Exploring Thevarmagan: The jewel of Tamil Cinema

THOUGHTS ON THEVARMAGAN

MAJOR THEMES

1.     The idea of caste supremacy, blindly following the members of that caste and hero-worshipping them, more specifically the members of one specific family. (Here it is the Thevar caste and Periyathevar’s family)

2.     Violence being the only form of recourse for the people in the more backward sections of the society and a sort of ancestral or genetic belief that they were meant to be warriors.

3.     The degree to which people will take family feuds seriously and cause violence based primarily on those feuds.

4.     Traditions: Right from out of caste marriages, superstitions regarding temples, dams, rivers and other such sensitive issues. The respect and importance that is given to a person’s word, and the paternalistic idea that one family is responsible for the whole community.

The character transformation of Sakthi (Kamal Haasan)

Sakthi is introduced as a considerably carefree young man who has just returned from the United Kingdom, filled to the brim with western ideas and a woman by his side. He no more understands the way of life in his ancestral village, he wants to marry his girlfriend and set up a chain of restaurants in a city. Both of these ideas are much to the disapproval of his father and village patriarch Periyathevar (played incredibly by Sivaji Ganesan). As the plot inches ahead and a lot of untoward incidents happen, he slowly begins to change his outlook about everything he was presuming. He begins to act the way he is expected to from the position he is in as the son of Periyathevar and also as the only capable son (his older brother and periyathevar’s elder son is shown to be a drunkard). The death of Periyathevar due to a heart attack completely turn the tables over, forcing Sakthi to completely alter his personality, behavior and even appearance to become his father and fill the void left by Periyathevar.

The westernized young man completely becomes the village patriarch. He marries a woman named Panjavarnam (Played by Revathi), solely due to situations that were created because he gave his word to her father. We can see a clear conflict in his personality when he meets Bhanu, his girlfriend (Played by Gowthami) because he still loves her and nothing has changed his affection but he also understands that doing his duty and keeping his word up is of greater priority with respect to the community as whole as well as for the sake of Panjavarnam and her father. This curious predicament is aptly summarized by Bhanu when she tells Panjavarnam that the Sakthi she loved and still loves is gone and what remains is her husband only.

Sakthi slowly, but steadily transforms into the man he was trying to run away from. He criticizes his father and his village men for being violent hooligans but circumstances pushes him to the extent where he himself becomes the violent man he dreaded so much. Even at the very end he tries to live by his ideology and not killing or at all hurting Chinnathevar’s family but even that doesn’t last when he is forced to kill Mayathevar (Played by Nassar) in the most gruesome way possible. The walk after killing Mayan with the larger than life statues behind him and the enormous sickle dragging behind him, he utters a few lines in complete helplessness, these lines he speaks while surrendering to the police show how much he hates the man he has become.

The Caste Equation:

The entire story revolves around the “Thevars”, more specifically the “Mukkulathor”. The Mukkulathor are three categories of Thevars who claim their lineage to the three major south Indian dynasties, the Chera, Chozha and Pandya. The three categories are:

a.      Kallar

b.     Maravar

c.    Agamudayar (Trivia, Agamudayar literally means those who have homes, “Agam” meaning home and “udayar” meaning those who have it, thus this word literally means landowners)

The whole family, both Periyathevar as well as Chinnathevar take immense pride in the fact that they are Thevars and assign a lot of importance to it because they were the kings during the ancient times; even during the medieval and colonial periods, most of the Thevars were wealthy and powerful landowners. In post-independence India, some families like that of Periyathevar’s were still treated with the same respect and retained their influence as we can see during the course of our story. There is a very important dialogue in the movie that has a chance of going unnoticed that gives us a glimpse into the psyche of the men in our story and the whole caste equation. When Mayathevar tells his family lawyer (played by Madan Babu who is shown to be a Brahmin Vaishnavite) that he plans to bomb the check dam and flood the village as a means of revenge against Periyathevar’s family, the lawyer reacts saying “Kallan Ayya neer!”, which he meant in the literal sense alluding to the understanding that he is a very cunning and clever person but Mayan responds by saying “Kallan illa, Maravan”. This one small exchange between the men allows us to understand that not only does he keep caste at the top of his mental pyramid but also that he links even a general comment to his own caste.

When Sakthi talks to his father Periyathevar about Bhanu and his wish of marrying her, he doesn’t stop with referring to her as his girlfriend who studied with him in the UK but goes on to say that she is from the “Raju” caste in Andhra Pradesh and that her caste is worthy of marriage to the Thevars. This is how much caste is ingrained in the blood of the people.

The opening song sequence is “Potri Paadadi Ponne”, when we listen to the verses of this song, we can understand that this is a song that sings the praises of the Thevar community. Right from the first stanza we hear lines like “Thekku thisai aanda, mannar inam dhaane, mukkullatha serndha thevarmagan dhaane” which translates to, “The mukkulathor are the clan who ruled the south of India”. The genius of the writing with the respect to the movie is that this is not just a song that plays in the background while unrelated things happen onscreen; it moves the story ahead by giving us a glimpse of life in the village, the way the family of Periyathevar is venerated as well as a song that shows us the intimacy of Sakthi and Bhanu which gives us the required depth of character when situations change as the movie progresses. In the song there is a particular verse that sets the tone for the entire movie, “Namma Uyirukku mela, maanam mariyadha, maanam ezhandhaale vaazha theriyadhe”, which means, “Our respect and honor is above our life itself and once the honor is lost, we don’t know how to live”, this is the importance that honor is given by the community and as we will see, every major change in the status quo and the future of the village is based on this idea.

