The  Dawn of Adivasi Cinema: A Tamil Cultural Analysis of Adivasi Representation in Jai Bhim with Special Reference to Thani Marabu and Silapathikaram Parallelism

Rebekah Julianne, J.; Sachin Benner Raj

Authors

Rebekah Julianne A M Jain College
Sachin Benner Raj Madras Christian College

Keywords:

Jai Bhim, Film analysis, cultural analysis, caste, Silapathikaram

Abstract

The oppressive Indian caste system has led to the marginalization of the Scheduled Castes or Dalits and Scheduled Tribes or Adivasi. Tamil Cinema has begun to represent Dalit’s narratives through the perspective of the Dalit protagonist, depicting a fairly realistic representation of the struggles faced by these communities. However, the Adivasi have hardly made it into being a part of the Tamil Cinema narrative, Jai Bhim, directed by T.J. Gnanavel has been the break of dawn for ‘Adivasi Cinema’. The film is based on a true story portraying the struggles faced by a tribal woman to find her husband, who out of suspicion was taken under police custody, capturing the social, cultural and political struggles this woman faces to unearth what she is entitled to know. This paper contains a cultural analysis and literary analysis with special attention to the parallels drawn from Silapathikagaram and Thani marabu (idioms) used in the film dialogues, further deriving the representation of the marginalized Adivasi through the lens of Gnanavel.

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