Thangalaan - powerful use of magical realism to depict the politics of caste oppression

If we trace the origin of myths and lore, they start as small routine events in everyday life. These become history. Histories slowly evolve and become myths and stories and these become embedded into culture and tradition. I remember my mother scaring me into having foods that I did not like as a child by saying, “If you don’t eat, I will make poochandi come and get you”. Poochandi is a Tamil word which refers to someone with a scary appearance. It is said to be derived from the two Tamil words “poochu” meaning someone who has smeared their entire body with the holy ash vibhuti + “aandi” meaning someone who is clad in just loin cloth, has long matted hair and is a devotee of Lord Shiva. This used to refer to an aghori, with a very scary appearance. A mother must have scared her child by creating the scary image of this aghori. This became a routine practice and the word got integrated into the Tamil lexicon. This is just an example and there are many such myths and lore that have gotten integrated into language and culture everywhere. In this essay I am writing my understanding of the movie that I saw recently, Thangalaan, by Pa. Ranjith produced by K.E. Gnanavel Raja under Studio Green and Neelam production houses. The music score for the movie is by G.V. Prakash Kumar and it has Vikram, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Malavika Mohanan, Pasupathy and Daniel Caltagirone in key roles. I suggest that those who haven’t yet seen the movie must see it before reading the review as there are many spoilers. 

 

Thangalaan is a movie that is difficult to fit into a single genre. It is an adventure story, a historical narrative, a critical discourse on caste politics, magical realism, fantasy, all genres rolled into one. Thangalaan is a landless labourer living with his wife and four children oppressed by the feudal system in an agrarian village in north Arcot district in Tamil Nadu. The name Thangalaan in Tamil means thangam (gold) + aalvaan (ruler) ‘the one who rules gold’. The title which is the name of the lead character encapsulates the entire story. In the film, Thangalaan will go in search of gold in the Kolar mines, will find the gold and in the end become the protector of the gold, and therefore he will ‘rule the gold’ in different ways. Early in the movie, there is a beautiful scene that depicts Thangalaan narrating a scary folk-lore to his daughters even as his eldest son sleeps peacefully in the background. In that story his ancestor is shown collecting gold nuggets from a rivulet. The Chola emperor sees this and wants all the gold for himself. He promises the ancestor land in return for help in getting all the gold. Thangalaan’s ancestor fights the forces of nature, and a powerful warrior Goddess “Aarthi”, who protects the natural resources and mineral wealth and he slays the warrior Goddess. The blood that spurts out from her cut abdomen stains the whole soil and everything turns into gold, which the Chola emperor mines and loots but fails to keep his promise of giving the ancestor ownership of land. This story is a beautiful metaphor for human greed destroying nature and how a certain class is oppressed in this struggle.  

 

As the movie marches forward, the British colonizers come to the same Kolar mines with a desire for the gold. History repeats itself and the British approach Thangalaan and ask for the support of all the people in his village to discover and mine the gold. They promise freedom from feudalism, adequate wages for work and even share in the gold that they discover. Lured by the promise of respect, honour and freedom from servitude, the oppressed people once again give in to the temptations and work for the British. The team of Britishers, soldiers, Thangalaan and his villagers reach the mines, but are unable to discover the gold. Aarthi shows up and in another massive fight Thangalaan cuts her abdomen and the blood spurts and colors everything golden. Thangalaan discovers the gold. The movie finishes at this point with Thangalaan and his villagers standing by the side of Aarthi and becoming defenders of the gold from plunderers and looters. 

 

Throughout the movie, Thangalaan keeps hearing Tamil poetic verses in his head, narrating various aspects of the folk-lore. It is as though a powerful magical force is constantly leading him and directing his every action. At a later stage in the movie Thangalaan realizes that he is Aaran, the male counter part of Aarthi, the warrior Goddess, protector of natural resources and minerals. Aaran fought a war against plunderers of natural resources and lost his life, leaving Aarthi as the sole protector. Aaran’s line has propogated as the ancestor who fought for gold for the Cholas and then subsequently as Thangalaan fighting for gold for the British. Having lost touch with his reality that he is a protector of natural resources, Aaran across generations has been warring with Aarthi. But then he realizes in the end who he is and returns to stand with Aarthi to protect nature. This magical realism is a powerful tool used in this movie to describe how oppression is generationally transmitted and how the oppressed often forget the source and root cause of the oppression.  

 

To some it may seem that the same story is repeated before and after the intermission in the movie. But that is probably the point which Pa. Ranjith is trying to make. History keeps repeating itself. Be it the Cholas who promise land and betray after extracting work from the labourer class, or the British who do the same. The same can be extrapolated to labour oppression in current times. 

 

Ashokan is the son of Thangalaan, the next generation. He is the one who inspires his father and groups all the villagers together to side with Aarthi, as that is the right thing to do. He prevents Thangalaan from repeating the mistake of his ancestors. Inspired by the revolutionary thought of his young son, Thangalaan takes the gold for himself, not in the spirit of greed, but in the spirit of liberation and protection of natural resources. Pa. Ranjith passes the message that the newer generation is the seed for transformation and by doing so, calls out to all the younger people from marginalized and oppressed communities to rise against oppression. 

 

One of the common criticism that is levelled on Thangalaan is that, it is not emotionally engaging. Critiques have opined that even in the hard hitting scenes of death and loss, there is no strong emotion. Thangalaan loses a child in the battle for gold, but the scene is emotionally blunt. There is a scene in which Thangalaan pays back the loan to his landlord and demands his land back. It is supposed to be a transformative scene of power to the underdog. Again, the scene is emotionally blunt. To me, this mild emotion and restrained expression of feelings stirred something deep in my mind. The feelings of someone who is oppressed is so numb that they don’t even realize that they are feeling a certain way. The blunted expression and evocation of emotions was a master stroke of brilliance as it added to the poignance of the narrative. 

 

For a Thangalaan who was not actively looking for gold, Aarthi was just like poochandi, a mythical character used to scare children. But as he started facing the nature versus honour battle, he started experiencing and realizing the meaning of the generational wisdom that has been passed down to him through the mythology of Aarthi. The generational knowledge transmission suddenly made sense to him, and he rose to the occasion as Aaran, the protector of natural resources. At the end of the movie, I was left wondering what was better, the magnificent cinematography, the brilliant plot and story line, the excellent screen play, the amazing performances by the artists or the abstract use of magical realism to narrate the politics of caste oppression. It was a heady mixture of all these fantastic elements into a 2 hour 14 minute movie called Thangalaan.