{"id":2685,"date":"2016-04-25T00:32:10","date_gmt":"2016-04-24T19:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2685"},"modified":"2026-07-17T20:09:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T14:39:59","slug":"kaala-review-pa-ranjith-rajinikanth-hindutva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=2685","title":{"rendered":"Kaala: Decoding Pa Ranjith\u2019s \u201cAnti-Establishment\u201d Film"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"container page-content\"><p><span class=\"dropcap\">T<\/span><\/p><\/div><p>here\u2019s a pre-interval scene in Pa Ranjith\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pop-culture\/rajinikanth-kaala-pa-ranjith-dalit-politics\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kaala<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that cements its place as the most timely socio-political film to have come out of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/politics\/jayalalithaa-funeral-death-tamil-nadu\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tamil Nadu<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> right now.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Haridev Abhayankar (Nana Patekar) aka Hari Dada is blocked by the residents of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/love-and-sex\/how-the-middle-class-makes-love\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dharavi,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as he tries to leave Kaala Karikaalan\u2019s (Rajinikanth) house. They pull carts in front of his motorcade, drop overhead lamps, and other heavy things on the way out, creating an insurmountable barricade. When they fall short of arsenal, they put to use their bodies, to close off the way. The residents unite to stop Hari Dada only because Kaala hasn\u2019t given him permission to leave Dharavi. It\u2019s an exceptional scene that is seemingly built up purely for style \u2013 worthy of<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pop-culture\/kabali-rajnikanth-thalaivar\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Rajinikanth, the Superstar<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But what happens next has Pa Ranjith\u2019s fingerprints all over it. A <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/vice\/evolution-of-bribe-india-corruption-paytm\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">police officer<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> comes to Hari Dada and asks, \u201cShall we open fire?\u201d To that, Hari Dada sarcastically replies \u201cDo you have enough bullets?\u201d There are two things to note here: First, the question is framed in a way to imply that firing on innocent people is considered the most obvious way to clear a gathering. And second, the primary conflict for Hari Dada isn\u2019t the human rights violation (if he does decide to give the green signal) but the lack of artillery.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This scene is an instant reminder of what unfolded in Tamil Nadu last month, when thirteen people were killed after the state police fired on protesters seeking the shutdown of a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/politics\/sterlite-copper-protest-tuticorin-vedanta\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sterlite plant<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Thoothukudi. <\/span>\n\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kaala<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> couldn\u2019t have released any sooner. <\/span>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1528393130.jpg\" alt=\"Kaala\" width=\"611\" height=\"407\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-35327\" \/>\n<figcaption>\n<p><em>Kaala<\/em>, Pa Ranjith\u2019s symbolism-loaded work isn\u2019t afraid to point fingers at the state of the nation today<\/p>\n<p>Image credit: Wunderbar Films<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pa Ranjith\u2019s symbolism-loaded work isn\u2019t afraid to point fingers at the state of the nation today. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kaala <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">uses \u201chuman bodies\u201d to form the crux of its politics as well. The film builds its universe and populates it with the people from the slum: dhobis, labourers pulling or carrying heavy things, a shirtless man making things with his hand, and children playing cricket while wearing <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/sports\/sunil-chhetri-football-mumbai-sport\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">football<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> jerseys.\u00a0Rajinikanth and his aura might be at the centre, but the focus is Ranjith\u2019s ideology that operates in the nooks and corners of the screen where our eyes might not usually wander.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Kaala<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Ranjith goes a step ahead and juxtaposes human body with the one thing that it is inseparable from: the land that it stands for. In the country that we live in today, these are ironically also the two things people seem to have no control over anymore.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Naturally, land is the most important entity in<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Kaala<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and Ranjith illustrates it in several ways. A tragedy strikes due to a road accident and when people run in panic, he shows them falling with a heavy thud, dust flying all over them, and going as far as placing his <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/bollywood\/love-sex-aur-dhokha-dibakar-banerjee-black-mirror\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">camera<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on the road to follow them crawling toward ground zero. He gives <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/gender\/women-gender-discrimination-men-eat-first\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">women <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">their space to complain about what else but space \u2013 for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/love-and-sex\/new-parents-sex-life-parenthood\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sex<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and intimacy. In doing so, he deftly articulates a macro issue of<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pov\/indians-personal-space-privacy\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> privacy<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the country as a micro issue in Dharavi.