Did Dasavatharam hurt religious sentiments?

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lentils

@lentils

Dazzler

Posted: 11 years ago

Random question. Did any of you feel that Kamal Haasan's Dasavatharam hurt religious sentiments? There were numerous traditions and beliefs shown in the film. What are your thoughts. Did any of you feel annoyed with the scenes on religion or religious characters?

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CeaselessBanter

@CeaselessBanter

Dazzler

Posted: 11 years ago

Have you seen a movie called Parasakthi ? It is a legendary movie dealing with social issues. It is Sivaji Ganesan's debut and dialogues and screenplay were written by Karunanidhi (who would become CM later). It is a film from the 50s, it still has the power to shock even today with the themes it tackled and how hard hitting it still is.

A little taste in the court room scene.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdnOlP94x2g[/YOUTUBE]

Tamil cinema has always tackled religious, caste, social issues. Some do it in your face, some wrap it in songs and making it pretty, but it always made you think.

Bharatiraja is a prime example of wrapping hard hitting social issues in a pretty package Two movies, Alaigal Oivathillai and Vedam Pudithu come to mind.

Kamal is only following in those footsteps. If people get offended because what they say is true, they need to examine why it makes them uncomfortable.

Edited by CeaselessBanter - 11 years ago

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lentils

@lentils

Dazzler

Posted: 11 years ago

Thank you CeaselessBanter. Great post. I don't know much about Tamil cinema but would love to know more. You should start a blog and discuss these things. You seem to know a lot about it.

I personally don't like Kamal Haasan films. I don't have a problem with him tackling religious or social issues. I dislike the way he does it, which is through stereotyping. He doesn't even realize how much stereotyping he does. I think that he may be on a personal journey to discover what he truly believes and his confusion is well mirrored in his films.

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CeaselessBanter

@CeaselessBanter

Dazzler

Posted: 11 years ago

Originally posted by: lentils
Thank you CeaselessBanter. Great post. I don't know much about Tamil cinema but would love to know more. You should start a blog and discuss these things. You seem to know a lot about it.
I personally don't like Kamal Haasan films. I don't have a problem with him tackling religious or social issues. I dislike the way he does it, which is through stereotyping. He doesn't even realize how much stereotyping he does. I think that he may be on a personal journey to discover what he truly believes and his confusion is well mirrored in his films.

Thanks..😳. I was brought up on Tamil and Telugu cinema. No time for blogs, so I write long posts here which could count as blogs . 😆

The thing about Tamil cinema is, it was shaped by a lot of people like Karunanidhi and MGR who were influential in the whole dravidian movement and has political overtones. It is very much influenced by socialist and rationalist ideas of that movement. To put it rather bluntly, they have historically criticized orthodoxy and the practice of caste, untouchability and supported remarriage of widows and so on. Karunanidhi's dialogues were always in your face. MGR's songs almost always had social messages.

Kamal followed in that path. Watch a movie called Anbe Sivam written by Kamal. It deals with themes like helping people. God, religion, communism.

The thing is Kamal is not alone in this. Many people like Bharatiraja have said powerful things about caste in cutesy ways. This is one such scene. I am assuming you don't know Tamil, so I will give a short synopsis. Apologies if you do

This brahmin kid is an orphan adopted by the atheist. When they are crossing the river, the kid is sad because his dad would tell his religious stories and now there is no one to tell him. The man replies he does not know and since the other brahmins won't teach the kid because he is considered unlucky, he will tell him another story. He tells a story about a brahmin being ferried on a boat by a man who could not read. The brahmin mocks the boatman for wasting his life because he does not know Ramayan or Mahabarat. In the end the boat has a hole and the boatman mocks the brahmin for not knowing swimming and he will die because of that. So the atheist laughingly tells the kid that religious studies are no use. They reach the bank and the kid asks the atheist what is his name. He replies, you know my name, it is Balu Thevar. The kid replies, you say there is no caste, but yet you say your name is Balu Thevar. Balu is your name, is Thevar what you studied. (Thevar is a caste). That changes the man is the gist of the scene.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0KY1-8YGwU[/YOUTUBE]

It is not uncommon to see scenes like this in Tamil cinema. I do not think it is stereotyping. The handling depends on the person who is doing it, blunt or wrapped pretty. But always hard hitting.

