'Draupathi' review: A vile casteist film that was better off not made

It was quarter to 11 in the morning, and the scheduled show for Draupathi, a Tamil film directed by Mohan G was delayed. Renting the air were screams of delight coming from within the hall where the movie's climax was still underway. This vocal expression of approval continued as the crowds streamed out after the movie, and increased when they noticed the film's protagonist Richard Rishi leaving the theatre, waving to male fans of all ages.

The fanatic shouts only grew in volume as I entered the cinema hall to witness a movie which reduced women to property, demonised a community and fanned casteist sentiments to the audience in the garb of 'rich vs poor' narrative.

As its trailer indicates, Draupathi is a film which carries propaganda against inter-caste marriages. The logic given here by its protoganist Prabhakaran is that these marriages are part of a larger scam by a community to trap women from other castes and to blackmail their families. It is almost as if this movie was birthed based on allegations made by PMK Chief S Ramadoss in 2012, where he claimed men from the Dalit community 'wear jeans, T-shirts and fancy sunglasses to lure girls from other communities.' The Vanniyar leader had even stated that inter-caste marriages ended in failure because they were unions 'born out of caste design and not love.'

And in what seems to be an aggravating effort to translate his words to the big screen, director Mohan G presents one contrived story after another where men from the 'community' have, through devious designs, cheated women who belong to castes with 'lineage' and snatched the 'gauravam' (honour) of their families.

And while the movie does not explicitly mention the name of the 'erring' caste, the focus on imagery of BR Ambedkar and Saint Tiruvalluvar whenever the subject of the crime comes up - including the Joint commissioner's office is hint enough. Moreover, dialogues from both communities about how the law protects 'them', seems to be a clear reference to the Atrocities against the Scheduled Communities and Scheduled Tribes Act.

The very first such story, of course, belongs to the protagonist Prabhakaran who lives in Villupuram district (a PMK stronghold nevertheless). He and his wife Draupathi (Sheela Rajkumar), both relatives, conveniently marry within the caste and wield great power in a village where no one from the other community seem to be living.

Their trouble arrives when politician and his lackey, an advocate from the same 'erring' caste, want to take over a piece of land to give to a 'Cola Company'. The narrative is of an 'outsider' who fraternises with foreign exploiters to suck all resources from the land. The movie further attempts to show a contrast between how heroically power is used by a member of the dominant community while similar power corrupts a man from a lower caste.

When Draupathi and Prabhakaran refuse to oblige to this business activity, the politician, plots to humiliate the family.

What follows is a murder and how the blame for this 'honour killing' falls on Prabhakaran. In the revenge drama that follows, Prabhakaran sets out to eliminate those who are responsible for the death.

The film almost attempts to justify the notion of 'honour' that caste fanatics promote and links this to how women in the family behave.

Draupathi herself spouts dialogue like, "How can you talk like this when you are born in this lineage? (to a girl crying over morphed picture)" and "Land (Mannu) and women (Ponnu) are both important to us."

Multiple times in the movie, women from the dominant castes are reduced to mere objects and their very existence and activities have a bearing upon the family honour. The politican even claims, "Only if we put our hand on their women, we can put our foot on their land."

The women from the other caste meanwhile are projected to be conniving and working together with their men to trap other women and embarass their families.

A second narrative in the story has the politican and his lackey using youths from their caste to purposely lure in women from the 'good families'. Once they elope and get married in the registrar's office, the groom is made to drink till he passes out and the bride is told to strip in front of the video camera if she wants to see her husband alive.

This scene is no doubt inspired by the Pollachi sexual assaults where women were indeed threatened this way. But what the director conveniently does in Draupathi is to brand one community as the perpetrators of such crimes. And this categorisation extends to every one in the movie from the other community, including a man named Jack, who claims that he doesn't want to work hard for a living and that the leaders he follows have said that he should marry a rich woman and live a comfortable life as the son-in-law in a wealthy house. He is even shown referring to women as 'mittai' (sweets), that he just picks up.

To make things worse, the protagonist's solution to such crimes is taking away the agency of women. When an adult woman arrives at the registrar's office to get married he asks, "How are these girls so brave?" and even claims that the solution to prevent false registrations is to make the presence of parents compulsory in marriages.

The reality that parents of the dominant caste member in inter caste marriages are often ready to murder their own children, is conveniently left out in the narrative.

One youth in the film even says, 'If I hadn't done (pretended to marry a dominant caste woman) as they said, they threatened to murder me, leave me on the tracks and pin the blame on Prabhakar." The statement was a convenient and casteist twist to how Ilavarasan, a Dalit youth had died in Dharmapuri in 2012.

Despite the whistling and screaming these dialogues incurred, I hoped against hope that the audience would not buy into this propaganda. Especially, at a time when directors like Pa Ranjith and Mari Selvaraj are bringing to life an alternate and more realistic narrative that gives voice to these oppressed communities.

But as I walked out of the theatre, three women who were leaving with me could be heard saying, "Everyone should watch this movie. People like us who are clapping are the affected ones."

Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the series/film. TNM Editorial is independent of any business relationship the organisation may have with producers or any other members of its cast or crew.