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is one more thing he does with the human body. He forces you to vividly remember the unflinching horror of a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/series\/invisibles\/i-see-dead-people\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dead one<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. When Kaala clashes with Hari Dada\u2019s men for the first time, a harmless, cheerful youth from Dharavi becomes the first casualty. Neither is he brutally murdered, nor is he beaten to death or shot. Instead, it is a public execution \u2014 he is hanged in the middle of a main road from a lamp post. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This image does not exist in a vacuum. How many Dalit lynchings and suicides does it call to mind? <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With this scene, Ranjith, who touched upon \u201clower-caste\u201d politics in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kabali<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, has raised his voice against every <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/music\/jai-bhim-dr-babasaheb-ambedkar-dalits-india-sheetal-sathe-sachin-mali-naxalites-songs-resistance-music\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dalit<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> suicide that has occurred in the country since. The public hanging in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kaala<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 at the hands of \u201cI am a Patriot\u201d Hari Abhayankar\u2019s men \u2014 is paralleled in the suicides of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thewire.in\/caste\/two-years-later-rohith-vemulas-soul-still-haunts-us-failing\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rohith Vemula<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newindianexpress.com\/nation\/2017\/mar\/13\/another-rohith-vemula-at-jnu-salem-student-commits-suicide-alleging-discrimination-1580984.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Muthu Krishnan<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and even <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thewire.in\/education\/anitha-suicide-neet-medical-education-mbbs-cbse-social-justice\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">S Anitha<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (whose poster is also seen in the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=meYpR3zamlE\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cTheruvilakku\u201d lyric video<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) at the hands of the oppressive state. <\/span>\n\n<blockquote class=\"quote--center\"><p>In <em>Kaala<\/em>, Ranjith goes a step ahead and juxtaposes human body with the one thing that it is inseparable from: the land that it stands for.<\/p><\/blockquote> \n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There\u2019s more. Vemula, a member of Ambedkar Student Association, was labelled an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/satire\/abvp-virender-sehwag-india-pakistan-randeep-hooda-gurmehar-kaur-ramjas-college\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201canti-national\u201d<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> when the association screened the film <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and was attacked by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members. Eventually, he was suspended after pressure from the central government, and soon took his life. The name of the character in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kaala<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> who suffers this fate? Beemji.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the film, the men behind that public execution cease to matter once Kaala and Hari Dada clash head on. Similarly, in our country, these are the same men who are otherwise labelled as \u201cfringe elements\u201d and whose violence is casually brushed off as an anomaly. Except, Ranjith is having none of that. In <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kaala, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">he<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">wants you to register that there is no difference between these men and the men who protect them and asks you to label the deaths for what they are \u2014 institutional <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/people\/dissent-mother-tongue-gauri-lankesh-activist-bjp\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">murders<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It\u2019s a powerfully evocative point to make. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But, he doesn\u2019t just stop at that. For most of the film\u2019s first half, Hari Dada lives only on posters and banners proclaiming that he is a patriot and promising to make the state pure and clean. The parallels with Prime Minister Narendra Modi are unmissable. <\/span>\n\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kaala<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is where Pa Ranjith takes the Hindutva brigade head on. His Dharavi has Buddha temples and mosques while Hari Dada\u2019s home has a statue of Krishna and holds readings of the Ramayana. <em>Kaala<\/em> is an open challenge to Hindutva from Pa Ranjith, an indictment of the burgeoning oppressive Hindu Rashtra.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kaala, Pa Ranjith\u2019s symbolism-loaded work, isn\u2019t afraid to point fingers at the state of the nation today. It touches upon atrocities faced by the underprivileged, institutional murders, and takes the Hindutva brigade head on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":2688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[5437,5438,1195,5439,5393,618,5394,5395,5440,5441,5397,5398],"class_list":["post-2685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-ambedkar-politics","tag-beemji","tag-dalit","tag-dalits","tag-kaala","tag-kabali","tag-pa-ranjith","tag-rajinikanth","tag-rohith-vermula","tag-s-anitha","tag-sterlite-protests","tag-tamil-cinema"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kaala: Decoding Pa Ranjith\u2019s \u201cAnti-Establishment\u201d Film<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kaala, Pa Ranjith\u2019s symbolism-loaded work, isn\u2019t afraid to point fingers at the state of the nation today. 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