who forced himself on her. In these cases it is clear
that the reel world is merely reflecting the antediluvian
attitude society has towards that most heinous of
crimes against women called rape.
For some reason, while most are willing to acknowledge
that rape is a serious crime there is still a tendency
to blame the victim for what happened. Fingers are
pointed at the character of the victim or the clothes
she was wearing at the time she was molested. Apparently
a salwar kameez worn without a dupatta or heaven forbid
a sleeveless top is the equivalent of a neon sign
that says ‘Rape Me’. So in our movies,
we are shown tawdry images of a woman’s sari
flying in the breeze or she is doing something innocuous
like chewing her food, or getting a little exercise,
thereby inviting unwarranted male invention and sexual
violation. Otherwise the victim unwisely does not
stay home after the sun sets in the approved fashion
for a ‘latchanamana ponnu’ and so she
had it coming. Isn’t that kind of thinking regressive
in this day and age? Hopefully, our films won’t
start endorsing chastity belts next!
Getting back to filmi fundas on rape, usually the
heroine is not raped probably because that would make
her ‘damaged goods’ and the hero deserves
the best (right?) So it is the hero’s sister
or friend who winds up raped. The next step in the
formula is to have the rapist strike the killing blow
or if he is too lazy to oblige, the rape victim takes
her own life by jumping off a cliff/ balcony, hanging,
drowning or poisoning herself. Case in point, there
was an old Vikram film called Pudhiya Mannargal, where
a rape victim stabs herself with a symbolic Kuthuvizhakku!
Priya Mani played the rape victim in Paruthiveeran
and Raavanan and in both films her character was killed
off in keeping with the prescribed formula to deal
with rape victims in cinema. In Paruthiveeran her
character despite being fearless and outspoken ends
up dead because she is brutally assaulted first whereas
in Raavanan she simply loses the will to live after
being gang raped for the second film in a row and
jumps into a well.
Finally, some of the more compassionate directors
decide not to kill the rape victim but get her married
instead to the rapist. There is a famous scene in
Naatamai where such a verdict is given and we are
to believe that this is in favor of the rape victim
because no other man will be willing to marry her
and that will make her a social pariah susceptible
to the attacks of other sexual predators. This of
course makes one wonder exactly who is being punished
here. It is bad enough the woman ran into a monster
straight out of her worst nightmare but as if that
were not enough she is condemned to life with the
same creature. But thankfully films nowadays steer
clear of this scenario especially after Vivek spoofed
it in a comedy routine where he suggests a far better
alternative (Hint: it involves the forcible removal
of the offending male genitals that were involved
in the crime). So modern filmmakers have taken increasingly
to killing off the rape victims either by making the
rapists, serial killers (Vettaiyadu Villaiyadu, Nadunisi
Naigal) or the victims, suicidal (Yudham Sei, Raavanan).
The tacit suggestion in our films is that women who
are raped are no longer fit to live. And it is an
insult to all the raped women out there who have been
through hell but have chosen to bravely go on with
their lives dealing with the trauma as best as they
can and soldiering on like war heroes. Why should
a woman feel shame or feel unworthy of life just because
there are some miserable excuses for human beings
out there who cannot respect the rights of others?
And it is really sad that Tamil cinema which is path
breaking, bold and progressive in so many ways should
propagate a line of thinking that even self –
respecting cavemen would have eschewed.
However, it must be admitted that there have been
a few films that chose to deal sensitively with the
rape issue. Rajinikanth’s Netrikan was one of
the earliest films to take a bold stand on rape. Saritha
played the rape victim in this film and she was no
wilting Lily. Her character chooses to strike back
at her rapist and since it is Rajinikanth (in a superlative
performance) she goes ahead and reforms him instead
of killing him. It was refreshing to see a rape victim
fight back. Priyanka with Revathi, Prabhu, and Jayaram
was another film that stressed the necessity to win
justice for rape victims.
Mysskin’s Anjathey shows a rape victim opting
to go to the cops so that others may not suffer the
same fate. Vaanam Vasapadum, PC Sriram’s film
with Karthik Kumar in the lead also sent a positive
message. Aside from this pitiably small number of
films that have dealt with the issue in a less offensive
way, other films have stayed true to formula or worse
used the concept to squeeze in some soft porn into
the film.
Tamil cinema can proudly claim that it has opened
the eyes of its adoring and worshipful populace to
the many evils prevalent in our society like the caste
system, honor killings, dowry, ragging, poverty, crime,
and the like. But unfortunately, where rape is concerned
filmmakers seem to be stuck in a time warp where it
is simpler to blame the victim than the criminal and
the societal circumstances that engendered the crime
in the first place. By taking a strong stand against
rape, Tamil cinema might just take the first step
in the right direction towards preventing crimes against
women. |