HONOUR AND RESPECT AS PLOT FACTORS

There are many crucial instances in the movie where the characters’ intense protection of their honour and respect completely changes the course of life for everybody in the village.           

a. The first instance where we see the whole story unfolding is when Sakthi asks Esakki (Played by Vadivelu) to open the locked temple doors to show Bhanu where they will get married, when Esakki refuses to open it saying it will result in bloodshed and violence, Sakthi refers to the words of Esakki where he had told he will even give Sakthi his life if asked for it. Further Sakthi triggers the caste equation in Esakki by telling him he told Bhanu that “his people” will not disappoint when a favour is asked of them. Even someone like Esakki who does odd jobs and drives the car for Periyathevar’s family takes pride in the fact that honour and respect is protected by the community and to an extent fuels his own ego. When this ego got hurt by Sakthi’s words, he decides against his own better counsel and breaks open the locks of the temple door. This one action of his triggers the complete flow of events that result in him losing a hand and the dam being opened by Mayathevar causing the death of innocent villagers. 

b. The male ego of Sakthi is hurt by a man who challenges him to a game of “Silambam”, and when he jeers that Sakthi isn’t “man” enough to take on the challenge, Sakthi agrees to play Silambam and beats him at it. This shows that although Sakthi is a western educated man with modern ideologies, deep down he is still a rustic villager who gets insinuated when his manhood is questioned.

c. In the Panchayat sequence where the elders have met to discuss the validity of the fence constructed by Mayathevar, he deeply insults and hurts the pride of Periyathevar. Completely heartbroken and hurt, Periyathevar dies of a heart attack while his grandchildren give him a massage. (Interesting trivia: since the movie owes a certain amount of inspiration to The Godfather, it is worth noting that this is exactly how Don Vito Corleone dies, a heart attack while playing with his grandson in the garden).

d. When Sakthi plans a marriage between Panjavarnam and a man from his own community as a way to give him protection and safety for removing the fence built by Mayathevar and easing the feud, Mayan sends the groom away by threatening him and insults Sakthi in public. This is one of the classic moments where Sakthi gives priority to his word, honor; not only his but that of the bride and her father as well. He offers to marry Panjavarnam even though he is still in love with Bhanu. This action of his is in a very morally grey area because even though he did it with the right intentions, he has sacrificed the life of another individual, Bhanu without her consent. This aside, the whole sequence brings about some of the more pristine performances by all the actors on screen which is completely elevated by the surreal background score by Mr.Ilayaraja.

THE GODFATHER INSPIRATION

The movie Thevarmagan was inspired a lot from the movie “The Godfather” written by Mario Puzo and starring inter alia, Marlon Brando and Al Pacino. The stories of the two movies are completely different but the overall impact of the father-son formula and the set up where the son becomes the father is the same. Right from an older son who is unsuitable in The Godfather to a drunkard older son in Thevarmagan the movies are similar. Similarly, Periyathevar is the patriarch of the family and village whereas Don Corleone is the patriarch of the Corleone family, when the respective patriarchs are incapacitated the younger son takes up the mantle due to unforeseeable circumstances. The similarity goes to such an extent that, in The Godfather the son returns from serving abroad in the US Army and doesn’t like nor relates to the "family business" but in the end turns into the man he despised. Similarly as was already discussed, in Thevarmagan Sakthi too becomes the man he wanted run away from.

INTERESTING THINGS TO NOTE AND STELLAR PERFORMANCES

1.     When Bhanu comes back to the village to meet Sakthi and take him along with her to the city, she is completely in the dark the about the change in the status quo during her absence. She comes to the village expecting her “punk hairstyle” sporting go-lucky boyfriend, but when she reaches the ancestral house, she is faced with a replica of Periyathevar, much to her obvious surprise. The way she meets him at that moment mirrors the first time she came to the village and met Periyathevar and that’s when we realise that it’s all downhill from there for her. She embraces Sakthi when they are alone but he is in a position where he truly wants to reciprocate the affection and intimacy but he can’t because he is married to Panjavarnam. The situation is so delicate for all three of them because, for Sakthi, he still loves her the same way but situations have changed his whole life, for Bhanu, she is in a state of shock because her boyfriend is suddenly the head of the village and a married man. For Panjavarnam, she agrees and likes the marriage but is also feeling guilty that she took Sakthi away from Bhanu. What a brilliant screen writing and acting performance!

2.     The train is a constant metaphor in the movie because every time we see it, either characters are introduced, or the status quo of the village completely changes. We are introduced to Sakthi and Bhanu as they get off the train in the opening scene, further we see Bhanu leaving the village which is the exact time frame after which Periyathevar dies, Sakthi’s appearance gets a complete makeover along with his personality and he marries Panjavarnam. We see Bhanu arriving in the train to see everything has changed and then leave on the same train probably for the last time, thus showing that, the old life of Sakthi is leaving along with her. We see the train one last time in the climax scene as the police handcuff Sakthi and take him away for the murder of Mayathevar. Thus every significant event in the movie has the train as a silent spectator much like the infamous wall in the movie “Madras” by Pa.Ranjith. The audience also sees Bhanu every time either coming into or leaving the village on the train thus shwoing that she is always an outsider and can never be part of the community. It is a well known fact that a movie has to SHOW more than TELL, and Thevarmagan does that very beautifully. 

Kamal Haasan as a writer takes screenplay and screen writing to the next level in this movie, which is why this movie can be considered a milestone in the history of Tamil cinema and even a Jewel!!!