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17th Oct 2017 from TwitLonger

Thevar Magan - Baradwaj-Post Response


Nothing like Thevar Magan to bring me out of the wood work. I’ve written and spoken about it ad nauseum but no single film has had a greater impact on my life and no single character has had a greater impact on me than Periya Thevar(PT).

Consider, if you will, a small sample from this incredibly dense 15 minute stretch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heEUobk2Ims

Sakthi does get married at this spot but to someone else (the plans much like the photo @ 0:28 go awry)
The intrusion popping up from a window behind (This is one of Kamal’s favorite visual analogies at least in interviews – windows built for us to see the world being turned around and used by the world to see us)
The silent signalling you mention isn’t reserved just for PT-Sakthi. Kanakku (Sangili Murugan – More on him in a minute) trying to warn Kamal that his father is upset at 2:18
The unadulterated rage on Sivaji’s face at 2:50 is a pure delight. He thinks his son wanted to see the temple but when he realizes he opened the temple for Bhanu he is just apoplectic and it’s all fire and brimstone from there. I’m always unsure of how much of a role Bharathan played in the film, but this cut is especially important to me. The choice to move from a mid shot in a tight space with just 3 people to a close up of Sivaji’s face is particularly relevant underlining his specific reason for anger. It’s consciously sublime film making.
We cut back to the mid shot when Banu enters the scene @3:35 – PT cannot be shown to care so much in front of an outsider.
PT’s unending petulance toward Bhanu is a constant source of enjoyment for me. The “ehh” @ 3:45 and the withdrawal of the feet @ 3:54.

This is just a smattering in under 4 minutes. Which brings me to my first larger point: I think it’s great that the “new age” directors in your films pay homage to Kamal in the same breath as say Vittorio De Sica or Truffaut. There exists a robust tradition of good film making if one knows where to look in Thamizh cinema. It’s gratifying to see them start with a base level of craftsmanship and they ought to identify themselves clearly as being part of a continuum not as path breakers.

Now on to the often quoted and broken down interaction between Sakthi and PT. Everyone (even your video) focuses on the lines delivered after PT stands up but few look at what happens when Sivaji is reclined, me included until @dagalti (on twitter) pointed this out. This was a time when dialogs where dubbed – no sync sound IIRC. Look at how Sivaji’s voice changes as he uses that reclining chair (something very familiar to an old Nair household – Not sure how common it is in a central TN household – again probably a function of either Bharathan or the fact that they shot in Pollachi) @10:03. He had to relive in a dubbing theater what it means to have your voice change as you adjust your position on the seat and replicate, while standing, in a sound booth. And it is brilliantly effective. He is without doubt the GOAT.

Now on to my second larger point. The allegations of Thevar Magan being a “caste praising” film come from how certain parts of the film have been used or politicized rather than an intrinsic position of the film itself. Even Potri Paadadi PonnE is used to mark a (necessary) decline of the feudal way of life. Contrast his to say a Sundara Pandian or a Mathayaanaikkoottam or any of the modern day clearly caste glorifying films we see today. The more academic explorations that call Thevar Magan the film that typified the south as a “sickle wielding culture” ignores a vast treasure of far more regressive movies that came out before. There is a conscious choice it seems to avoid all other castes in the film – what caste is Esakki? Or even Kanakku? (note he is Kanakku not kanakkupillai as is usually wont). Kamal is not concerned with what it means to be Thevar, but more concerned with what it means to be a Thevar’s Magan. How easily is the individual able to engage or disengage with this birth-based identity? What happens when it is tied to a larger community? I’m sure there will be refutations of this second point that will (and must) be recognized as valid, but it is this line of questioning that the film evokes for me and thus allows me to revisit it all the time.

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