A Non-Take on Kannada Cinema

A Non-Take on Kannada Cinema Chandan Gowda BIPOLAR IDENTITY: REGION, NATION, AND THE KANNADA LANGUAGE FILM By M.K. Raghavendra Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2011, pp. 209, `695.00 n 2002, the Government of Karnataka trends in the newly unified State explain the prohibited the sales of a massive two- shifts in Kannada film conventions. And, Ivolume history of Kannada cinema publi- throughout this process, Kannada cinema shed by Hampi University Press. It apparently managed to retain its local identity vis-á-vis the had factual errors and, more importantly, had ideology of the Indian nation. A parallel point misrepresented Dr. Rajkumar, the Kannada to note is that Kannada films have all along film superstar. The prohibition still holds. And, been ambivalent about Bangalore’s status as a well-documented work on Kannada cinema Kannada city since it was initially identified continues to be unavailable. A scholarly book more with the British than with Mysore and on Kannada cinema, therefore, would normally later became home to many central govern- be an occasion for cheer. ment public sector enterprises. A dominant tendency within film studies Bipolar Identity never clarifies whether the has been to track the effects of social power Kannada films themselves strove to manage and ideology in cinematic texts. Here, the their regional self-identity within a national emphasis is less on the aesthetic properties of frame. Retaining Kannada cinema’s distinctive- cinematic images and sound and more on ness and autonomy appear to be ever-present they came ‘from a space relatively insulated their institutional coordinates in social space. motivations for the Kannada film makers. A from the colonial encounter’ (p. xxxii). Bipolar Identity, too, intends to explain Kan- few historical facts should complicate such a The sociological factors Raghavendra nada films as texts reflective of and engaging view. Two Bombay-based producers set up the holds relevant for understanding Kannada film with local socio-political realities of their time. Surya Film Studio, the first studio in Banga- conventions are not convincing. Caste endo- More specifically, its author, M.K. Raghaven- lore, in 1928; and, their Surya Film Company gamy obtained in most parts of India and was dra, notes: ‘This is an inquiry into how local/ produced numerous silent films in Kannada. not unique to Mysore. Further, by examining regional identity is addressed in regional Indeed, many of the landmark films of the caste through the enumerative logic of census language cinema and also whether regional talkie era were directed by non-Kannada in cinema, he misses out on the powerful work identity can conflict with the national identity/ speaking persons from outside Mysore. Sati of caste in the aesthetics of representation. other identities’ (p. xii). A few pages later, he Sulochana (1934), the first Kannada talkie film, His thin understanding of caste allows him to says: ‘. the purpose (of the book) is to chart was directed by Chamanlal Dongagi, a conclude, incorrectly, that caste hierarchy out the way Kannada cinema responds to both Marwari. And, Jeevana Nataka (1942), a weakens in Kannada cinema after 1980 (p. 95- the region and the nation, or, to phrase it dif- popular ‘social’ film, was directed by Wahab 96). A scrutiny of the metaphysics of caste ferently, how it negotiates the space between Kashmiri, a native of Kashmir. Until the early underlying the cinematic assemblage of image the two’ (p. xivii). He does not consider 1960s, most Kannada films were made in and sound can better explain the imbrication ‘Kannada art cinema’ relevant for his discus- studios in Madras. In other words, myriad of Kannada cinema with local caste realities. sion since it was closer (especially after the late non-local elements have mediated the making Regarding the stricter embrace of dharma in 1970s) to the ‘pan-Indian art film’ promoted by of Kannada cinema. Raghavendra simply Kannada films, I wish that the book also the National Film Development Corporation, presumes that the identity of Kannada cinema explained how that became manifest in ‘a non- and free from the compulsions of addressing a derived from the chief features of Mysore Brahmin Kannada cinema’. geographically circumscribed audience, and culture without showing how that might have Raghavendra’s attempts to read Kannada had ‘little local appeal’ (p. xii). been achieved within the complex field of film films as an index of ongoing socio-political A brief summary of the book’s argument: production. events stay tenuous. A sample illustration Since the Mysore State was not directly ruled What are the ‘constituent elements’, to use should suffice. After noting that women’s by the British, it experienced colonial rule Raghavendra’s phrase, of Mysore society that dignity was not always secure in films in the differently than British India. It was a ‘Hindu’ made Kannada film conventions unique? 