“Why the portrayal of Rene as an Ambedkarite woman in Natchathiram Nagargiradhu does not reflect the reality of Dalit women,” writes Semmalar.
Rene the protagonist of Pa. Ranjith’s recently released romance, Natchathiram Nagargiradhu, played by Dushara Vijayan, plays a theatre artist who has strong opinions about herself, her love, and lovers, and what society should be.” The movie had attempted to touch upon many social issues related to caste, Gender identities, honour killings and so on. Lyricist Uma Devi’s powerful ‘En Janame’ song lists down the pain and agony of all who have been killed in the name of honour killings and this needs special appreciation. I don’t think anyone in the Tamil Cinema would be bold enough to use real names of those victims of honour killings.
But, Ranjith’s portrayal of the Ambedkarite Dalit Feminist character is totally contradicting with the off-screen Dalit Ambedkarite women.
Dalit women survival has been a struggle always and now in this repressive political phase it is becoming more challenging. There is always a point of intersectionality which has to be debated when we discuss the problem of Dalit women. But there is too much of problem in Ranjith problematising Dalit Women issues in this movie, ‘Natchathiram Nagargirathu’.
Ranjith and his film supporters actually think that Rene has been portrayed as a strong-willed, assertive Dalit woman but actually, I feel Rene is a very naïve person who lacks discernment to choose her companions. Even before discussing her association with her boyfriend Iniyan character it is important to see her association with the theatre group. The theatre group master is working on an honour-killing concept for a play but they haven’t planned properly for the scene about disclosing the caste identity of the couples in the play. Then on the rehearsal stage, they are inventing a new idea of naming Kaatu Poonai and Naatu Poonai instead of caste identity. But in the film, they are not a part-time theatre group but rather a group that engages in progressive concepts.
The theatre group which is projected as a direct enemy of the right-wing forces (in the climax) is having a rudimentary level of discussion about honour-killing. Additionally, there is serious confusion for the team as well as for the audience if they are practicing for Drama, Play, or Theatre. In these contexts, the brilliant, educated, well-informed Rene is part of a team that doesn’t have clarity on what they are up to.
There is a serious problem with Rene identifying herself as an Ambedkarite, there is no clarity in the film on what grounds she has been characterized as an Ambedkarite woman. She has been always shown as a woman who doesn’t have any serious job or any plans for the liberation of people but rather who prefers to hang around in Pubs, and loves partying and drinking. This contradicts the reality of Dalit women’s lives as they are struggling hard for their daily survival, especially after this pandemic with the additional burden of price rise of various essentials. Dalit women are sexually exploited by Dominant caste men in the name of Love which is not at all addressed in this film.
There is a metaphoric reference to Ariyalur Nandhini murder but actually, Nandhini is a victim of sexual exploitation. Rene gets agitated when Iniyan says Ilavarasan’s death is suicide but Rene doesn’t intervene on the dimension of sexual exploitation of Ariyalur Nandhini.
Rene got agitated with Iniyan only when he explicitly pronounced a casteist slur against her. If she was a real Ambedkarite woman she would have been assertive enough to grasp Iniyan’s casteist attitude much before. She doesn’t have to bear with him so long after knowing that he doesn’t have even a basic understanding of differentiating Class and Caste issues. Even in the flashback scenes where Iniyan and Rene were engaging in initial conversations she outrightly states her problem with Iniyan’s political ideologies but when he says a flattering poem to her she would kiss him immediately and in the next meeting with Iniyan she would say don’t expect it again. When Iniyan says to her that she is beautiful, Rene responds to him “I know and that is why you are coming behind me”, in one scene but still she would fall in love with him. Rene’s claims of an Ambedkaraite woman who is shown as politically strong is in a confused state of marrying Iniyan.
Ambedkarite women I know – off screen – will lay more stress on values of dignity, self-respect, equality, even in a relationship but Rene opted to flirt with a guy just for fulfilling her sexual desires. In the introductory scene itself the drama that she creates (self-laughing) doesn’t sync with the serious ideological conflict that she is/was facing with her boyfriend Iniyan. Above all she is accusing her boyfriend that he hates Ilayaraja’s music, actually that scene and dialogue was very artificial, moreover the heroine Rene’s praising of Ilayaraja and his Music is not organically syncing with her character as well as the movie.
On the day of the break up also she is desiring to marry him and after so much war of words and conflict between them, she is still asking him to hug her and this is sounding more like appeasement though she is aware that Iniyan is harsh on her.
If Rene is a strong, intellectual, brilliant woman, what makes her compromise so much and stoop down to the level of offering sex to her partner when there is a strong argument on ideologies? Is she lacking assertiveness to identify that she has been sexually exploited by Iniyan? This is minimizing Dalit Feministic struggle on the whole. Merely pronouncing Ambedkarite would not help much; rather she should have been depicted as one. An Ambedkarite Dalit woman will not compromise her self-worth and dignity just for the sake of sexual pleasure.
The film has many flaws apart from projecting Rene as an Ambedkarite woman but me being a Dalit woman this is my pressing, desperate concern. In this film, the concept of Dalit Feminism itself is diluted and minimized by the mainstream feministic point of view of Body Politics. In the name of Dalit women’s politics, Pa Ranjith has projected Dalit women’s liberation as nothing but a woman initiating sexual behaviour with a stranger, sleeping with any man of her choice, and walking out of the relationship. This is not political, this is not Dalit women’s liberation and she cannot be an Ambedkarite woman. A real Ambedkarite Dalit women’s struggle is much beyond this, she envisages the liberation of a larger community that includes Dalit Men, Women, and Non-Dalit women. Here Rene is a confused person wearing a mask of boldness who is defensively accommodating herself to a cosmopolitan culture instead of handling the real issue of Caste and Gender.
Director Pa. Ranjith’s characterization of women in his film has always been powerful and there is no doubt about it. Puyal’s character in the Movie ‘Kala’ is portrayed as a courageous woman who stands and fights against corporate and corrupt politicians and defends the rights of the marginalized. In a sense, this is the character of an Ambedkarite woman. Similarly in the movie ‘Madras’ though Kalaiyarasi’s character doesn’t speak explicit politics, in the climax scene she will be focusing on educating the marginalized children in the community. This depicts her social consciousness which can be attributed to Ambedkarite women.
But in this movie, Pa.Ranjith missed connecting the reality of Dalit women’s lives in society rather he attempted to stitch Rene’s character with the ideologies of mainstream feministic thoughts. In the name of Dalit Cinema, multiple issues have been attempted to be covered but the real intersectional problem of Caste and Gender has not been captured in this entire film.
In the name of Dalit Cinema, Pa Ranjith should stop using Ambedkar for marketing purpose and it is a great insult to that great leader as well as to all Ambedkarite women who have been consistently fighting for the poor and oppressed.
Author:
Semmalar Selvi
Semmalar Selvi, a Professor in the Social Work Department at Loyola College, emphasizes that caste and patriarchy go hand-in-hand. Therefore, she has been vocal about the need for not only Dalit women but also Dalit men and other anti-caste women in uniting to fight against the main enemy, Brahminism. Further, in retrospect to #MeToo, she has raised #WhyOnlyMe to highlight the harassment suffered by Dalit women at the hands of dominant caste men.
