In Films
There have been an extensively large number of Indian movies in which Brahminical practices and customs have been ridiculed. Some of the early Tamil films ridiculing the Brahminical orthodoxy as Nandanar (1935) and Seva Sadanam (1938) were by the Tamil Brahmin director K. Subrahmanyam. Nandanar was based on the tale of a rich Brahmin landlord called Vedhiyar who illtreated his farm-workers. The movie ends with Vedhiyar falling on the feet of a farmhand Nandan who worked in his fields on realizing that the latter was blessed by the Hindu god Nataraja. This scene generated a huge controversy as orthodox Brahmins objected to Vedhiyar falling on the feet of Nandan as Vedhiyar was incidentally played by Viswanatha Iyer who was a Brahmin in real life and Nandan was played by Dhandapani Desikar who belonged to a lower caste. In Subrahmnayam's Seva Sadanam, one of the actors Natesa Iyer drew flak from the Brahmin orthodoxy for acting in a controversial scene wherein he throws away his sacred thread.
When C. N. Annadurai and a few top leaders of the Dravidar Kazhagam left the organization and formed a new political party called Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and decided to contest elections, they viewed mass media as the most important tool to carry the ideology and principles of their new party to the masses. As a result, a number of films were made condemning what they regarded as "Brahmin oppression" and advocating social reform and atheism. The first important film attacking the Brahmin orthodoxy was Parasakthi which was a resounding hit and launched the career of Tamil actor Sivaji Ganesan. The film featured a controversial scene wherein a temple priest tries to rape a woman and was considered for a ban. However, the film became popular with the masses and triggered an era wherein many more films supporting the Dravidian ideology were made. Vedham Pudhidhu by Bharathiraja was one of the biggest hits of the 1980s. The story revolved around a non-Brahmin boy who learns music from a respected Brahmin . In the process, he falls in love with the priest's daughter and the duo prepare to elope when confronted by opposition from the society. In recent times, Iyers have been portrayed as conservative and narrow-minded in films as Avvai Shanmugi, Panchathanthiram, Dasavatharam and Seval.
Kerala Iyers too have been portrayed in Tamil films as naive people in films such as Michael Madana Kama Rajan and Nala Damayanthi.
There have also been a few non-Tamil films in which Iyers have been portrayed in a negative way. The portrayal of Iyers in Aparna Sen's Mr and Mrs Iyer can be viewed as negative, but it also shows a positive change in one's outlook due to the dramatic events that occurred.
Read more about this topic: Portrayal Of Tamil Brahmins In Popular Media, Negative Portrayals
Famous quotes containing the word films:
“Does art reflect life? In movies, yes. Because more than any other art form, films have been a mirror held up to society’s porous face.”
—Marjorie Rosen (b. 1942)
“The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it, and I try to render this concept in my films. Literature and painting both exist as art from the very start; the cinema doesn’t.”
—Jean-Luc Godard (b. 1930)