Being homeless or
living under constant threat of eviction is one
of the most harrowing experiences in life, something
that is becoming more and more common today in
our society. Money is traveling faster and faster
gathering moss all the while, and looking for
opportunities to solidify, and land is the most
prized form it prefers to take now. The cities
are expanding every minute, pulling in people
from all around who move into it in search of
livelihood. More and more high rise structures
crop up and ominously loom large over the lives
of people who live a subhuman lives in our metros;
people, who do all the scavenging and make life
affordable to the 'metropolitans', those who in
the process themselves gradually turn into waste.
Avira Rebecca's debut feature film Thakarachenda
(Tin Drum) is about a community of such people
living in the slums of Kochi, the emerging 'smart
city' of Kerala.
 So
we have are a bunch of characters like Chakrapani
(a remarkable performance by Sreenivasan), a physically
challenged beggar and smalltime money lender,
Latha (Geetu Mohandas) a housemaid who is alone
and ailing, struggling to survive with her two
kids, a hawker, an ambitious cleaner in a hotel,
a construction worker, a petty shop owner, and
other such representatives of our urban slums.
Nothing exciting is happening here, nor is there
anything to look up to in their lives. The only
'asset' they have are the makeshift shacks they
live in – these dwellings look more like
bird nests made by using all kinds of odd things.
Unable to become a community even in the event
of their eviction from their dwellings, all of
them are suddenly left to fend for themselves.
Some die, while others leave in search of an even
uncertain future. The System functions like a
robot, with the JCB pulling down their fragile
structures, with no voices of protest against
this great march towards development.
Interestingly, the film doesn't toe the conventional
narrative strategy of juxtaposing contrasts, but
rather dwells upon the details of the dreary,
everyday lives of these little people. It commendably
pieces together anecdotes and moments in their
lives to weave a narrative of contemporary despair,
all too near and real. The film looks at their
everyday struggles, little joys, incidents, and
frustrations – all part of the mundane business
of making both ends meet. Any effort on their
part at any kind of transgression or transcendence
– sensual, economic, or emotional - whether
it be related to love or sex, money or status,
family or community, are inexorably frustrated,
pushing them more and more into lonely despair.
The figure of Gandhi and the idea of the Nation
are the leitmotifs that run right through the
film. The national anthem and other patriotic
songs act as musical counterpoints to the images
of destruction and destitution. The film also
ends with another image of Gandhi. wherein we
find the evicted kid dressed up as Gandhi and
begging to the students rushing past him to the
school. This image makes a very direct and wry
comment upon our society in which everything is
turning into a farce and the poor are forced to
play the meanest roles.
On the technical side, the photography by M J
Radhakrishnan gels well with the thematic concerns
of the movie. The film is replete with many low
angle shots that foreground these little people
with the cityscape looming large in the background.
It also replicates the viewpoint of Chakrapani
who is bound to his wheelchair, with his viewpoint
fixed below the normal height.
Thakarachenda is an earnest and sincere
effort to look at our world from below. This
is all the more commendable today as our films
are increasingly getting imprisoned within the
small closed world of the urban middle class.
Dr C S Venkiteswaran, is a Kerala based
film critic who has won state and national awards
for film direction and film criticism. He is now
Director, School of Media Studies, Kochi, Kerala.
He writes regularly about film in various national
and international journals and handles a weekly
column 'Rumblestrip' in New Indian Express.
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