Mainstream films could be social critiques. But only problem
with them is that they give quick fix solutions to any socio-political and even
cultural issues within two hours. Often solutions (for whatever kind of
problems) are given by/through the intervention of the superhuman male hero. He
pits himself against either a group of villainous people or the state, and
fights not only for his rights but also for the rights of the society. By the
time we reach the final frame of the movie, after some blood spilling as well
as chilling fights, the hero brings back social order for everybody’s
happiness. We leave the theatre reassured thinking that everything is fine with
our lives and an ideal system, which has been temporarily shaken by the ill
deeds of the villains or the powerful, is restored. By such solutions, in fact
the mainstream movies defer our ability to act and interact, lulling our
creative and critical faculties through the transference of it to a super hero
and his projected sense of righteousness and the superhuman abilities to fight
for it single handed. Subtexts are so abundant in mainstream films that we
cannot call them completely aimless. But instead of flagging out the issues and
suggesting possibilities of feasible solutions and demanding realistic methods
of resistance, they let the people to take away a false sense of comfort and
satisfaction, which in turn assures the returning of the same audience when
another issue is debated and packed solutions are handed out by the last reel.
A Malayalam film, ‘Kunjanathante Kada’ (Kunjananthan’s Shop, 2013) directed by
Salim Ahmad could have been a very powerful film had it not ended up in giving
away quick fix solutions.
The issue that drives the ‘action’ of this movie is ‘development’.
Vattippara is small village in North Kerala. Kunjanathan is one of the five
shop keepers in the market junction there. Though they run these shops,
technically and factually these small buildings do not belong to them. Nambiar,
who is the owner of Kunjanathan’s shop, wants it to be sold but Kunjanathan
does not budge as he has inherited the shop from his father. For him the shop
is not just a means of income but it is what something that gives meaning to
his existence. Kunjanathan cherishes fond memories about his father who used to
run the same shop. Sitting on the same chair where his father used to sit gives
him a sense of protection from all kinds of pressures of life including the
once created by limited financial means and a nagging wife. Kunjanathan, after
closing his shop at night before leaving for home, which is close by, pastes a
few messages on a notice board and on some public walls. He believes that he is
supposed to live in that village and die there without making any noise. And he
finds some sort of happiness when he pastes these messages on the notice board.
One day, officials from land acquisition department come to Vattippara and give
eviction notice to the shop keepers. The land is acquired for making a four
line road. Kunjanathan makes all efforts to stop this. He meets the heartless
officers in vain. As a final effort he even starts a Hindu Temple in order to
avert the arrival of development. But he faces a catastrophe when his son falls
from a tree and the undeveloped road becomes an obstacle in taking the child to
the hospital in town. He realizes his folly and breaks the building himself
letting the four line road to happen in the village.
‘Kunjanathan’s Shop’ begins with a particular narrative
style which is familiar to the audience. We have seen so many movies in late
1980s and early 1990s when films spoke the ambitions, aspirations and
resistance of ordinary middle class and lower middle class people, who did not
pick up guns from air and shot the villains and restored social order. The
pre-globalized Indian audience identified immensely with these characters and
the slow but jovial narrative pace of these movies as they thought they
reflected their own lives. These movies, which were qualified as parallel
movies dealt with so many issues and never suggested a quick solution to any of
them, instead they focused on the weakness of the human beings and their
efforts to gain strength at the face of adversities. The latest glimpses of such
narratives were seen in Billu Barber (Kadha Parayumbol, Malayalam Original) and
Peepli Live. Kunjanathante Kada also progresses in the same line often making
the audience wonder whether this film was written by and for Srinivasan, who is
an accomplished film maker and actor capable of sharp social criticism through
films. Though Mammootty, a mellowed mega star of South without any star halo
around him this time, looks like a miscast in the beginning soon finds his
foothold in the earth of Vattippara. But the problem of the movie is not in its
star cast or in its technical crew which has star technicians like Madhu Ambat
(cinematographer) and Rasool Pookkutty (sound designer). The problem of the
movie lies in the story line itself. The director starts off with the grand
idea of making human resistance as the central theme of the movie but towards
the end he accepts the idea of so called ‘development’ as suggested by the
World Bank (for World Bank is supposed to fund this four line road) and makes
the protagonists resistance so far a foolish act even unto himself and causes a
change of mind.
Kunjananthan’s shop is the hub of the village life. Postman
leaves letters for people there. Poor farmers take their provisions on credit
from there. Kunjanathan is a means through which the village reaches out to
farther lands as he has a public telephone in his shop. His married life faces
problems due to disparity between his and his wife’s world views. She wants him
to be a government servant but he is happy with his shop. Though they have two
kids their sexual life has reached a dead end as they sleep in two different
corners of the same room. She perpetually nags and finds her solace in chatting
with ‘fake ids’ in Facebook. Kunjanathan however finds his happiness in
speaking to himself at night or to a rat that lives in his shop. The director
deals with several layers of social problems including the difference of
opinion amongst people regarding the broadening of the road. Kunjanathan is not
against development as he suggests a different route for bringing the same four
line road in Vattippara. Kunjananthan’s voice is the voice of so many people
who have been displaced by development assisted by the loans from World Bank.
They all resist such incursions though most of them fail and some still find
energy to withstand the pressures. Personal catastrophes do not prod them to yield
their larger causes of resistance. In the film, however, Kunjanathan’s idea of
resistance move from the realm of public need to the limited zone of selfish
interest. When the film ends, people still speak of Kunjanathan’s shop and its
relevance as the hub of the village life is reiterated but the audience are not
privileged to see the new location of his shop. However, we are allowed to see
the new four lane road and the increased and ‘easy’ flow of traffic.
The film maker somehow seems to believe that development is
all about four lane roads and connectivity between places. That should be read
as increased encroachment on village lands, farm lands and increased pace of
real estate business and related industries. Four lane road also means
displacement of people from their own lands, occupations and careers without
feasible plans of rehabilitations. From the text of the film we could read out
that Kunjanathan must have got a shop (obviously in a new concrete building)
somewhere near the newly formed junction. At the same time, a major fallacy of
the film’s text is that the real catastrophe that makes the protagonist to
change his mind from resistance to selfishness is not addressed at all. Why was
Kunjanathan forced to take his injured son to the nearest town for treatment?
His injury, as the text suggests, is not that grave. It needs either first aid
or a few stitches. But Vattippara does not have a hospital and that’s why they
had to rush to a town and had to face a few road blocks on the way. Hence, the
film, had it been a critique of development, should have addressed development
as basic necessities for the village. When the land acquisition happens for
developing a four lane road, not a single character, including Kunjanathan
speaks a word against it nor do they highlight the need for a hospital. The
film becomes retrogressive in this aspect and falls into the regular rut of
quick solutions; here development in terms of road is necessary. And the order
is restored by the imagined rehabilitation of the protagonist. Perhaps film
festival circuits will laud this movie. But for a critical viewer, this film is
a pretentious one and any Srinivasan film would have done a better job with the
same theme.
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