Why I disliked the ‘therapeutic’ Meiyazhagan: Opinion

C Prem Kumar’s Meiyazhagan starring Arvind Swamy, Karthi, Sri Divya, Divyadarshini, Rajkiran, and others, released in theatres last month and did not make much impact in the box office. But post its release on OTT last week, the film is now being widely discussed on the internet. An overwhelming number of people have appreciated the film, with some even calling it ‘therapeutic.’ This is Prem Kumar’s second film after his impressive debut with 96..Meiyazhagan is unlike many other films. It is a simple story about longing, love, and forgiveness. A young Arul Mozhi (Arvind Swamy) is uprooted from his house and family in Thanjavur over a property dispute. The displaced Arul is forced to live in Chennai, with barely any connection to his extended family in Thanjavur. The trauma of being displaced and his childhood being taken away leaves a deep impact and alters his character and behaviour. The story is about whether a once happy Arul can overcome this grief. The film has many tender moments written with such sensitivity and love that it is impossible to get over a few scenes. I almost wept when Chokku mama (Rajkiran) and Nambi (Jayaprakash) have a conversation over the phone regretting their situation as they are unable to see each other due to the family dispute. Govind Vasantha’s background music with a flute melts your heart.However, the film did not work as a whole for me because of its politics. If you read the film carefully, it is a story of a once happy and proud Tamilian who has strayed away from his people and their history. The character of Arul Mozhi represents this. And Karthi’s character, Meiyazhagan, is symbolic of a Tamilian who is still fighting to preserve this rich culture and legacy. The unedited version of the film had a 18.42 minute scene featuring an elaborate jingoistic sequence on the Jallikattu ban, Meiyazhagan (Karthi) talking about the ‘glorious past’ of Tamils and the Thoothukudi Sterlite protest – which deeply resonate with the Tamil sensibilities. Netflix did not release the unedited version of the film. Though I am critical of Meiyazhagan, this brutal act of chopping the film has completely negated the film’s politics. Meiyazhagan is essentially a political film. The film – whether good or bad – makes sense only as a whole. Thankfully some of the deleted clips are available on YouTube.The film does not try to be subtle about its Tamil nationalism. There are references to ‘save farmers’, a dialogue on the Ealam crisis, the ‘golden Chola period’, and also drinking beer from a mud pot – because having a cold beer straight out of the refrigerator is too western and not Tamil™. Prem Kumar’s desperation to unite Tamils really sticks out as a sore thumb in a few places. There is a scene in the film where Arul Mozhi wanders off near a temple and stares at it. A flower vendor asks him to buy flowers and go inside the temple. A reluctant Arul Mozhi gives an excuse that he had not had a bath. The vendor replies: “It is ‘our’ deity. It won’t be offended. It doesn’t see all this purity.” If a non-native of Tamil Nadu had watched this scene he would have believed that the state is a paradise without any discrimination. Just earlier this year in January, caste Hindus in Thiruvannamalai district “abandoned” the Sri Muthu Mariamman temple and its deity which they had worshipped for centuries, merely because it was “polluted” due to the entry of Dalits into the temple. All this happened over the notion of “purity.”The problem with the film is its messed up politics, as if there was no caste-based discrimination in its “golden” era. While an attempt to unify people to overcome their caste, class, and other differences should be welcomed, the erasure of this crucial part of history would do great damage to social justice politics. How can there be reparations if we erase history and conveniently claim that Tamil Nadu was a land of utopia? A film which tries to invoke ethnic pride conspicuously leaves out caste from being mentioned. It is understandable that Prem does not want to deal with heavy topics in a film about kindness, love and empathy. But it is certainly a problem if you are whitewashing history to further your agenda. It is not hard to locate the social identity of Prem Kumar who has furthered this propaganda. Prem Kumar also conveniently uses a well-off Savarna family living in a palatial bungalow to tell this story, because Meiyazhagan from the perspective of a Dalit family would puncture his advocacy.And not surprisingly, the reviewers and the audience who are uncritically supporting the film as ‘therapy’ are all caste Hindus. In 2019, filmmaker Pa Ranjith criticized the tendency of such caste Hindus who take great pride in Raja Raja Cholan. Slamming his reign, the director said that it was a “dark age” for Dalits. “Land had been forcibly taken away from them and many forms of caste oppression had begun during Raja Raja Cholan’s reign,” he had said. There was significant outrage against Ranjith who had hurt the sentiments of Tamil nationalists who take pride in their ancestry. The right-wing Hindu Makkal Katchi took him to court over these remarks on the back of the outrage — and the case was only recently quashed by the Madras High Court. I wish I could watch Prem Kumar’s film in isolation of its politics but it is impossible considering his film is made for its politics and not the other way around. Balakrishna Ganeshan is a journalist, and writes about films and pop-cultureViews expressed are the author’s own..Spark conversations that drive change and invest in journalism that challenges stereotypes. Subscribe to The News Minute today.

Why I disliked the ‘therapeutic’ Meiyazhagan: Opinion

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