Inji Writes: Symbolism of Natchathiram Nagargiradhu by Pa. Ranjith

Inji
5 min readSep 29, 2022

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I remember feeling a queer sensation seeing the first-look poster of Pa. Ranjith’s latest cinematic offering ‘Natchathiram Nagargiradhu’-with it’s rainbow background theme framing Dusshara Vijayan’s visage. I believe that sensation was a mixture of curiosity, trepidation and a slight apprehension regarding the possibilities it threw up-was it going to be about the queer community? Was it going to talk about casteism(as Ranjith’s movies often have)? Was it about feminism? Was it going to be a rom-com, a thriller perhaps, or even an action-based one? Turns out, as I (finally) watched the movie within hours of it’s release on Netflix, the answer to all of the above is ‘Yes’.

Symbolism/Semantics:

One thing Ranjith does brilliantly is to weave symbols into his stories flawlessly without making it jarring or out of place. It’s pretty obvious if you know what to look for but can easily be missed otherwise. In the same vein NN has a host of imagery that adds to the narrative in interesting ways.

Starting with the Nina Simone song that plays at the very beginning of the movie, emanating from Iniyan’s(one of the male protagonists) phone as he lays with Rene in bed post-coitus. This song is juxtaposed with the Ilayaraja song that Rene sings that seems to irk Iniyan-clearly representing the performative wokeness of the modern liberal who puts up #BLM but fails to see caste atrocities as a reality much closer home. Why does Iniyan hate Ilayaraja? That isn’t dwelled upon (perhaps his distaste for Raja’s recent Sanghi turn?)

Again, in the same scene, Rene jokingly percusses a plate that is lying about much to Iniyan’s chagrin, similar to the ‘parai' drum (a leather drum played during funerals by the SC Paraiyars, a predominate Dalit caste in TN, which we later learn is Rene’s father’s occupation) to which Iniyan retorts ‘Your nature won’t change!’-a clear casteist statement which culminates in their breaking up in the middle of the night. Rene is seen walking home in the night with her few possessions, one of which is the photo of Babasaheb’s sketch of the open-eyed Buddha

The movie has an abundance of cats being shown,clearly an allusion to the use of “Wild Cat/Domesticated Cat” as the allegory for castes as well as title of the play that they ultimately perform.

There is ample Buddhist imagery shown throughout the movie, particularly the mural painted at the main entrance to their workshop. There are two striking scenes where Rene is shown as the Buddha-firstly, when she forgives Arjun(the other male protagonist) after his drunken misbehaviour with her at a party,as he comes seeking expiation-where she’s seated(dressed in sky blue) in a pose reminiscent of the Lalitasan (Green) Tara, the female Buddha in Mahayana/Tantrayana

Secondly, when she leads Arjun out the door with the Buddha mural, representing the Buddha showing the path of Dhamma to the followers as the Margadaatha.

The color blue is liberally dispersed throughout the movie-from the color of the main stage background, the soda Rene drinks as she eats beef and (infamously) proclaims that she’s an Ambedkarite to a slightly bewildered and largely enamoured Arjun, to the clothes of the effigies used in the play and of course, Rene’s wardrobe. Blue is the chosen color of the Ambedkarite movement as it represents the Sky under which all of us are equal, which parallels the use of the star-filled nightsky as well as the title of the movie, to denote how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things.

As is common practice for the true blue Ambedkarite Pa Ranjith, who never fails to mention Babasaheb on every stage he alights, there are also pictures or mentions of Dr. Ambedkar through out the movie including the scene where Arjun(hitherto casteist, misogynist, queerphobe now on a redemption arc) is shown reading “Castes in India” by Babasaheb Ambedkar.

There is also a short flashback sequence that shows Rene’s (née Tamizh) journey, as she describes the pains she had been subjected to for being a Dalit girl, in the style of animation art, which shows her being forced to get her feet soiled by getting into the sludge on the side of a bridge in order to give way to a person of a higher caste position-which i believe is a throwback to the main crux of the short film by Pa Ranjith called “Dhammam”.

Overall, though the movie was helped by it’s cast and tight editing, the story is lacking in a few places and despite having feminist underpinnings, it fails the Bechdel test. The movie though aiming to represent the LGBTQIA+ community in a positive light,still falls short of actually showing any character development of the queer characters-they are just there to offer support to the cisgender heterosexual menage a trois of Rene, Iniyan and Arjun; and give the appearance of inclusivity, and is exclusively set in a binary framework of man-woman, dalit-non-dalit, and queer and heteronormative. Was the movie good? Yes, in that it serves its intended political purpose of an intersectional idea of *love* with ample reference to caste killings of intercaste lovers(with famous cases being mentioned by name) and representing a strong female protagonist in an erudite, urban, confident, independent Ambedkarite woman Rene, and depictions of character growth among the benign ignorant Arjun and subconsciously casteist Iniyan. What could it have done better? Giving the other characters, well, character — growth and all, and not just as tokens. Someday in the future, a Dalit trans or enby could have their story told on the big screen but for now, we relish the crumbs thrown our way.

Still quite appreciative of everything Pa Ranjith does and stands for. Jai Bhim!

Inji rating:3/5

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Inji

Inji is here, she writes verses, Not a Witch, but still she curses.