It’s a great line, one that’s at the heart of everything Pa Ranjith stands for. But it doesn’t sound like a “lecture”. It transcends mere “advice” and becomes something purer, a kind of existential philosophy.
Spoilers ahead…
You can read the full review on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/irandam-ulagaporin-kadaisi-gundu-movie-review-athiyan-athirai-dinesh-anandhi-riythvika-pa-ranjith-baradwaj-rangan/
Pa Ranjith’s Neelam Productions has given us only one film so far — the superb Pariyerum Perumal (2018) — but the filmmaker is, by now, so well-known as an ideologue and as a personality that it isn’t difficult to guess what his second production is going to be about. Sure enough, the fabulously titled Irandam Ulagaporin Kadaisi Gundu is about caste. It’s about “landless” migrant labourers who are exploited by men dressed in sparkling white. (It’s the colour of what these men regard as “purity”, perhaps?) It’s about unionisation. It’s about a crusade. It has a crusader (Riythvika), who fought her way through difficult personal circumstances, earned a prestigious degree, and now continues to crusade for a prestigious television channel.
Continued at the link above.
Copyright ©2019 Film Companion.
Baradwaj Rangan 
guhanasp
December 5, 2019
I hate how these so called progressive films are being an outfit to express their caste valour. Caste is not something should be represented with an aesthetic value in progressive cinema. Perhaps the biggest testament to the rise of this caste consciousness, and an indication of its reach, is that Dalit and other caste outfits have started to adopt a language of caste pride and valor that echoes the films we have been seen in 90s Madurai films like Thevar mahan et al. A symbolic representation of the caste pride now espoused by Dalits was seen in wall paintings in 2010 when Thirumavalavan—the leader of the Paraiyar-based Liberation Panthers—was referred to with the more honorific suffix ‘Thirumavalavar’. Thus, the central emphasis on caste pride, valor and honor in the 3M films has arguably had a performative effect that has served to engender new forms of caste expression, representation and identity in contemporary Tamil Nadu. This has now, begun to inform cinematic representations in Ranjith’s 2016 film Kabali, in which Tamil superstar Rajinikanth reads Dalit books, speaks of Ambedkar, and portrays a strong Dalit hero. The audience identification with themes and characters may entail processes of transformation and the production of new identities, combining the spectator’s existing identity with her desired identity. In the Madurai formula films, sections of the upwardly mobile Thevar caste found an articulation of virility, valor and unbending dominance which they could mimic and aspire towards. This has become a template for other castes—including Dalits—to follow in recent films like asuran, kaala.
Hope Gundu is not like that.
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Varsha
December 5, 2019
BR, The film companion link does not work. “Page not found” error.
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Anu Warrier
December 5, 2019
The link isn’t working for me – I get a ‘Page not found’ at the FC site.
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brangan
December 5, 2019
Link fixed.
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Siva
December 5, 2019
BR: ” Pa Ranjith’s Neelam Productions has given us only one film so far — the superb Pariyerum Perumal (2018) ”
When I watched it in 2018, Pariyerum Perumal’s female lead character was one of the most “dumbest character in a serious movie” I had seen up to that point. I found the writing of that character to be poor, and it was insulting the viewer. She seemed to live in her own implausible, delusional world — very hard to buy as a viewer. I could not imagine a real world woman to be that naive-ishly dumb (or dumb-ishly naive?). And the Tamil dubbing for that character made it even more unbearable (I don’t think it was Anandhi’s own voice). Interestingly, Anandhi seems to be the female lead in IUPK Gundu as well. Hopefully things worked out better for her character in this one.
Another issue I had with that movie, was the tamil-cinema’s-overused-trope (ever since Balaji Mohan’s Kaadhal — it was corny and cringe worthy to me even at the time) of “upper caste heroine family beating up lower caste hero”. I mean, I was able to smell it several miles ago, and was kind of expecting that scene to happen as soon as Pariyerum Perumal established that the leading couple were of different castes.