1990s, he explains: kingdom. And, science and modernity came First, the widespread practice of endogamy in . the demeaning of women in the to Mysore much before Nehru introduced it Mysore society, whereby same-caste marital Kannada films in the 1990s was caused by in India after Independence (I am only sum- alliances were sought within geographically a lowering of the self-image of the Kan- marizing the book here). All of these account delimited areas, explains the presence of nadiga, which also reflects in the lowering for the differences in ‘film conventions’ (and arranged marriages in Kannada cinema plots. of the language. The lowering of the self- ‘not form’) in Kannada and Hindi cinema in Second, ‘early Kannada cinema is a non- image may have been the result of local the pre-Independence era (p. xv). In the deca- Brahmin cinema’, wherein the identities of politics in which politicians openly dis- des following the unification of Mysore State non-brahmin characters are used to suggest graced themselves without being made (later Karnataka) in 1956, the strong symbolic their vocation whereas the figure of the accountable to the constituents of the association of Kannada films with Mysore brahmin symbolizes caste hierarchy itself. region, who remained helpless. This per- society began to wear off, especially post-1980. Third, Kannada film narratives adhere to haps led to public cynicism over whether The changing economic, social and political dharma more strictly than Hindi films since the political choices that the public was 26 / The Book Review / June 2012 vassal the Mysore state. Another illustrative categories such as ‘caste’, ‘nation’, ‘region’ and A dominant tendency within excerpt: ‘modern’. Despite its consideration of a wide The metaphysical agent rewarding virtue range of Kannada films, its aim of showing “ film studies has been to track in early Kannada cinema was god—in how the history, politics and culture of Mysore the effects of social power and mythological films like Harishchandra and /Karnataka mattered for Kannada cinema is Bedara Kannappa. If ‘king’ was a way of not backed by careful research and analysis. ideology in cinematic texts. representing Mysore, then ‘god’ became a For instance, in order to understand how Here, the emphasis is less on the way of allegorizing the Indian nation after Kannada film conventions evolved, Raghaven- 1947 (p. 19). dra chooses Harishchandra (1943) and aesthetic properties of cine- Gunasagari (1953), which he thinks ‘may’ share Just how did the nation take the place of in common ‘features characteristic of early matic images and sound and god? We will never know from this book. Kannada cinema’ and then adds another film, more on their institutional Most conclusions in Bipolar Identity are Vasanthasena (1941) to this list (p. xxi). For not self-assured: ‘Early Kannada cinema... him, these films also explain why early coordinates in social space. appears a largely Shaivite cinema perhaps Kannada cinema was a ‘non-brahmin cinema’: Bipolar Identity, too, intends to because (sic) of the dominant influence of Gunasagari appears to have no place for a Veerashaivas in Mysore’ (p. xxxv). Again: ‘The brahmin character, although there are explain Kannada films as texts motif of Bangalore gaining importance is caste indicators and the protagonist’s reflective of and engaging with perhaps because (sic) of the city’s position as family can be identified as Veerashaivas. the state capital and not due to any develop- In Vasanthasena, although Charudatta is a local socio-political realities of ments within the city’ (p. 33). (The very many brahmin the film plays down this aspect— grammatical and typographical errors in the although his comic friend Maithreya is their time. book show the publisher’s editorial indiffer- often vocal about being a ‘poor brahmin’ ence). Yet again: ‘Many heroines today are (pp. xxxi-xxxii). making in the” region had any significance from Punjab, Gujarat, or Bengal, as though the at all. Was their characteristic tolerance constituents of the region have an indetermi- Referring to Harishchandra, the only film such a good thing, they may have won- nate identity’ (p. 158; emphasis mine). among his chosen films which depicts a dered, or were they merely pliant’ (p. 109; An important claim in Bipolar Identity brahmin as an evil person, Raghavendra offers emphases mine). pertains to how the single-party rule by the an incredible suggestion: ‘Considering that the Congress in Mysore and the absence of a director of the film R. Nagendra Rao was How and why popular disgust with state strong anti-brahmin movement (like the one himself a brahmin, the wicked or comic corruption translates into popular self-loathing, seen in Tamil Nadu), which did not polarize brahmin was perhaps a convention of early which then necessitates the negative portrayal any other political constituency, help explain Kannada cinema’ (p. xxxii). of women in films is not explained. the iconic distinctiveness of Dr.

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