Karnan (Tamil, கர்ணன் 2021)
Written and Directed by: Mari Selvaraj
Nobody actually thinks much about the presence of a bus stop. It is just there. But for the village of Pudiyankulam, it is, or rather the absence of it questions their existence on Earth. The village is considered a wasteland where nobody wants to live. But for a group of lower caste families, it the place where they live, their children grew, and the memories of their presence in this Universe is embedded. And they want recognition for that.
For years the villagers had to walk all the way to the adjacent neighbouring village to alight the bus as the buses refuse to stop for the villagers as there was no designed stop there. For years, an application to local authorities for a bus stop drew a blank. The neighbours are not too happy having people of lower caste hanging around their area. Quarrel frequently arise.
In emergencies, the dwellers have to resort to stopping speeding lorries to hitch a ride. In one instance, the protagonist of the story, Karnan, lost his sister in an accident. The animosity between the two villages escalates because of this.
In summary, the movie is about the oppression of the underclass and how the downtrodden fights back to salvage their dignity. Not sticking to the time-tested formula of one man's struggle will overcome all eventualities, the filmmakers decided to infuse many subtle symbolisms and parallelism into the storyline. As expected from the title of the movie, there are many references to the Mahabharata. Karnan was the 'unwanted' son of Kunti, who would land up on the other side of the warring army as a charioteer. Despite being a valiant man, he was denied many opportunities in life because of his 'adopted' family. The villagers named their kids after the characters from Mahabharata - Draupadi, Duryodhana; that also becomes a sore point with the police later. It seems the oppressed cannot even choose their own name. Apparently, these names of divinity are not suited for the low caste!
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| Sivaji as Karnan (1964) |
There are many animals showcased here as an allegory to the situation at hand. A donkey is seen throughout the movie with its forelimbs tied by its owner. The donkey moves but with much difficulty, slower and with a lot of pain. That indeed is the predicament of the marginalised - they give space to live on Earth but with many restrictions. They move around, but like the donkey, they cannot run. They are smart enough to realise their handicap but not bright enough to untangle their knot of misery. A horse, which signifies aristocracy, is ridden by Karnan at the end of the movie, representing his attainment to a superior position to dictate terms with those in power.
It is amazing how people give reverence to the uniform or any symbol of power. The Stanford Prison Studies and the Milgram experiment alluded to this fact. People who are innately coward gain so much courage in numbers. This is called mob mentality.
The antagonist to Karnan in Mahabaratha is Krishna. Here Krishna comes in the form of police officer Kannipiran (another avatar of Lord Vishnu). Even though the story is supposed to be a work of fiction, it is based on an actual event in 1995 in Koduyinkulam where villagers attacked and smashed up a police station because of brutality and discrimination.
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