Sigh. Why the fuck am I venting about this now? Guess I did not have the energy or willingness then. In other words, lazy? 😀
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Anu Warrier
December 6, 2019
Who’s the sub-editor on FC, BR? Someone teach him/her basic editing? (I’m assuming you don’t write your intros yourself?) Because this is the intro: It’s a great line, one that’s at the heart of everything Pa Ranjith stands for. But it doesn’t sound like a “lecture”. It transcends mere “advice” and becomes something purer, a kind of existential philosophy.
Nice. But what’s the ‘it’ here? Which line is the intro talking about? You can’t just bung a quote or a nice-reading line as the intro without context.
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meera
December 6, 2019
@Anu: I read the intro twice and realized something was wrong.. something amiss… thank you for solving the mystery..🙏
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brangan
December 6, 2019
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San
December 6, 2019
There were so many things to like about this movie. My favourite scene was the way they used the Thiruvizha song. Intercutting images of the Iruchi Goddess and Anandhi’s character. I think that was the best mass moment I have seen for a female character in tamil cinema for a while. It was hauntingly awesome.
@Siva Even i was’nt able to buy Anandhi’s character in Pariyerum Perumal, it was on the borders of the typical loosu ponnu territory. But that’s not the case in Gundu, her character has lot more awareness and her dialogs are mostly organic.
@BR What do you think about the climax of the film? I did not mind the Japan story but ending the movie with it felt abrupt. We are properly invested in the characters of the movie at that point, I would have loved them to be the major part of the climax. The post credit resolution scene was not satisfying enough compared to the excellent ending of Pariyerum Perumal.
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Aaditya
December 6, 2019
” tamil-cinema’s-overused-trope”
About 5-6 films in the last 15 years? Depicting what has been happening very regularly in the real-world?
How about these “overused tropes” which nobody ever mentioned getting bored of:
1. Kabalis of north madras being shown as henchman/petty thieves from Crazy Mohan dramas to every single tamil film prior
2. Normalizing “ayya samee ejaman” kind of greetings coming from the oppressed caste in films
3. NRI/America mapplai kinds are almost always from the so called upper caste
4. Name 5 lawyer characters in Tamil films that is not one of “rangabaashyam / iyervaal / Seshadri”
I could go on.
As for Joe’s character – Mari has repeatedly said that the character was to talk to Jos of the real world who are so blissfully unaware of what happens around them so they can wake the fuck up.
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Siva
December 7, 2019
Aaditya: About 5-6 films in the last 15 years? Depicting what has been happening very regularly in the real-world?
Just because something is happening very often in the ‘real world’, it doesn’t mean it warrants to be depicted in every other movie. And my fuss was only with the “yelling slurs and beating up the other caste heroine/hero (a.k.a incomprehensibly loud)” scene, not with the whole idea of depicting caste differences ruining people — or even honor killing, for that matter. But then hey, one person’s “overused trope” could be another’s “they are not showing this enough” thing. So I am not judging people who want more of this. It just did not work for me. I don’t think it ever will.
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brangan
December 9, 2019
No love for this movie? 😦
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Rahini David
December 9, 2019
Mari has repeatedly said that the character was to talk to Jos of the real world who are so blissfully unaware of what happens around them so they can wake the fuck up.
I wanted to write about this in the PP thread. I hadn’t watched this movie when the discussion was hot and wasn’t sure if I wanted to awaken the thread.
I identify with Jo. I was the girl who went from a school that had predominantly upper-middle class students to a college that was more mixed in socio-economic status. But I only knew and understood the economic difference. There were girls who considered a Rs.5 ball point pen as too costly. They also refused to even borrow fountain pens from me for even a bit and wrote with pencils if they ran out of ink. And English was very difficult to most. I remember translating the commerce, accountancy and law passages to Tamil as girls sat around me and took both English notes and Tamil notes. Most did not buy books. Some found Xerox a luxury and hand-wrote several passages in very small handwriting as paper was precious. The time I had was also precious as I taught in batches of 4. Not everyone was hardworking. Several failed.
In spite of living in this world for three years I never knew the caste of most. I never had anyone explain that to me. I knew the caste of those who spoke Telugu as Telugu speakers of Rajapalayam were of a single caste it was kind of obvious. But other than that, they were just classmates and friends.
