One of the characters in Kamal KM’s Pada asks out of frustration, “Does anyone know about them [adivasis] and their way of life? Has anyone spoken to them? On what basis are these laws made to throw them out of the forest?” Thanks to the film, released on March 10, the rights of Kerala’s dispossessed adivasis are yet again the topic of discussion.
Pada is based on the 1996 incident when four activists of the Ayyankali Pada (Ayyankali was a social reformer of Travancore of the early 1900s) held the Palakkad District Collector WR Reddy hostage for nine hours in his office. The trigger - the State government’s 1996 amendment to the 1975 Kerala Scheduled Tribes (Restriction on Transfer of Lands and Restoration of Alienated Lands) Act, aimed at restoring lands to alienated tribal people and preventing the holdings from landing in the hands of non-tribal people. The amendment made most land restoration, mandated by the 1975 Act, unnecessary. The Ayyankali Pada activists were protesting the injustice and were seeking immediate, remedial measures.
“If it has provoked a conversation, a discussion, a debate… it can only be good,” says filmmaker and activist Manoj Kana. In 2020, his film Kenjira, in the Paniya language of the Paniyas of Wayanad, won the Kerala State Film Award for the Second Best Film besides other awards.
A fresh reminder
Pada sticks to the facts of the incident, cinematic embellishment is never at the cost of these and never once does it ‘lose the plot’. It serves as a reminder, a refresher and an introduction to the struggle of the adivasis. Along the way, the film also questions the apathy of successive governments and the bureaucracy. Making the film on a huge canvas, with actors such as Joju George, Kunchacko Boban, Dileesh Pothan, Prakash Raj, Salim Kumar and Vinayakan among others, the film has grabbed eyeballs.
It does not delve into other issues because land, the hills and forests, is everything for the adivasi. Being dispossessed and displaced has birthed their other problems. As the late Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer wrote in his foreword to the report by the People’s Judicial Enquiry Commission into the Muthanga incident - “The quintessence of the tribal issue is their human right to live with dignity in [sic] their lands. Rob their lands, their life is robbed. Restore them to their forest surrounding as of right and you do the adivasis justice.”
In the 2003 incident, adivasis entered the Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary, Wayanad, in an attempt to ‘reclaim’ their lands from where they had been evicted in the 1960s to make way for a wildlife sanctuary. That resulted in police and forest department action, including firing and forcible eviction. Pada ends with a montage that includes footage of these protests, besides others, by and for the adivasis. A serious, political film, it raises more uncomfortable questions than it answers.
Back in 1974, the Ramu Kariat film Nellu, based on P. Valsala’s eponymous, bestselling novel, showed the life, ways and sufferings of Wayanad’s Adiyar people. Mainstream [read commercial] Malayalam films that speak about the issues faced by adivasis, who make up one per cent of Kerala’s population, however, have been few and far between.
Issues aside, representation, as characters, is also templated. The wise, all-knowing tribal chieftain or moopan with a secret recipe or medicine (Salt N’ Pepper), the loyal friend (Iyobinte Pusthakam) or the voiceless victim in need of rescuing or being avenged (Panchagni, Lal Salaam) are what we usually get to watch. The 2006 Mohanlal film, Photographer, inspired by the Muthanga incident, was perhaps an exception.
The portrayals, characters, costumes et al have been stereotyped, often caricatures and the butt of jokes like in Bamboo Boys and Chitram. Blockbusters such as Thenmavin Kombathu further perpetuated these. What is forgotten, or perhaps not known, is that Kerala is home to 36 Scheduled Tribes but in mainstream cinema, they meld into one amorphous, alien entity. This has done more harm than good for the adivasi people.
Malnutrition deaths, starvation, and (the many forms of) exploitation are unsavoury realities that would not set cash registers ringing.
“How many people would watch Kenjira in a movie theatre? How many would be interested?” It was released in theatres, and later, on the OTT platform Neestream. It is, however, not streaming on that platform; he has no figures on the number of people who have watched the film. He intends a theatre release later.”
Over the last few years, there have been smaller films that turned the spotlight on adivasis. Velutha Rathrikal (2015), which explores themes of sexuality, has an adivasi woman, Chelli, at the heart of it. She has agency over her life and choices. Then there is Udalaazham (2018) about a tribal person with gender dysphoria. Born male, Gulikan identifies as female but cannot fully express himself.
Directed by Unnikrishnan Avala, the film, through Gulikan’s story, offers a glimpse into the lives of Paniya tribals. The lynching of tribal, Madhu, in Attapady in 2018, because the starving man ‘stole’ food inspired Painkinjana Chiri, a Paniya short film, directed by Leela Santhosh, who belongs to the Paniya tribe.
Community inclusion
Adivasi stories are not easy to tell, especially for outsiders. Kana has lived among and worked with the Paniyas of Wayanad for the better part of the past two decades.
“I have lived with them, travelled and worked with them as a daily labourer, eaten with them…they know me. One has to build a relationship of trust before they let you in. One cannot go there as an outsider looking for a story to make a film and then presume to tell those stories authentically. An insider’s insight brings in the nuances of their multilayered lives, which are not as simple as they look from the outside. These things are complex,” he says.
He has also written and directed plays about adivasis, using them as actors. Kenjira, his film, is told through the eyes of a teenage Paniya girl. It speaks of the issues the Paniyas face. The actors are Paniya people.
Many of these films feature the Paniya language, or the people — as actors and technicians. Vinu Kidulachan, who wrote the lyrics for Pada, is also Paniya. Udalaazham’s lead Mani PR also belongs to Wayanad’s Paniya tribe. He won the Kerala State Award for the best child actor for Photographer. People from other tribes also figure like Nanjamma, who belongs to the Irula tribe, the voice behind the hit song, in the Irula language, from Ayyappanum Koshiyum, ‘Kalakkatha sandana maram vegu vega…’
Kamal KM’s film could be the one that changes the narrative. He stated in an interview, “Questions on caste and oppression will be raised more and more seriously in upcoming Malayalam films. We may never reach a perfect absolute answer with a work of art, but these reflections will help us navigate the new debates that arise around this.”
One can’t help but wonder, if such films do get made, would the audience be interested enough to watch these? Would the economics of the box office permit such attempts?
THE GIST
Pada, a film directed by Kamal KM, showcases the struggle of the adivasis and it questions the apathy of successive governments and the bureaucracy.
The portrayals, characters and costumes of the adivasis in past films have been often caricatures. The community, with 36 Scheduled Tribes in Kerala, is often moulded into one alien entity.
Pada might help to change the narrative as it raises serious questions on caste and oppression.
Published - April 01, 2022 10:30 am IST
