled to rural or Dalit communities are aware that when threatened with extinction, women will descend and participate in violent battle.

In this instance as well, a man (Yema Raja) merely steps forward to give his life in order to save his hometown. As a traditional Tamil hero, another guy (the character Karnan) appears and has the ability to battle alone and save the entire village. However, in truth, many women risked their lives in order to protect their town and its inhabitants. Hence, in the perspective of gender, Karnan’s heroic representation did not even approach realism.

Emotions: A Woman’s Domain

Majority of films show women as being extremely emotional and sacred. In addition, becoming a mother is portrayed as the greatest accomplishment a woman can experience and as the ultimate source of pride. Manu’s psychology is evident even in lyrics from the 2004 film New, such as ‘a woman’s life is complete only after she has reached marital status and motherhood’. Similar to this, in the bus crash scene in the film Karnan, even a young child lashes out and throws a stone at the bus because it did not stop in their village and defends his pregnant mother, all of which are based on the erroneous belief that women are the most vulnerable creatures and should be protected at all costs by men.

The young boy’s mother remains composed and waits for men to arrive to defend her because she is pregnant. The emotional effect of the story may have been enhanced by portraying the woman in this scene as pregnant, despite the fact that she may have hurt her arm or leg. Even the Kaattupeatchi avatar, a small girl who passes away in the first scene in the middle of the highway, has been utilized for poignant moments.

Women are more emotionally bonded but less rebellious, as per Manu informed psychology. Parallel to what Manusmiriti advises, ‘A girl should be under her father’s control in childhood, under her husband’s control in youth, and under her sons’ control after her husband has passed away’ (9.2 and 9.3). Almost every film has Manu Psychology, and Karnan is not an exception. Consider how Ranjith would have filmed the same incident. Without a doubt, he would have emphasized on the expectant mother who could have smashed the bus rather than the young boy. Here is where gender stereotyping of the director need to be spoken about.

Throughout the film, women are represented as sinful beings. Initially, the young girl died, and after that Karnan’s elder sister, who continues to be single and causes the family grief. Later, the pregnant woman, a girl who discontinues her higher education due to sexual molestation she experienced, and the heroine who knows nothing other than adoring the hero with love. It is obvious that the male characters in the film have all of the spectacular roles. The majority of the issues concern women and men are fighting to defend them, reflecting the patriarchal culture as it is rather than radically altering norms.

The film industry, as a significant mass entertainer and social influencer, should at least contribute to educate its audience about how women should be treated as they are oppressed in our culture. Contrarily, it is absurd and meaningless to portray how women are being treated in this culture in particular. It is hoped that filmmakers like Mari, who speak out against caste injustices, should incorporate the concepts of liberation advanced by Marx, Ambedkar, Periyar and Phule into their works.