Kaala (2018)Sure, it is another fighting movie; one of the oppressed slum dwellers against the powerfully corrupt system of the ruling elites and a one-man gangster leader's selfless attempt at correcting the injustice. And the violence and sorrow to justify the resistance.
One has to see beyond the things that seem to be glaring in the eyes to learn one or two. This movie thought me that Mumbai (Dharavi) houses the third biggest slum in the world; after Mexico City and Karachi. The slum came about as early as late 19th century when Bombay was developed by the British, and the city drew residents from near and far. Waves of migrations brought people of poverty from Gujerat, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh among others. Annual economic turnover is said to be up to $1 billion. Occupants there involve in many familial cottage industries including tanning, pottery (by Gujaratis), embroidery (by UPites) and tailoring. By and large, residents of Dharavi are looked down. Many of them are from the lower caste- Dalits, Tamils or Muslims. The film clearly shows us that the inhabitants there have no qualms with living in harmony with others with different beliefs but it the leaders with specific agendas are hellbent on splitting them for votes. Major clean-up and redevelopment look easy on paper, but it plagued with mutual suspicion between NGOs acting on the slum-dwellers' behalf and the unholy association of politicians and business magnates.
Another point that I learnt is that the society needs the toiling of the poor to maintain its upkeep. The supply of the subjugated must be maintained so as the well-to-do can flaunt their richness and sustain their lifestyles. The rich must be looked up as the endpoint that a pauper wants to reach. If everybody is satisfied with the position, people will have nothing to work for. Greed is good, is it not?
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Here comes Kaala... The equilibrium of the Universe
is levered upon the balance of Good and Bad;
between White and Black; between Us and the Other!
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Black has always been given the bad image by most societies. Black is associated with sin, evil, wrong, deficient, dirty and everything inherently perceived as wrong. White, on the other hand, is the epitome of purity; everything good, virtuous and divine. 'Kaala', the protagonist, is given such a nickname not only due to the hue of skin but to his strata in society. Hence, correspondingly all his deeds viewed from a negative angle. The politicians and the people in power, who have the luxury of appearing in pristine white attires, are seen as the do-gooders. Lest people forget that the whiteness of their tunic is the result of the back-breaking hard work of the lowly washermen.
At a moment, I thought the dialogue could have suggested that 'Kaala', will rise again and again like mushroom after a downpour. Mushroom is also called 'Kaala' in Tamil although with a slightly different intonation. The oppressed will always return stronger with more vigour. When your options hang precariously on a thread, all you lose is your body. What you gain gives soul and life to the rest!
Along the way, we are served with the idea that modernity is consumerism. The seemingly well-intended schemes put to us are mere fronts of the businessmen to make money out of our ignorances. They are the learned ones, Their pockets are deep, and we are easily lured by the promise of prosperity and the illusory end-point called happiness.
The last lesson that one learns from the movie is the relooking of good and evil as depicted in the holy scriptures of Ramayana. Leaders in South India had always sung their speeches to the tune that the epic had been a false representation of the image of the losers. They have always emphasised that the South under the rule of Raavan had been anything but tyrannical. He was a wise and just ruler whose subjects lived in bliss.
Watching the tail end of the film, the speech by Nathuram Godse before his incarceration comes to mind. As we hear, the antagonist, the politician who wants to whitewash the slums with his development programmes, listen to the sermon of the temple priest, we realise how believers rejoice at the mention of the destruction of Raavan and his army. With the chanting 'Jai Jai Ram' (Hail Victory of Ram), we see the slum-dwellers get massacred on the orders of the politician. Surely, violence is the mainstay of any civilisation and to make forward leaps in humanity, people are sacrificed, and we are minor collateral damages in the grander scheme of things.
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