Posted on September 30, 2020
Starting a thread for this short film, with its pointedly Buñuel-ian title. It’s produced by Pa Ranjith’s Neelam Productions and directed by Rajesh Rajamani.
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krishikari
September 30, 2020
So looking forward to all the knee jerk defensive comments.
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lotikasingha
September 30, 2020
Not all Krishikari — As someone born into an upper caste, I think this is a great resource for conversations about understanding privilege and the shallowness of upper caste liberalism. Brilliant movie — will be sharing it in many places.
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Satya
September 30, 2020
I loved this, but this also makes me sad. Because this is not exactly what you get from Ranjith the filmmaker. I wish he goes a bit subtle and ‘make’ a film. But who am I to say?
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KayKay
September 30, 2020
A little too on the nose…but I liked it!
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brangan
September 30, 2020
“That the film is set in Mumbai is significant. One often hears of how caste and other antiquated ideas disappear in the urban parts of India. This film picks at that lie…”
https://www.filmcompanion.in/reviews/short-film-review/review-of-rajesh-rajamanis-the-discreet-charm-of-the-savarnas-a-short-with-a-lot-of-bite-and-oodles-of-charm-pa-ranjith-kani-kusruti/
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Shwetha
September 30, 2020
Wow BR. You shared it despite this:
https://baradwajrangan.wordpress.com/2018/06/18/bitty-ruminations-88-caste-and-kaala/
If only I had your temperament.
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VaLLuvar
September 30, 2020
@Shwetha:
இன்னா செய்தாரை ஒறுத்தல் அவர்
நாண நன்னயம் செய்துவிடல்
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brangan
October 1, 2020
Shwetha / VaLLuvar: Oh dear lord, you guys are being melodramatic, no? 🙂
Anything from Pa Ranjith’s production house deserves discussion / analysis / criticism / debate. That’s all there is to it.
Plus, we are not Class III children 😀
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Faroo
October 1, 2020
16 mentions of a specific caste in a 21min film….subtle as a sledgehammer 😐
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Shwetha
October 1, 2020
Ha ha. Ok. Not everyone would look beyond nonsense. Not melodramatic. Anyway, It’s admirable and I’ve learnt something along the way 🙂
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hari
October 1, 2020
Superb, my kinda, movie.
My take:-
This movie is a big up yours to all the privileged snobby woke liberals who think by just talking about dalit upliftment they are somehow going to uplift them, not realizing their own prejudices . I have seen quite a few of these kinds.
Peru thaan konjam edaral, instead they should have kept something like “engalukku wokesoda help venaam” or “woke liberals aboard” or “”wannabes jaakirathai” or “snobs unlimited” or “dham/wine adicha pathathu” 🙂
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krishikari
October 1, 2020
My take:
I found this very well made and sharply observed and I feel I know these people, in fact I’m probably one of these people. I hope to see more of these provocative shorts from this team.
To these reactions:
It was too in your face; the title was too broad, and not targeted at only the woke liberals – I would say these are the defensive “not all savarnas” reactions I predicted. If you as a savarna don’t see yourself in this little film and think its only about someone else, in my opinion you are in denial. We are all permeated with casteism from birth, getting it out of our pores is a long learning process. Caste privilege is part of our identity whether we are conscious of it or not.
About the “not subtle” criticism, why should it be? Did it achieve it’s cinematic and social commentary goals, provoke and entertain at the same time? Yes.
P.S. One of the reviews I read said “discreet charm” is a satirical way of saying “other indifference”. Shouldn’t it be utter indifference?
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madhusudhan194
October 1, 2020
I found it to be quite amusing. It shatters the common notion that caste differences are absent in the big cities. The fact that you are constantly judged, being put in a mould based on your appearances? That was a nice touch. Nobody escapes from it. It also highlights how the same stereotypes somehow end up being reinforced. And there are so many takers to it.
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madhusudhan194
October 1, 2020
Thanks BR for sharing it on your blog. I don’t think i’d have known about it otherwise. As you rightly said, anything from Pa Ranjith’s production house deserves discussion / analysis / criticism / debate.
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Rahul
October 1, 2020
“About the “not subtle” criticism, why should it be? ”
I agree. In fact, when I saw Mrinal Sen’s “Calcutta 71” for the first time, I also felt that it is not subtle and too didactic. But since then I have realized that it is okay for the filmmaker to feel strongly about an issue, and it is also okay for the film to reflect that . They do not have to show “both sides” .
A video of Anurag Kashyap was doing the rounds ,though I cannot find it now. He was asked why Dalit actors are not cast and he replied – “even the Dalits want to see Katrina Kaif only!”
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hari
October 1, 2020
The only sad fact is even in a short film like this, the makers does/could not talk about any other majority community. Like say instead of vaathima and brahacharanam, they could have said kongu/sozhiya vellalar or Kallar/Maravar. But probably there are not many woke liberals among those communities.
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Enigma
October 2, 2020
P Ranjith is a bigot. I don’t see any crap that comes out of his production house. It is strange that bigotry of ambedkarites/peiyarists is acceptable but not that of the right. Condemn all forms of bigotry.