And I can’t say that I never heard of caste-based violence. I knew some violence broke out occasionally in Rajapalayam especially early 90s. Once, I was told that there was a devar-dalit unrest and I need not worry about it and my vacation in Madras is going to be extended by a week or so. I then learnt that our poultry farm was burnt down by 4 masked me in motor bikes. I never knew whether they mistook the poultry farm to be owned by Devars or Dalits and who they were. My family is neither.
The college was a Women’s college. And if it was co-ed, there is no reason why I could not have been a Jo.
Okay, there are several pointers for her that she should have taken note of rather than carp about how her invitation was ignored and he does reveal about why he wants to be a lawyer in the first place and how the people of his community are treated. But in a world where it is considered very indecent to ask about someone’s caste and not quite right to discuss the problems faced by one’s caste, we somehow get angry that people don’t understand enough about caste. Something is going wrong here.
BTW that is how we treat religion too. “Don’t ask questions about any other religion. But understand all religions anyway”. Yeah right.
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Honest Raj
December 9, 2019
But in a world where it is considered very indecent to ask about someone’s caste and not quite right to discuss the problems faced by one’s caste, we somehow get angry that people don’t understand enough about caste. Something is going wrong here.
BTW that is how we treat religion too. “Don’t ask questions about any other religion. But understand all religions anyway”. Yeah right.
I haven’t seen PP, but it appears to me that the director wants to make a point about privilege-blindedness (rather than educating us about the plight of marginalised) of the society.
I don’t quite get the point about religion.
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Rahini David
December 9, 2019
Simply that people are expected to know other people’s lived experiences. But discussions are taboo.
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theeversriram
December 10, 2019
@guhanasp, your comment about Dalit cinema and so called dalit politics is spot on. Nowadays several VCK ideologues claim that Parayars are descendents of Kalabhra dynasty and their history has been erased by Cholas/Pandyas, etc. Another variant of “Sandal parambarai gang”.
Even among dalits in TN, Parayars and Devendra Kula vellalars have been become the super-dalits and other voices are suppressed. Even Pa Ranjith is part of it and his speech in “Parai en urimai” was really cringe worthy where he openly claimed his paraiyar status and the glory of Parai instrument.
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Blasta
December 20, 2019
The antics on screen are kind of amusing, the acting is more than average, the story is kind of different enough to warrant it to get made, hell they even get the palette right, and yet, Gundu fails to work its magic, on the audience.
It has nothing to do with the issues, or the way they are treated, but still there is something missing that one fails to put a finger on. Then you begin to understand that the issues are flimsy and unconnected, at least in the cinematic space, however interesting they may appear to be in panel discussions or to BR.
For instance the sub story about caste, the sub story about peace, and the sub story about his father’s past have no natural connection, and in the absence of a law that bans political angst from making it to the big screen, they should at least have had the talent to treat it well.
This is what the movie lacks, a proper directorial talent, they seem to have caught hold of a few seemingly interesting elements, and thrown it into a blender. Thankfully the mixture that they have served up is edible, but nothing great or inspirational.
The actors are a saving grace, they are seen to emote naturally. The situations are rarely forced, yet there is a flagrant theatricality to some parts of it, elements that would have been junked even by film makers of lower caliber. All the departments, seem to have performed competently, and that while being a saving grace, does nothing to elevate the film.
If this is a film for the mind, it is not there yet
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Snap Trooper
January 13, 2020
@san I had the same feeling about the climax… When we finally invested into the characters, the story just ends.
@BR I also felt the SaNa music style in Mavuli and Nilamellam
Whether it is Andrea of Vada Chennai or Anandhi of Gundu, trying to dub a madras (or North TN) slang has been a struggle.. It still feels like Hansika+Yazhini combo… May be they need more practice before and during the dub sessions. But Dinesh was terrific. Very convincing as a lorry driver.
I wish new writers bring more realism to police characters. Tamil cinema cops – beat up weakest men, pull even the strongest women by their hair, rob the poor and blindly salute a politician. Also, instead of bringing in Nirmala in, they could have made Lijjesh a sensible cop, seriously looking for the Gundu.
I also wish the following actors be given different roles in the movies. It has been very repetitive.
G. Marimuthu
Lijjesh
Poster Nandhakumar
Rama
Harikrishnan
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