Kamal has spoken about his beliefs. I am sure if you google or you tube you can find some.

HTH.

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lentils

@lentils

Dazzler

Posted: 11 years ago

Interesting. I'm not Tamilian. (I'm not Indian actually). I know that Tamil cinema is very different from other regional cinemas. I did not realize how much social, political, religious issues were discussed.

Would you say that discussion of atheism is common in Tamil cinema? I don't think I've seen a film in any other region which discusses atheism? Or is this a current issue of intrigue in Tamilnadu?

Religion is such a sensitive subject. It takes a lot of guts to talk about it. The challenge in Indian films in general is that since the country is so multi-cultural. It's difficult to discuss these things fully without hurting the sentiments of one person or another.

Are Tamilians so open minded? I mean do most people go and see these films and they don't mind considering these different ideas? I'm sure there must be people who feel offended or who avoid it. It's difficult to sell someone ideas about atheism when he or she has strong faith in God for example.

I think I need to see far more Tamil films to understand this movement you have described. Thank you.

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CeaselessBanter

@CeaselessBanter

Dazzler

Posted: 11 years ago

Originally posted by: lentils
Interesting. I'm not Tamilian. (I'm not Indian actually). I know that Tamil cinema is very different from other regional cinemas. I did not realize how much social, political, religious issues were discussed.
Would you say that discussion of atheism is common in Tamil cinema? I don't think I've seen a film in any other region which discusses atheism? Or is this a current issue of intrigue in Tamilnadu?

Religion is such a sensitive subject. It takes a lot of guts to talk about it. The challenge in Indian films in general is that since the country is so multi-cultural. It's difficult to discuss these things fully without hurting the sentiments of one person or another.

Are Tamilians so open minded? I mean do most people go and see these films and they don't mind considering these different ideas? I'm sure there must be people who feel offended or who avoid it. It's difficult to sell someone ideas about atheism when he or she has strong faith in God for example.

I think I need to see far more Tamil films to understand this movement you have described. Thank you.

@Red

Not just in Tamil cinema, but I can name films in Telugu and Malayalam too. Kerala especially is a state with strong communist influences and the movies reflect that.Pathrukam IIRC is a Malayalam film that deals with atheism and a brahmin family. The thing is, many actors and directors are atheists and/or spiritualists/humanists but they play religious roles too. Akkneni Nageshwara Rao of Telugu is an example of an atheist who played a lot of religious roles. He and NTR were pioneers in Telugu cinema. Kamal is an atheist/ humanist. I think Manirathnam is too. So they greatly influence cinema with their ideas.

@Bold

I don't know how to answer this. I am of Tamil and Telugu origin, I grew up on South Indian movies, but was brought up and live in the States. I have no idea really how people in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra are like except for my family and extended family and friends. I can say my family is conservative in certain things and open minded in others and which which seem conservative to others 😆. Depends on your perspective.

What I know for sure is this. Not just Tamil cinema, but Telugu and Malayalam have strong social movies. Movies play a very important part in politics of all three states. MGR, Karunanidhi (in Tamil Nadu were chief ministers) and so was NTR was in Andhra. They are/were but many of the people in the film industry who have entered politics. There is a great overlap between movies and politics. I have no idea about Kannada cinema, but I tend to assume more of the same. But having friends and family of South Indian origin I can say they are religious too.

I love reading books about cinema, that is how I know about the history of Tamil and Telugu cinema.

If you are interested, I would recommend these two books.

Tamil Cinema, the Cultural politics of India's other Film Industry and Politics as performance - The Social History of Telugu Cinema

HTH..

Edited by CeaselessBanter - 11 years ago