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Praveen Prasanna
October 2, 2020
BR,
From Meera Kandasamy to Neeraj Ghaywan are shouting aloud fot it and appreciating it. Even FC (Main FC) has written a review. I wanted to ask you an important question. What is film appreciation ? If a propaganda is fitted as a theme or acts as a vehicle for the plot, does it really check all the marks for a film appreciation. We have come so far from Black and White ideologies. There is always a grey zones in both areas. And a film should strive to question or explore that grey zones. In simplified terms I go back to what you asked Pa Ranjith in a previous FC interview. You asked him a question “Does he see himself as a film maker or a social activist who uses the medium film for his activism”. He replied would yu call Wong Kar Wai a psychologist just becaiuse he deals with human emotions.It sounded like nice a word play but thinking deep about it there is actually nothing much to take away in his reply. A psychologist will tell the lead actors ‘In the mood for love’ to stop seeing each other and embrace their spouses to reduce the mess. A psychologist will never invent or emcourage mess or chaos as he is seen as a solution for the same. So back to my point, I feel so upset that high art in films have now become propoganda films. Where is film making in it ? Where is art in it ? Where is craft in it ? Where is show don’t tell ? Where is a scene that can convey eight things at the same time ? Where is screenplay nuances ? Where is gesture conveying things which words can’t?
Does someone here have the guts to do what David Fincher did in Mindhunter Season 2. He pulled off something with ease and clarity when a black man was revealed who was responsible for all the children murders of black people. That is art. There is always good and bad in both sides and art should try to question both sides and not take sides. And I strongly feel propaganda films have to be questioned for taking sides. I have equal problems with both Rajesh Rajamani or Lakshmi Ramakrishnan for their usage of particular lens in seeing this world
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Devarsi Ghosh
October 8, 2020
What is up with this hard-on for subtlety in films?
Look, any kind of politics that wants change of the status quo cannot be subtle, because the idea is to shake your existing ideological stasis.
Look at the early Soviet films. Look at Mrinal Sen’s work like Calcutta 71, which someone mentioned earlier. Look at Godard’s film-essays. They want to get into your head and fuck with you with a purpose, instead of letting you sit back and relax.
This movie, and its backer Ranjith himself, comes from that tradition. The Ambedkarite tradition wants end of caste i.e end of status quo. Period. The films here are going to be un-subtle AF. That is the spirit of this kind of cinema, which is agitprop. (I believe all films are agitprop, personally).
Coming to the film itself, well, it achieves its purpose, which I think is a success.
But is it great cinema, or even very good cinema, or even good cinema? Is it anything other than what it claims to be? Is there anything to be found if you scratch the surface? Does one get the impression that the maker/s of this film are intelligent folks — they may be ideologically motivated to pursue justice, but are they smart?
These are the questions that need to be asked.
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gnanaozhi
October 19, 2020
Devarshi, it is fine if P A Ranjith or whoever wants the end of caste discrimination, no one is against this ideal.
It is this periyarite obsession with one caste (that in TN is not even 1% of the pop) while in a cowardly manner ignoring the real perpetrators of caste discrimination, which is pretty much all other UC and OBC even.
Caste discrimination exists amongst Muslims, Xtians (many churches in TN don’t even allow Dalit Xtians inside and are made to sit on benches outside). Not a single case of honour killing in decades (in the South) has been perpetrated by a Brahmin or Brahmin family.
Gounders, Thevars, Nadars (both Hindu and Xtian), Udayars, Vannaiyars are all key perpetrators. In TN alone there has been more than 200+ honour killings in the period 2013-2019 and in every case it is non Brahmin castes involved.
All cases of rioting between castes involves these same powerful UC vs Dalits. In many cases daughters belonging to upper caste families are also killed if they marry a Dalit or lower caste man. That’s how barbaric these crimes are.
Yet, where is P A Ranjith raising his voice against these castes? Where is his powerful movie on honour killings?
He won’t and neither will the entire Dravidian movement, nor the “left liberal wokes” because there will be severe, violent retribution.
In other words just like Periyar, they are scared to take on anyone or group who will visit retribution on them. The solution? Beat up a community that is almost non existent, knowing that all they will get in return would be angry tweets.
Take riots, TN witnesses an average of 25 communal riots a year, and in every case it is one of the above mentioned castes going on the warpath against Dalits.
So many more murders don’t even get reported, my tiny village near Periyakulam had one such murder of a Dalit boy (he overtook a bunch of Thevar boys going on a bike) just 6 months ago and was killed for his troubles.
The caste scourge is real, it needs to end but the likes of P A Ranjith and gang are cowards who won’t and can’t take on the real perpetrators.
The day he does, he has a supporter in me.
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Madan
October 19, 2020
gnanaozhi: To add to this, recall the not-very-subtle victim blaming of lower castes in Arjun Reddy where Arjun in spite of being misogynist and a drunk is super ok with lower castes but it’s Preeti’s father who is not ok. Should I attribute the lack of outrage about THIS aspect to the caste-obliviousness of upper caste urbanites or to something more sinister? Because the entire thrust of criticism was on the misogyny while this aspect, relatively speaking, was condoned.
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