They left it to the crisis management team that included the then Chief Secretary, and stood aside. From what I remember, the political class remained silent on the matter. Besides, the drama went on for several hours. “At the time, militant action was rare in Kerala, and this incident became sensational. Kamal says he was a postgraduate student of journalism when the hostage drama unfolded. The real life protest and why it happened It is perhaps for the first time that the state has been described as such in a mainstream Malayalam film. In the final act of Pada, one of the characters questions the ‘savarna state’ that ignores the rights of the Adivasi people. Nevertheless, the erasure of their culture has meant that they are subjected to casteist norms and ostracisation. Historically, the Adivasi people did not identify as Hindu and were therefore outside the caste structures of the Hindu society. In recent times, it is only Tamil cinema that has managed to actively strike at the caste problem.” That is because our cinema is a product of savarna compromises or their glorification. But when it comes to caste, which defines the power structures in society, the general practice for Malayalam cinema has been to turn its face away. Class differences are often reflected in cinema, theatre and music. Speaking to TNM, Pada director Kamal says, “Malayalam cinema has always shied away from speaking of caste. TG Gnanavel’s Jai Bhim (2021) is about a lawyer battling for justice on behalf of a woman from the Irula tribe, who fights for her husband and relatives who were subjected to custodial violence.
Mari Selvaraj’s Karnan (2021), also starring Dhanush, is another film in which a village of Dalits revolts against a dominant caste group. Dhanush, another popular star who is also well known to the Hindi audience, starred in Vetrimaaran’s Asuran (2019), based on the panchami land that was given to the Dalits by the British. Director Pa Ranjith, for instance, spoke of land rights for Dalits through none other than superstar Rajinikanth in Kaala (2018). While Dalits and Adivasi communities have been usually represented as impoverished, uneducated and exploited people in the past, new age Tamil films have represented them as politically aware individuals who demand their rights.
Malayalam cinema, however, is yet to see a strong wave of narratives that place the oppressed at the centre like in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu, where several such films have become blockbusters. Rajeev Ravi’s 2016 film Kammatti Paadam, which is about Dalits in a slum area in Kochi being forced to give up their land to the real estate mafia, is another example from recent years. The film, which has won critical acclaim, is among the few Malayalam films to speak of the land rights of the oppressed. The two-hour thriller has Kunchacko Boban, Vinayakan, Dileesh Pothan and Joju George in the lead.
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