Rudra Thandavam(Amazon Prime , Tamil)
Starring Richard Rishi, Gautham Vasudev Menon and Dharsha Gupta, with Radha Ravi and Thambi Ramaiah
Written & Directed by Mohan G
Rating: ***
Writer-director Mohan G’s third film has been acutely panned by socially enlightened sections as “casteist” “anti-Dalit” propaganda for the RSS. This is not just an over-reaction, it is a paranoiac dismissal of the alternate viewpoint.
There is a difference between being a convert and a pervert. Even if one embraces the alternate view on Dalit discrimination provided by this hyper-dramatic massy but certainly not propagandist rabble rouser , one certainly doesn’t become a casteist in doing so.
Let’s first get one thing clear. There is no harm in exploring India’s unsolvable caste divide from the other side. Why must every film show the upper castes as the perpetrators and the lower castes as victims? Sure, that’s the socio-political equation bequeathed to us by our forefathers.And we must continue to fight against it. But the victim card need not always be played by the section who are constitutionally weak.
In the obstreperous and loud(the background score is so shrill it often drown the dialogues) Rudra Thandvam an honest sincere police officer Rudra(Richard Rishi) finds himself being ensnared in a case of Dalit atrocity while he is chasing a couple of petty drug dealers on a crowded road. From here, the plot propels into a very loud and aggressive pitch for reversed casteism with slogans and protests bringing Rudra’s noble intentions down to dust.
I understand this is a director who doesn’t believe in subtlety. But then we cannot hold a lack of finesse against a film’s content. The narrative may be unwieldy and anarchic. But that doesn’t disqualify it for our attention.Even the recent highly-acclaimed politically correct films on the caste system have adopted the sledgehammer approach to storytelling. But when Rudra Thandam does the same , positioning itself on the other end of the caste spectrum. it is seen as a sinister design to denigrate the downtrodden.
Not so.
Rudhra Thandam suffers from many shortcomings. Its writer-director seems to have very little patience with nuances. While showing the (uppercaste) cop-hero as some kind of a messiah the script brings in the villain played by filmmaker Gautham Menon, to reinforce the theme of reversed casteism. And therein lies the script’s waterloo.
Menon who has lately become popular for acting roles as a villain, projects as much menace as a cat and a hot tin roof. He is supposed to be the kingpin troublemaker provoking caste wars. But Menon’s demeanour is more of a scamster than a homicidal sociopath.
The supporting cast has the redoubtable Thambi Ramaiah playing the cop-hero’s trusted lieutenant ;the bond between the two law enforcers is founded on a solid kinship. A similar propensity to perpetuate a strong case against casteism tinctured by a tactful thrust into the mind and spirit of the victim of caste discrimination , would have created a tenable balance and a plausible equilibrium in the storytelling.
Rudra Thandavam is a work of unbridled red-baiting. Its tone is constantly ill-tempered, and it lacks a sense of equipoise.But a ‘dangerous work’ , it is not. By peering on the other side of Jai Bhim the director doesn’t instantly qualify as a renegade .
It takes the cop hero in Rudra Thandavam almost three hours of playing-time and many court sessions to prove his innocence. Director Mohan G who has been accused for the third time of playing the devil’s advocate will have to work a lot harder than his hero to prove his validity as a social commentor. Rudhra Thandavam is not the work of a creatively evolved and progressive mind. It is more a spontaneous outburst on the casteist stereotypes than a well-researched exposition. But it is nonetheless a relevant film for showing us why the victim card can and must be flipped in our films if we are to preserve any kind of social temperance in and outside cinema.
