The recently released deleted clip from Vijay's Master, directed by Lokesh Kangaraj, has gone viral on social media. The film had a theatrical release for Pongal this year but was released on Amazon Prime Video within a couple of weeks. The clip shows Vijay, who plays the character of JD, a college professor, taking a stance against sexual harassment and victim blaming narratives.
In the clip, Vijay speaks up for Savitha, a woman student (Gouri G Kishan) who is sexually harassed by her fellow students. The mother of one of the men blames Savitha for dressing inappropriately, and to this, JD asks Savitha what she was wearing when the incident took place. Savitha says that it was her birthday and that she was wearing her mother's saree. JD takes off from here and refers to an exhibition that showed the clothes that survivors of sexual assault were wearing at the time of the crime — and that includes diapers. He makes the point that women should not carry the blame for sexual assault and that the responsibility should rest with the men.
Watch: Vijay in Master
Those who have followed Tamil cinema closely will know that the scene is, in fact, a reference to Vijay's 2005 superhit Sivakasi. Fifteen years ago, the actor thundered on screen that shorts were the same as panties, sleeveless tops were the same as bras and that if a woman were to dress in a saree, men would worship her instead of sexually harassing her. The scene has since attained infamy as one of the worst depictions of sexual violence on screen, with the hero firmly siding with the perpetrators.
Watch: Vijay in Sivakasi
But in recent years, there has been a shift in how big stars speak of sexual violence on screen. In Bigil, Vijay's 2019 release, one of the important characters is Anitha (Reba Monica John), an acid attack survivor who continues her career as a footballer and also confronts the perpetrator of the crime, a man who could not take a 'no'.
Vijay's close rival, Ajith, recently did Nerkonda Paarvai (2019), the Tamil remake of the Hindi Pink, which is hailed as a film that significantly contributed to the conversation on consent, gender equality and sexual violence in cinema. In 2015, he spoke against stalking in Vedalam, asserting that if a woman does not consent to a relationship, a man should not chase after her but should respect her wishes and that this is what would make him a man.
Watch: Ajith in Nerkonda Paarvai
Watch: Ajith in Vedalam
Suriya, another top star in the Tamil industry, recently produced Pongmagal Vandhal (2020), which has a sexual assault survivor (Jyothika) arguing the case in which she was involved, in court. The film, despite mixed reviews, had some powerful dialogues about sexual violence that are rarely heard on screen. The star also wrote a letter in Tamil The Hindu about victim blaming and rape culture when the Pollachi sexual assault case was widely discussed in the media.
H Vinoth, the director of Nerkonda Paarvai, at the time of its release, said that Ajith regretted doing films in the past that glorified stalking and other crimes against women. In 2006, for instance, Ajith played an 'effeminate' dancer who sexually assaults a woman to prove his masculinity in Varalaru. The act is considered justified because the woman had refused to marry him for his appearance, leading to the death of his mother.
But since then, a lot has changed in the discourse on sexual violence in the country. Even as crimes against women continue to rise, victim blaming narratives are no longer treated as par for the course. The 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case was a trigger for many women to open up about their own experiences of sexual violence [a similar case is the subject of Vijay's 2016 film Theri].
While such cases have made the headlines before, the presence of women on social media has meant that their lived experiences could be heard in a manner that was unprecedented. More women in newsrooms has also meant that the media coverage on sexual assault has become more sensitive and mindful of the interests of victims/survivors. For instance, the 'casting couch' in the film industries which used to feature in gossip columns is now called out for what it actually is — sexual harassment at the workplace.
Filmmakers, who need to take into account the public's pulse on social issues, have also been influenced by the changing conversations. When the Swathi murder case in Chennai made news in 2016, among the issues hotly discussed was the romanticisation of stalking on screen. Sivakarthikeyan's Remo, which came out a few months later, even faced a boycott campaign for glorifying stalking.
Such discussions have forced filmmakers to at least think about getting the representation right, whether or not they succeed in doing so entirely [in Master, for example, JD is dismissive of the woman professor who's taking a class and doesn't listen to the survivor's plea that he leave her alone — such is his desire to be the saviour; in Bigil, another woman character is body shamed horribly].
The fact that sexism and misogyny in cinema is slammed by many film reviewers has also helped. For example, despite the box-office success of Kabir Singh (the Hindi remake of Telugu film Arjun Reddy), the film was widely panned by critics for its unabashed glorification of violence against women. There were many heated debates and discussions on the film on mainstream media and social media. Subsequently, when the Tamil remake Varmaa was made, the makers were forced to address at least some part of the criticism.
The younger directors, in particular, seem keen to showcase the shift in the narrative. Pa Ranjith's Kabali and Kaala gave us a Rajinikanth who doesn't treat a survivor of sexual violence as a 'spoilt' or 'ruined' woman. Director Mari Selvaraj recently spoke out about the representation of sexual violence in Kamal Haasan's Paapanasam, the remake of the Malayalam superhit Drishyam. In his talk, Mari pointed out that nowhere in the film does the father speak to his daughter about the incident that triggered the crime and tell her that she has nothing to be ashamed of [she is filmed in the nude by another student].
Watch: Mari Selvaraj on Paapanasam
There was a time, not so long ago, when it was the hero's right on screen to lecture women on how they should behave. From MGR in Vivasayee defining how a woman should behave in 'Ippadithan Iruka Vendum Pombala' to Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vijay, Ajith, and the later stars Dhanush, Silambarasan and Sivakarthikeyan, several films have celebrated misogynistic dialogues and plot lines.
But the tide appears to be changing slowly but surely. Of course, this does not mean that our heroes have suddenly transformed into men who believe in gender equality. None of the big stars lent their voice to amplify the #MeToo movement that was about their own industry. They haven't spoken up about other issues like pay parity that their women colleagues have highlighted either. Their films continue to have negligible screen time for women. However, the reach they have with the audience is undeniable, as is their influence on young people, particularly young men. Even if their transformation may not be genuine [or maybe it is, let's hope so], as long as they are speaking, it is laudable that the messaging at last, is right.